Leading experts in cancer research reflected on the significant strides made in tackling the disease, along with the work that remains to be done toward finding a cure, at the TIME100 Health Leadership Forum in New York on Thursday. Resources have been the key toward making important discoveries, said Shane Jacobson, the CEO of both the American Cancer Society, which sponsored the event, and the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. Philanthropic investments and federal government funding, he continued, have allowed scientists and oncologists to make the progress we see today in cancer prevention and treatment.
Cancer is “omnipresent” Jacobson said. In the U.S., one in three men and women will receive a cancer diagnosis sometime during their lives, according to the American Cancer Society. But, he added, just as important as these advances is ensuring that everyone is able to access the drugs and therapies they need—”otherwise,” he said, “the innovation falls short of its potential.” Vaccines and immunotherapy have emerged as powerful tools to fight cancer, said Dr.
Andrea Cercek, a gastrointestinal medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center who was a 2025 TIME100 Health honoree. In 2024, she and her colleagues released the findings of their study of patients who had a specific type of rectal cancer, revealing that, after six months of being treated with an immunotherapy drug, none of the patients showed detectable tumors, meaning that none of them needed chemotherapy, radiation, or surgery afterwards. Cercek has expanded her research, and said during the panel that “we’re very close” to seeing this kind of treatment being used successfully for other types of cancer so that patients don’t have to undergo more invasive therapies.
TIME senior health correspondent Alice Park, who moderated the panel, closed the discussion with a big question: Will we cure cancer? And if so, what will that cure look like? It’s not one cure, and we’re seeing that now.” The TIME100 Health Leadership Forum was presented by the American Cancer Society, Kite—a Gilead Sciences company, Insulet, Musely, and NMDP.
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