2026 marks the 20th anniversary of the National Academies’ National Cancer Policy Forum, a trusted, neutral venue to identify high-priority policy issues in cancer research and care and collaboratively examine those issues through convening activities focused on opportunities for action in the United States and beyond.

Founded in 2006, the forum examines major challenges and identifies practical solutions surrounding cancer research and core tenets of care; including prevention, screening, diagnosis, treatment, survivorship, and end-of-life care.

The forum’s work would not be possible without the more than 170 members over its lifetime—including representatives of patient advocates, federal agencies, academia, professional organizations, nonprofits, and industry. Members meet at least three times a year to discuss ongoing and emerging challenges and opportunities, identify topics that need attention, and develop those topics into public workshops or webinars.

After each convening activity, the NCPF publishes proceedings that summarize the presentations and discussions. The workshop proceedings do not include consensus recommendations; however, they highlight individual suggestions from speakers and other participants on options to advance progress. Through its publicly available documentation from these workshops, the forum has made a lasting contribution to the public knowledge base surrounding cancer research and care. To date, the forum has produced over 75 published workshop proceedings and over 50 peer-reviewed articles. These publications have addressed cancer prevention, early detection, access to high-quality care, health equity, clinical trials, cancer survivorship, caregiving, workforce shortages, and the use of new technologies such as genomics, digital health tools, and electronic health records among other topics.

Additionally, the NCPF’s work has helped inform federal agencies, professional societies, and other organizations that shape cancer research, care, and public health. For example, the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the National Cancer Institute, the World Health Organization, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, and the American Society of Clinical Oncology have incorporated information generated from this work into policy statements, guidance, and care models. NCPF publications have been downloaded more than 40,000 times and cited in more than 650 articles. The forum’s reach also extends across the globe, with scholars in many other countries such as Australia, Canada, Germany, India, Mexico, South Africa, Thailand, and the United Kingdom using the Forum’s work to make improvement in areas such as survivorship planning, patient navigation, and access to care.

Learn more about the forum’s upcoming events.