Call for abstracts
UICC invites experts to help shape the World Cancer Congress programme by submitting abstracts on research, impactful initiatives, or successful fundraising campaigns.
CALL FOR ABSTRACTS – GUIDELINES
1. Submission categories
Three types of submission are welcomed at the Congress:
- Abstracts on scientific studies describing the collection, analysis and interpretation of cancer-relevant data (clinical, behavioural, epidemiological, etc). NB: Clinical studies must be currently relevant to cancer control. In vitro and animal studies are out of scope for this Congress and should not be submitted.
- Summaries of practice, policy and advocacy reports with impact describing innovative cancer and NCD programmes in detection, care, support, prevention, organisation.
- Summaries of fundraising campaign reports describing programmes to build public support to fund or donate to cancer and NCD control causes.
2. Submission guidelines
- All submissions should be made in English and only through the online submission platform. Abstracts submitted in a language other than English will be automatically rejected.
- The abstract must contain at least 1,500 characters and cannot contain more than 3,000 characters (blank spaces, punctuation as well as authors’ affiliation and titles included).
- A prescribed format has been identified for each type of submission format:
- Scientific studies. Background, aim, methods, results, conclusions.
- Practice, policy and advocacy reports. Background and context, aim, strategy/tactics, programme/policy process, outcomes, what was learned (develop any replicability potential)
- Fundraising campaign reports. Amount raised, background and context, aim, strategy/tactics, programme process, stakeholders involved, costs and returns, innovative methods, what was learned. Mention any replicability potential.
- Please ensure that your abstract does not contain spelling, grammatical or scientific errors. No corrections are possible after the submission. The abstract will be reproduced exactly as submitted. Please ensure that the abstract is complete. No proofreading will be done.
- Work reported in abstracts should meet international ethical standards.
- Abbreviations should be defined.
- All graphics and supporting visuals need to be commented upon and have an explanatory title.
- The submitting author accepts to declare all of the authors’ conflicts of interest for the last 5 years. An abstract or summary report cannot be accepted if the conflict-of-interest disclosure has not been ticked on the submission form. If the project or one of the co-authors has a conflict of interest, this must be clearly stated within the submission form and then, later, upon acceptance of the abstract, disclosed within the presentation.
- Each author needs to have authorized the submitter to submit the abstract, and then, later, upon acceptance of the abstract, approve its presentation at the Congress. The submission system will require co-authors’ details to notify them of the abstract submission.
- By submitting your abstract, you acknowledge that its content may be publicly disseminated, including media reporting. The UICC communications team may contact authors of abstracts with strong media potential to confirm availability for press materials or briefings, and authors should discuss any permissions or embargoes with relevant journals or institutions in advance. Please note that inability to discuss findings beyond the abstract may limit media coverage.
- Please ensure that all sources of information and references are included.
- Once you have successfully submitted your abstract, you will receive a confirmation email with an abstract ID number to use in any communication you might have with the organisers.
- Abstracts can be re-edited and modified until you click “submit” for final submission. Once submitted, abstracts cannot be edited.
- All abstracts should be finalised and submitted by 1 April 2026 at 23:59 CET.
- As a result of the abstract review phase, by 12 May 2026, all submitters will receive a notification of their presentation format.
- By 3 July 2026, all accepted abstracts will have to either:
- register to attend the Congress in person, if selected for an in-person presentation at the World Cancer Congress in Hong Kong. An in-person registration also includes the opportunity for the author to have the abstract displayed as an e-Poster in the eLibrary on the online platform; or
- purchase a digital pass for the online platform if the accepted abstract is to feature in the abstract eLibrary only.
A presenter that has not registered or purchased a digital pass by 3 July will have their abstract withdrawn from the programme and the abstract eLibrary.
3. Presentation format
All accepted abstracts will be accessible via the Congress abstract eLibrary. Upon acceptance, abstract authors will be invited to create and submit an e-poster of their abstract to be displayed in the eLibrary.
In-person abstract presentations
By 12 May, all submitters will be notified of the format of the presentation of their accepted abstract. The selection is based on the average score received. As a result, some abstracts and summary reports will be presented in person at the World Cancer Congress under one of the following presentation formats:
Oral abstract presentation
8-minute in-person presentation (incl. 2 minutes of Questions and Answers from the in-person audience). Oral abstract presentations are part of a larger session and will be scheduled for presentation in front of an audience of up to 80 people.
Rapid fire
3-minute presentation in front of an audience of up to 80 people.
Abstract presenters from these categories category must purchase a registration to attend the Congress in person in Hong Kong. In addition to the on-site presentation, the presenters will have the opportunity to display their abstracts in the form of ePosters via the Abstract eLibrary available on the online platform and on-site at the Congress within the Abstract Hub.
Abstracts hosted on abstract eLibrary only
The remaining abstracts that are accepted by Abstract Committee for inclusion in the Congress programme will be hosted in the abstract eLibrary, available on the online platform and on-site at the Congress within the Abstract Hub. Submitters and authors who wish to have their accepted abstracts appear in the abstract eLibrary will need to either purchase a registration if they wish to attend the Congress in-person in Hong Kong, or a digital access if they cannot travel to Hong Kong and only wish to only have their abstract displayed in the abstract eLibrary.
Connect pro-actively: UICC would like to encourage useful connections and new collaborations amongst participants. All submitters are invited to use the online platform to set-up meetings with other participants to present their work to them. Meetings can be set-up and conducted virtually either directly through the online platform or in-person in Geneva, in one of the lounge areas of the Congress.
4. Awards, recognition and publication of abstracts
The Congress Abstract Programme offers you the opportunity to gain special recognition in the following ways:
- The highest-scoring abstracts in each category will be recognised during the Awards Session at the Congress closing ceremony.
- A Best of Chinese Innovation Abstract Award will be given to the best abstract from China (incl. Hong Kong and Macau SAR) across all of the three submission categories (scientific studies, practice, policy and advocacy reports and fundraising campaign reports). The winner will be the best-scoring abstract among all the submissions coming from China that has been identified by the reviewing committee as being the most “innovative” of all.
- The 200 highest-scoring abstracts will be published in the International Journal of Cancer special supplement.
- Selected abstract authors may have the opportunity to share their work with a wider audience through UICC’s media channels, increasing visibility and impact. To maximise the potential for media coverage, we encourage authors to time the release of their publication around the event, so that they can freely and fully discuss all findings with interested journalists.
Contact us
Please contact us with any questions regarding the Congress Programme. →
