Introducing pro and con discussions in ESMO Open-Cancer Horizons.

Whereas clinical science often produces high-level evidence on the superiority of a certain novel therapy, it is ongoing and critical review of data, their discussion and the continuous scanning of evidence which lead to the translation of results emerging from clinical trials into everyday clinical life. There is an abundance of examples which we all know for such ongoing discussions attempting to not only satisfy our academic ambition for the identification of ideal treatment modalities available at a certain time point, but also and foremost to offer treatment considered as scientifically optimal to our patients. This lively process is part of ongoing attempts to interpret scientific advances in the understanding of biologic processes not as everlasting truths, but as a never ending search for certainty. It is in this very light that the Editors in Chief of ‘ESMO Open—Cancer Horizons’ have decided to launch an invited pro and con discussion on issues of immediate clinical interest, which is started regarding the use of anthracyclines in early breast cancer. This is going to be followed by other topics of immediate clinical interest and the application of insights resulting from published data in high-level clinical practice.

You, as readers of the journal, are warmly invited to vote for either position via Twitter or Facebook, with the result of the voting being published in ‘ESMO Open—Cancer Horizons,’ thus making you an active part of the process of evidence-based acceptance of either standpoint.

It has to be borne in mind, however, that any outcome of the voting must not be interpreted as the ‘victory’ of one author over the other, who have been both invited to present different sides of one coin, but rather the tendency of the readers of the journal to sympathize with the respective aspect which is being discussed. Thus, we intend to enrich and to stimulate scientific discussion in the interest of advancing clinical progress through scientific evidence, which has become the legacy of ‘ESMO Open—Cancer Horizons’.

We invite you very warmly to accompany us on this new journey and hope that it will be as intellectually stimulating for you as it is exciting for us.