In Review: The first virtual Irish Association for Cancer Research conference 2021

The Irish Association for Cancer Research (IACR) recently held its annual conference virtually over three days, 24–26 March 2021. This was one of the busiest years, bursting with excellent talks, workshops, and attendees. As always, past and present Irish Cancer Society funded researchers were well represented! 

The Irish Cancer Society supported the event alongside other cancer charities and corporate sponsors, and we were delighted to have so many people visit our digital stand!

After the success of last year’s format, the 2021 IACR conference included sessions on vital research areas spanning biomedical sciences, social science, allied health, and clinical trials.
 
The conference kicked off on Wednesday 24 March with early career workshops delivered by the IACR Junior Council and the Irish Cancer Society. The IACR Junior Council delivered an excellent series of early career workshops on careers, communications, and leadership. Simultaneously, the Irish Cancer Society delivered workshops to social scientists, nurses, and allied health professionals on developing clinical-academic partnerships and on grant writing. 

Thursday was an equally jam-packed day beginning with a session on ‘Treatment Outcomes: Prehabilitation & Nutritional Support.’ Here we heard from experts in nutrition, exercise, and clinical practice about how these factors can affect cancer treatment and outcomes. Professor Shrek even made an appearance during Dr Susan Moug’s excellent presentation describing how she convinced her medical colleagues of the value of exercise.   
On Thursday, we also heard about how all of the microorganisms in our body (microbiome) can affect cancer treatments; challenges of current clinical trials; and the psycho-social impact of cancer. We are particularly grateful to Dr Tina Hickey for sharing her personal experiences of cancer and how she kept up with the changing narrative of breast cancer treatment. 

On the final day of the conference, we heard from experts on how to translate research findings into clinical practice (health implementation); on the importance of the environment around a tumour (tumour microenvironment); and how the tumour uses energy (cell metabolism). The conference was closed out by Prof Mark Lawler who received an IACR Outstanding Achievement Award for his work. 

The IACR provided a number of awards recognising excellence in early career investigators who delivered digital poster presentations or proffered talks. Congratulations to Laura Kane (Trinity College Dublin), Eimear Mylod (Trinity College Dublin), Peter Cronin (University of Limerick/University College Cork), Alessandra Di Grande (Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland), Naomi Algeo (Trinity College Dublin), Louise Brennan (Trinity College Dublin), Aoife Cannon (Trinity College Dublin), Debbie Moss (Queens University Belfast), and Kayleigh Slater (University College Dublin) for their prizes. 

The IACR Conference was such an exciting and enjoyable experience and we cannot wait for next year’s conference. Congratulations to the IACR organisers for a great success.