“The hope is that you will never hear the words ‘You have cancer’ in your lifetime,” Katrina Johnson said. “But that’s not how my story goes. I’ve heard that sentence five times.”
Johnson found a lump in her left breast when she was just 28 years old. Fortunately, the cancer was caught early and treated effectively, but her journey with cancer was just beginning. As Johnson navigated recurring diagnoses, she saw firsthand how the cancer care landscape was evolving.
Twenty-three years ago, when Johnson was facing her first diagnosis, the thought of a world without cancer was nothing more than a dream. Today, thanks to a surge in cancer research, significant advances in science and technology are converging to bring us closer to long-promised cures for certain cancers.
Significant progress — but much more to do
Cancer remains one of the biggest health challenges of our lifetime. Millions of people globally receive a cancer diagnosis each year — in the United States, that’s about one diagnosis every 30 seconds.
While the cancer-related death rate has fallen in recent years, troubling trends make it clear that continued innovation is urgently needed. Cancer is rising in younger adults at an alarming pace, with early onset cancers increasing by 79% from 1990 to 2019.[i] In addition, young women are now almost twice as likely to be diagnosed with cancer than men — women under 50 had an 82% higher cancer rate in 2021 than men of the same age, compared with a 51% higher rate in 2002.[ii]
Scientists are working hard to overcome these challenges, and there has been a significant rise in cancer research, with several thousand active clinical trials currently underway.[iii] Yet, even with resources and years invested in the research process, most drug discoveries do not reach patients. As many as 90% of research projects fail. Why? Cancer is one of the most complex diseases known to mankind.
There are more than 200 types of cancer, each presenting very differently. Cancers also arise from cells in our own body, when abnormal cells grow out of control and spread to other areas. For this reason, cancer evolves at a pace that’s faster than most diseases, and treatments need to be able to separate healthy cells from cancer cells. And although there have been major improvements in cancer treatments, many cancers can still become resistant to treatments and recur or come back, and some treatments can cause difficult side effects. These complexities make the disease a challenge to stay ahead of, and continued innovation is needed.
A bold ambition: Eight cancer breakthroughs by 2030
One pharmaceutical company invested in the fight is Pfizer. According to its 2024 Annual Report, the company spent more than $10 billion on research and development (R&D) in 2024 — over 40% of it directed toward cancer research. The company has committed to delivering eight breakthrough cancer medicines by 2030.
“Given cancer’s complexities, every breakthrough in cancer isn’t just a step forward — it’s a leap that redefines how we understand, treat, and ultimately prevail over cancer,” said Chris Boshoff, M.D., Ph.D., chief scientific officer and president, R&D at Pfizer. “Despite progress, too many people with cancer still face limited treatment options or hear their current treatment has stopped working. The potential breakthroughs we are advancing at Pfizer represent potential new medicines that we believe could be truly groundbreaking — helping people live longer, with the goal of improved quality of life — and bringing us closer to ending cancer as we know it today.”
Pfizer is advancing one of the largest oncology R&D programs, with more than 80 clinical trials ongoing in some of the most common cancer types, including breast, bladder, prostate, lung, and blood cancers. Boshoff believes the science will power the breakthroughs, adding: “Our team, which has decades of scientific expertise and a legacy of innovation, is leading the charge to push boundaries in cancer care.”
Over the past 20 years, Pfizer has developed numerous medicines that revolutionized care in several difficult-to-treat cancers, including the first personalized medicine in lung cancer. More recently, the company achieved groundbreaking progress in bladder cancer — an area that had seen little progress for decades. Its treatment doubled lifespan (overall survival) in clinical trials, delivering an unprecedented result that offered real hope for the first time to people with advanced bladder cancer.
Pfizer is staying at the forefront of innovation with new technologies like antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), one of the most exciting and promising treatment types in cancer today. Acting like guided missiles, ADCs are designed to deliver cancer-killing drugs directly to tumors, while limiting damage to healthy cells. This technology enables powerful treatments across a broad range of cancers and has the potential to be more effective and less toxic than traditional chemotherapy. Today, about half of ADCs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration either come from Pfizer or use its technology.
In addition to ADCs, Pfizer is advancing other novel technologies, including bispecific antibodies that use the body’s immune system to attack cancer, and next-generation small molecules — oral medicines that are small enough to enter cancer cells, and are targeted to slow or stop tumor growth. Pfizer is using all three of these technologies to attack cancer from every angle and has more than 25 potential new medicines in development.
Bringing treatments and support to people who need it, faster
A breakthrough medicine for a patient can mean not only more, but better, years. Pfizer notes it is moving with speed to bring potential new medicines to the world as quickly as possible, by working to remove some of the barriers that can slow scientific progress. This includes integrating digital tools, such as artificial intelligence, to advance science more quickly, and with greater quality and accuracy.
The company is innovating with digital to better understand what causes cancer, identify potential drug targets, and design and carry out clinical trials more efficiently. Research projects that once took months or years can potentially move forward in a fraction of the time. The goal is smarter, more accurate, and faster scientific progress — bringing new, and better, treatment options to people with cancer sooner.
The fight against cancer is personal
For Johnson, the fight against cancer has become her life’s work. After facing cancer multiple times, she transitioned into the pharmaceutical industry and is now a director of advocacy and professional relations for Pfizer Oncology, using her voice to help improve the system for others.
She added, “For many of us at Pfizer, the fight against cancer is deeply personal — we’ve felt its impact. Breakthroughs aren’t just about the science. They represent the chance to live longer, to have a better quality of life, to see your kids grow up — and they will only have that impact if they reach the people who need them.”
Understanding the individual needs of people with cancer is an important part of developing new treatments, as well as supporting them and their loved ones throughout their cancer journey. Pfizer partners with over 100 advocacy organizations around the world to listen and learn from the patient community, and to address the things that matter most to them.
One example is Change the Odds™, an American Cancer Society initiative with funding from Pfizer designed to bridge the gap in cancer care disparities. The initiative aims to improve health outcomes in underserved communities across the United States by enhancing awareness of and access to cancer screenings, clinical trial opportunities, and patient support and comprehensive navigation.
And for Katrina, and millions like her, each breakthrough brings us closer to a future where the words “You have cancer” no longer hold so much power. It’s a future worth fighting for.
To learn more, visit cancer.pfizer.com
[i] Zhao, Jianhui, et al. Global Trends in Incidence, Death, Burden and Risk Factors of Early-Onset Cancer from 1990 to 2019. BMJ Oncology, vol. 2, no. 1, 2024, p. e000049, https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjonc-2023-000049.
[ii] American Cancer Society. Cancer Incidence Rate for Women Under 50 Rises Above Men’s, https://www.cancer.org/research/acs-research-news/cancer-incidence-rate-for-women-under-50-rises-above-mens.html.
[iii] Izarn, F., et al. Globalization of Clinical Trials in Oncology: A Worldwide Quantitative Analysis. ESMO Open, vol. 9, no. 1, 2024, p. 104086, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esmoop.2024.104086.
