Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide, accounting for ~10 million deaths in 2020 (source: WHO). The number of cases increases as the population ages in regions such as Europe and Southeast Asia. It is a public health priority to tackle this burden, by developing better prognostic and therapeutic tools.

The past decades have greatly increased our knowledge of cancer biology. For instance, advances in sequencing technologies have revealed the complexity of the mutational landscape in tumors and shed light on the heterogeneity and clonal evolution of malignancies.

Besides these advances in genetics, a parallel revolution has occurred in cancer epigenetics. It has become overwhelmingly clear that epigenetic phenomena, in other words, phenomena that modify genome activity without modifying the underlying sequence, play key roles in cancer initiation and progression. While epigenetic abnormalities drive cancer, they also open up new prognostic and therapeutic avenues.

The core objective of theis EMBO Workshop on Chromatin Biology in Cancer 2024 is to bring together outstanding researchers, from all around the world, at all stages in the field of epigenetics/chromatin biology with a focus on cancer for the exchange of ideas and information.