Proceedings of a Workshop

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This activity was supported by Contract No. 75D30121D11240 (Task Order Nos. 75D30121F00002 and 75D30123F00024) and Contract No. 75N98024D00037 (Task Order No. 75N98025F00002) with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Cancer Institute/National Institutes of Health, respectively, and by the American Association for Cancer Research; American Cancer Society; American College of Radiology; American Society of Clinical Oncology; Association of American Cancer Institutes; Association of Cancer Care Centers; AVEO Oncology; Cancer Center at Illinois; Flatiron Health; Lilly; Merck; National Comprehensive Cancer Network; Novartis Oncology; Oncology Nursing Society; Partners In Health; Patient Advocate Foundation; and Pfizer Inc. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of any organization or agency that provided support for the project.

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Suggested citation: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2026. Cancer Engineering: The Convergence of Engineering and Health to Advance Cancer Research and Care: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/29289.

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WORKSHOP PLANNING COMMITTEE

ROHIT BHARGAVA (Co-Chair), Cancer Center at Illinois, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

HEDVIG HRICAK (Co-Chair), Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

RODERIC PETTIGREW (Co-Chair), The Texas A&M University System

BISSAN AL-LAZIKANI, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

JUSTIN E. BEKELMAN, Daymark Health

CHRISTINA CHAPMAN, Baylor College of Medicine

ROHAN FERNANDES, The George Washington University

HADIYAH-NICOLE GREEN, Ora Lee Smith Cancer Research Foundation

PHILLIP SHARP, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

BRUCE J. TROMBERG, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering

Project Staff

ANNA ADLER, Research Associate (from June 2025)

TORRIE BROWN, Program Coordinator

MAKEDA HAUGHTON, Senior Program Assistant

EMMA WICKLAND, Research Associate (through May 2025)

JULIE WILTSHIRE, Senior Finance Business Partner

JENNIFER ZHU, Associate Program Officer

FRANCIS AMANKWAH, Director, National Cancer Policy Forum

SHARYL NASS, Senior Program Director, Health Care and Public Health

NATIONAL CANCER POLICY FORUM

ROBERT A. WINN (Chair), Virginia Commonwealth University

LALEH AMIRI-KORDESTANI, U.S. Food and Drug Administration

ROHIT BHARGAVA, Cancer Center at Illinois

SMITA BHATIA, The University of Alabama at Birmingham

GIDEON BLUMENTHAL, Merck

CHRIS BOSHOFF, Pfizer Inc.

EDGAR ERWIN BRAENDLE, AVEO Oncology, an LG Chem company

CHRISTINA CHAPMAN, Baylor College of Medicine; Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center

GWEN DARIEN, Patient Advocate Foundation

CRYSTAL DENLINGER, National Comprehensive Cancer Network

JAMES H. DOROSHOW, National Cancer Institute

S. GAIL ECKHARDT, Baylor College of Medicine

CHRISTOPHER R. FRIESE, University of Michigan

SCARLETT LIN GOMEZ, University of California, San Francisco

JULIE R. GRALOW, American Society of Clinical Oncology

SARAH GREENE, Independent Consultant; Patient Advocate

ROY S. HERBST, Yale University; American Association for Cancer Research

HEDVIG HRICAK, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

CHANITA HUGHES-HALBERT, University of Southern California

ROY A. JENSEN, University of Kansas; Association of American Cancer Institutes

RANDY A. JONES, University of Virginia

BETH Y. KARLAN, University of California, Los Angeles

NANCY KEATING, Harvard Medical School

SAMIR N. KHLEIF, Georgetown University; Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer

RONALD M. KLINE, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

SHIVAANI KUMMAR, Oregon Health & Science University

ELENA MARTÍNEZ, University of California, San Diego

LARISSA NEKHLYUDOV, Brigham and Women’s Hospital; Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; Harvard Medical School

CLEO A. RYALS, Flatiron Health

SUSAN M. SCHNEIDER, Duke University

LAWRENCE N. SHULMAN, University of Pennsylvania

MICHELLE SIDEL, Novartis Pharmaceuticals

AMYE J. TEVAARWERK, Mayo Clinic

KATRINA TRIVERS, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

MEGAN TWEED, Lilly

ROBIN YABROFF, American Cancer Society

Forum Staff

ANNA ADLER, Research Associate

TORRIE BROWN, Program Coordinator

MAKEDA HAUGHTON, Senior Program Assistant

JULIE WILTSHIRE, Senior Finance Business Partner

FRANCIS AMANKWAH, Director, National Cancer Policy Forum

SHARYL NASS, Senior Program Director, Health Care and Public Health Program Area

Reviewers

This Proceedings of a Workshop was reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in making each published proceedings as sound as possible and to ensure that it meets the institutional standards for quality, objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the process.

We thank the following individuals for their review of this proceedings:

Although the reviewers listed above provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the content of the proceedings nor did they see the final draft before its release. The review of this proceedings was overseen by DANIEL MASYS, University of Washington. He was responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this proceedings was carried out in accordance with standards of the National Academies and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content rests entirely with the rapporteurs and the National Academies.

Acknowledgments

The National Cancer Policy Forum is grateful for the support of its many annual sponsors. Federal sponsors include the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Cancer Institute/National Institutes of Health. Nonfederal sponsors include the American Association for Cancer Research, American Cancer Society, American College of Radiology, American Society of Clinical Oncology, Association of American Cancer Institutes, Association of Cancer Care Centers, AVEO Oncology, Cancer Center at Illinois, Lilly, Flatiron Health, Merck, National Comprehensive Cancer Network, Novartis Oncology, Oncology Nursing Society, Partners in Health, Patient Advocate Foundation, and Pfizer Inc.

The forum wishes to express its gratitude to the expert speakers whose presentations and discussions helped catalyze new knowledge and innovations to improve patient outcomes through the convergence of engineering with cancer research, care, and policy. The forum also wishes to thank the members of the planning committee for their work in developing an excellent workshop agenda.

Contents

Acronyms and Abbreviations

PROCEEDINGS OF A WORKSHOP

WORKSHOP OVERVIEW

OVERVIEW OF CONVERGENCE OF ENGINEERING AND CANCER CARE

The Power of Convergence in Transforming Cancer Care

Perspectives on Convergence

ENGINEERING IN CANCER PREVENTION AND DIAGNOSTICS

Collaborative Team Science to Advance Early Cancer Detection

Capturing Circulating Tumor Cells

Personalized Messenger RNA (mRNA) Cancer Vaccines

mRNA Vaccines for Pancreatic Cancer

Opportunistic AI for Predicting Cancer Outcomes

Systems Engineering to Improve Early Cancer Detection and Prevention in Low-Resource Settings

FROM CANCER BIOLOGY TO ENGINEERING SOLUTIONS

Engineering Advanced Cancer Drug Delivery Systems

Engineering for CAR T Cell Therapy

Engineering Natural Killer (NK) Cells for Cancer Treatment

Engineering Molecular Cancer Imaging and Image-Guided Therapy

Theranostics in Precision Oncology

Biomaterials for Cancer Immunotherapy

Hybrid Advanced Molecular Manufacturing Regulator for Cancer Immunotherapy

Translational Opportunities in Cancer Mechanobiology

CANCER ENGINEERING EDUCATION

A Multidisciplinary Engineering Approach to Addressing the Complexities of Cancer

Learning at the Interfaces at the MIT Koch Institute

MSK Cancer Center Engineering Program

Translational Research Institute at Cedars-Sinai

Supporting Education and Training: Mentorship and Funding

REFLECTIONS ON ADVANCING CANCER ENGINEERING

REFERENCES

APPENDIXES

A Statement of Task

B Workshop Agenda

Boxes and Figure

BOXES

1 Observations from Individual Workshop Participants on the Current State and Future Potential of the Convergence of Engineering and Cancer Research and Care

2 Suggestions from Individual Workshop Participants for Improving Patient Outcomes Through the Convergence of Engineering with Oncology Research, Practice, and Policy

3 Tomorrow’s Cancer Engineers: Oral Poster Presentations

FIGURE

1 Multidisciplinary engineering approach to addressing the complexities of cancer

Acronyms and Abbreviations