Happy birthday <scp>IJC</scp>

January 2026 will mark the 60th anniversary of the International Journal of Cancer (IJC). This milestone provides an opportunity to reflect on six decades of scientific progress and scholarly exchange in cancer research. The IJC was founded by the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) with the clear mission of publishing rigorous, globally relevant research to advance knowledge of cancer biology, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. As cancer incidences were rising worldwide, UICC recognized the need for an international journal to facilitate knowledge-sharing between researchers from different countries. Established in 1966, the journal was launched in Helsinki, Finland under the guidance of its first Editor-in-Chief, Professor Erkki Saxen, with the assistance of Assistant Editor Eero Saksela. The journal's early editorial operations were supported by Managing Editor François Luder and Editorial Assistant Dr. Svante Stenman. In 1983, the editorship passed to Professor Nicholas Odartchenko (Lausanne, Switzerland), who guided the journal for nearly two decades. During this time, the IJC expanded its scientific scope and visibility in line with the increasing complexity of cancer research. In 2000, Professor Harald zur Hausen, the Scientific Chairman of the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg, Germany, took over the journal. Since then, the journal's offices have been located at the DKFZ. After receiving the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2008, Professor Harald zur Hausen handed over the journal to Associate Editor Peter Lichter, also working at the DKFZ, in 2009. In January 2019, Professor Christoph Plass, head of the Division of Cancer Epigenomics at DKFZ, took over as Editor-in-Chief and continues to lead the journal. A short selection of seminal contributions to our journal includes the Cancer Statistics (GLOBOCAN), which are important for the field of cancer research to estimate trends of cancer diagnosis over time and in different populations. The statistics also allow for monitoring changes due to novel therapies. The first GLOBOCAN paper was published in 2000.1 Similarly important was the early work on human papilloma viruses (HPV) by the Nobel Laureate and former Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Cancer, Harald zur Hausen, which ultimately led to the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2008 for his discovery of the role of HPV in the development of cervical cancer.2, 3 Epigenetic studies were supported by drugs that inhibit DNA methylation enzymes. These hypomethylating agents are now used in clinics to treat patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Early contributions to this topic in the IJC include studies on these drugs on resistance mechanisms in leukemic mice.4 Tumor heterogeneity is now considered to be the underlying mechanism of therapy resistance. This topic is currently being studied using single-cell profiling technologies. One of the first contributions to this field, before the use of single-cell assays, was published in the IJC.5 The loss of the Y chromosome in male tumor samples is an area of research that is currently attracting enormous interest due to male cancer patients having poorer outcomes than female cancer patients. Early contributions to this topic were published in the IJC.6-8 Recently, seminal publications have advanced the field further, including the description of the widely recognized bioinformatics tool muTarget, which links gene expression changes to mutation status across solid tumors.9 The IJC publishes not only high-level scientific papers and novel technologies, but also considers the local medical situation in low- and middle-income countries, which have a limited and dispersed number of specialized hospitals. In this regard, the IJC published a novel, simple, minimally invasive esophageal sponge cytology sampling method for detecting esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. This method offers a less invasive, affordable alternative to endoscopy in low-income countries.10 The International Journal of Cancer has pioneered data integrity. It continues to prioritize strict pre-publication quality control measures to ensure that only reliable and reproducible data are published in cancer research.11 This is exemplified by its strict rules on cell line authentication, a necessity for high-quality scientific work.12 We hope that the International Journal of Cancer will continue to publish high-quality cancer research, thereby serving the scientific community for many years to come. Happy Birthday IJC!!! The authors thank the IJC editorial office: Daria Koroleva, Manu Jain Goyal, Sumen Shiqin, and Deepti Prasad; the Associate Editors: Heike Allgayer, Petra Boukamp, Adelheid Cerwenka, Norbert Fusenig, Hinrich Gronemeyer, Kari Hemminki, Rudolf Kaaks, Odilia Popanda, Annette Kopp-Schneider, and Magnus von Knebel-Doeberitz. We also thank the Editorial Board, all former staff members, the reviewers, and all the authors for their contributions to this journal.