50 years with Acta Oncologica

Twenty-five years with Acta Oncologica has now passed by, but this year the journal will celebrate 50 years. The journal obtained its present name 25 years ago but was founded in 1963 when the present numbering of volumes commenced. Due to some errors in numbering during the 1960s, described in [1], the present volume starting with this issue is number 52. Even if the year of celebration and how many years to celebrate is a point of discussion, Acta Oncologica will celebrate 50 years this year. We have much to celebrate due to the successful development of the journal during the past decade. In brief, we have reached an all-time high impact factor (3.330) and have never received so many manuscripts (projected between 850 and 900 during 2012 from about 200 not too many years ago). The rejection rate of submitted original articles is above 80%, which in itself may not be something to celebrate, but indirectly indicates that it is attractive to submit to Acta Oncologica and the articles ultimately published have a high quality. The foundation which owns the journal has also been able to support several successful symposia during the past several years. These symposia have contributed to the great success of the journal (most recently [2–4]).

The first volume of Acta Radiologica, Therapy, Physics, Biology (as it was first called) had six issues, altogether containing 41 articles, mostly in English but also in German and French. Presently, every volume of Acta Oncologica has eight issues and publishes about 200 articles, all in English. The focus of the articles has for obvious reasons changed considerably during these 50 years. Actually 39 of the 41 articles published in 1963 dealt in some way with radiation, many with a physical or an experimental direction and some reported results from clinical series. For those especially interested, all articles published in Acta Oncologica from 1963 are freely available for everyone on the Internet. Not very many journals can match this. Radiation physics, -biology and -therapy continue to be the focus of many articles in Acta Oncologica and have actually been behind some of the increased interest in the journal during recent years [3,5,6]. If progress is measured in terms of citations and increased journal impact factor, the radiation articles represent a substantial part of the recent development [7]. When progress in oncology is discussed, I guess most think of the substantially improved tumour biologic knowledge and the development of all targeted drugs, the –ibs and –abs. Not so many think of all the 4–5-letter combinations often ending with an –RT. With better ‘targeting of the dose’ these will revolutionise radiation therapy in the future. Together with improved drugs, hopefully eradicating most of the subclinical tumour deposits in the future, cure will be possible in many more patients. More precise surgery including different ablative techniques will also contribute.

Progress in oncology has been substantial during the past decades, but without too much thorough reflection, it has been limited for most tumour types. The writing of scientific articles and the development of scientific journals have progressed substantially more.

The celebration activities will include two scientific symposia, one about Interventional Research in Radiation Oncology (IRRO), in June 2013 and one directed towards young oncologists dealing with what is believed to be the future in oncology, preliminarily in September this year. In addition to these symposia, every issue will contain a special jubilee article with different directions reflecting the diversity in oncology. The first one by Solheim and co-workers [8] deals with what is often designated as ‘supportive care’, increasingly important, both because we still do not cure most cancer patients and because the treatments have become much more intensive requiring more support care activities. It is accompanied by a separate editorial [9], as will all of the other jubilee articles.

Declaration of interest: The author report no conflicts of interest. The author alone is responsible for the content and writing of the paper.