Reporters note: The following briefs highlight selected cancer-related studies being presented at Digestive Disease Week® (DDW) 2025 in San Diego. You are welcome to use these items as-is, incorporate them into broader coverage, or use them as story starters for your own reporting. Reach out to Tware@thereisgroup.com to get more information or to connect with researchers for interviews.

Embargo: Each brief is embargoed until 12:01 a.m. PDT the day of its presentation, as listed at the end of each item. Alternatively, the entire package may be published after 12:01 a.m. PDT on May 5, 2025.

Fiive pivotal studies presented at ESTRO 2025, the annual congress of the European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology, showcase how radiotherapy is reshaping anal and rectan cancers treatment approaches. From reduced-dose treatments to cutting-edge combinations with immunotherapy and chemotherapy, these innovations offer safer, more effective, and organ-preserving alternatives to traditional surgery.

The phase III study shows that giving prostate cancer patients fewer, higher doses of radiotherapy can be safe and effective in the long term.

Despite decades of public health messaging, Canadians are spending more time in the sun and using less sun protection – raising alarms among researchers as melanoma cases continue to climb.

That trend is highlighted in a McGill University-led study that analyzed national survey data collected between 2011 and 2018 from over 77,000 people, representing a weighted sample of 21 million Canadians.