Sept 24, 2026
Every September 24, the global cancer community celebrates World Cancer Research Day, highlighting the essential role of scientific research in preventing, detecting, and treating cancer. It also unites the scientists, clinicians, patients, advocates, and donors whose combined support moves cancer research forward. This year marks the tenth anniversary, themed around "Advancing Cancer Research Together."
That theme describes what happens every day at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center. We connect rigorous cancer research and compassionate patient care. Our vision is to use both together to achieve the extraordinary, life without cancer.
Our Cancer Research Team
Breakthroughs in cancer research are often remembered as an individual success; however, they are almost never made that way. This is because the hardest problems in oncology rarely belong to a single discipline.
Approximately 300 researchers at UPMC Hillman, representing 42 departments from the University of Pittsburgh, work across our research programs. They are supported by shared resources providing leading-edge technologies, infrastructure, and expertise. Working together, our research team is advancing the understanding of cancer and its mechanisms through basic and translational science, clinical outcomes, and population-based research efforts.
Our Patients & Community Are Partners in Progress
A large part of driving progress in cancer research is making our discoveries available to patients and the community. Every person who enrolls in a clinical trial helps to answer a question that no laboratory can answer alone. UPMC's Clinical Research Services team works with physicians to offer approximately 400 active cancer clinical trials across our network, giving cancer patients access to promising new therapies close to home while generating the evidence that changes standards of care.
Additionally, cancer research at UPMC Hillman extends beyond the laboratory bench and even beyond the bedside. It includes community outreach, cancer prevention and screening education, and training the next generation of oncologists and scientists. The UPMC Hillman catchment area spans 29 counties across Western Pennsylvania, from dense urban neighborhoods to rural communities. We work to connect our community’s voice and needs to our research, training, and care offered through UPMC Hillman.
Looking Ahead
Artificial intelligence, immunotherapy, precision oncology, genomics, and data science are opening profound possibilities for preventing cancers, finding them earlier, tailoring treatment to an individual patient, and helping survivors live well.
None of this happens in isolation. Progress depends on researchers asking bold questions, clinicians translating findings into care, patients joining trials, donors and advocates sustaining the work, and individuals and institutions making collaboration possible.
On this World Cancer Research Day, we celebrate the collective effort behind every advance. Every discovery matters. Every patient matters. Every partnership matters. Together, we are advancing cancer research.
