Back in 2001, it was my privilege to write the very first editorial of this journal, in Issue 1 of Volume 1. It seems appropriate to write this editorial on the occasion of the completion of 20 years of volumes and the beginning of a new volume from Expert Review of Anticancer Therapy, now being Editor-In-Chief.
Twenty years later, Taylor & Francis deserves our congratulations for launching this valuable journal and, in fact, a remarkable number of journals in the so-called ‘Expert Collection.’ In this era of an unprecedented explosion of knowledge and original articles in an also growing number of medical journals, focused reviews are very much needed. Indeed, the number of issues in one volume of Expert Review of Anticancer Therapy grew from four in the first year, to six thereafter and to 12 issues per year since 2006 onwards. Thousands of articles have been published in the past 20 years, many with open access. Numerous articles have been cited more than 50 times, some more than 100 times. Perhaps more important than citations is how often the published articles were read. Of note, some papers have been read nearly 10,000 times, and many had thousands of views. As the journal’s impact factor is increasing (now 4.512) and also it’s reputation, so has the volume of unsolicited content being submitted on a weekly basis. Not all of these manuscripts are relevant to the aims and scopes or fulfill ethical criteria and standards of international publishing. This has proven to be challenging to manage from a publishing perspective, and the number of rejected manuscripts will likely increase because of that. However, we do encourage the submission of impactful and clinically-relevant original research papers. And will do our very best to keep having on average less than one month between submission and first editorial decision, and less than 2 months between submission and the post-review decision.
Expert Review of Anticancer Therapy has a focus on review articles, but now also accepts original research papers on the major trends in cancer care, including the performance of new therapeutic and diagnostic approaches. The reviews have an original format, including an expert opinion and article highlights. The journal focuses on, but does not limit itself to, tumor management, novel medicines, anticancer agents and chemotherapy, biological therapy, cancer vaccines, therapeutic indications, biomarkers and diagnostics, and treatment guidelines.
There is a downside to the growing body of knowledge and medical journals, and the generally experienced benefit of getting an article published in a medical journal, and that is the fact that some journals are fraud. It can be difficult to distinguish the good from the bad here. Therefore, if you are considering to submit a manuscript for publication in a medical journal, be aware of this issue and make sure the journal is in good standing, like Expert Review of Anticancer Therapy. On a side-step, there are nowadays many fraudulent medical meetings as well. Fake meetings at nice locations, often with an impressive list of organizers and speakers. You may even get invited as a speaker for these meetings! While all of this is unfortunate, more important is that the majority of medical journals are trustworthy and publish a wealth of information relevant to cancer patients, directly or indirectly and on the short- or long-term. It is likely that the number of publications will continue to increase. However, the quality of publications should always be more important than the quantity. Now that most journals are not printed as hard copy any more, it is easy and better to make supplementary data available online and separately, focusing on the most relevant data in the core article. Another development will likely be that the impact factor becomes less important, as well as the number of citations of an individual article, because we will develop tools for the societal impact of publications.
In these 20 years, much has changed. In my own field concerning children with cancer, overall cure rates have improved further up to nearly 80% in high-income countries. Imaging has improved, sophisticated and extensive characterization of cancer cells has become the rule, and many novel agents and even novel treatment modalities are being used in the clinic now. An obvious example being CAR T-cells in the treatment of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. However, progress was not seen in all diseases, and for instance diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas (now also known as diffuse midline gliomas), are still lethal in all cases, and within a few years.
In adults, progress has also been made to an overall 5-years survival rate of approximately 65% in high-income countries. For some disease, spectacular improvements have been achieved in subsets of patients, such as with melanoma. However, also in adults, there are types of cancer that are very difficult to cure, such as pancreatic and lung cancer. On top of that, quality of life is usually impaired during and after treatment, and significant so-called ‘late effects’ are apparent in a significant number of cancer survivors, of course depending on type of disease and its treatment. Moreover, many patients with cancer live in so-called low- and middle-income countries, with limited resources and far much less chances of cure. Thus, further progress in the care for patients with cancer is required and there is an unmet need for preclinical and clinical research, and for making proper diagnostics and effective treatment availaFortunately, cancer treatment is developing fast. It seems likely that conventional chemotherapy will be replaced by more targeted and consequently less toxic anticancer agents. A stunning number of new drugs and treatment modalities are being explored, such as tyrosine kinase inhibitors, checkpoint inhibitors, and all types of immunotherapy, including antibodies and cell therapies. Consequently, numerous scientific articles will be published in medical journals such as Expert Review of Anticancer Therapy in the future. In that context, journals such as this one contribute to improved care for children and adults with cancer, resulting in higher cure rates with more optimal quality-of-life. We can be optimistic that this will indeed happen, when looking back to the past, when realizing the importance of good health, and knowing the enormous current developments in medicine.
Correction Statement
This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.