Dear Reader,

Welcome to the final issue of Targeted Oncology for 2021.

I wish to reflect on this year’s achievements, and to thank all those who have contributed their time and effort to guarantee the quality of the content published in the journal.

In 2021, over 70 articles have been published. The most popular of these in terms of downloads from SpringerLink have been:

An Overview of PARP Inhibitors for the Treatment of Breast Cancer

Real-World Tumor Response of Palbociclib Plus Letrozole Versus Letrozole for Metastatic Breast Cancer in US Clinical Practice

Impact of Dose Reduction on Efficacy: Implications of Exposure-Response Analysis of Palbociclib

Osimertinib Versus Comparator EGFR TKI as First-Line Treatment for EGFR-Mutated Advanced NSCLC: FLAURA China, A Randomized Study

Vaccine Therapies for Cancer: Then and Now

Liquid Biopsy for Prognosis and Treatment in Metastatic Colorectal Cancer: Circulating Tumor Cells vs Circulating Tumor DNA

TRK Fusion Cancer: Patient Characteristics and Survival Analysis in the Real-World Setting

Risk and Benefit for Targeted Therapy Agents in Pediatric Phase II Trials in Oncology: A Systematic Review with a Meta-Analysis

Bintrafusp Alfa, a Bifunctional Fusion Protein Targeting TGFβ and PD-L1, in Patients with Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma: Results from a Phase 1 Cohort in Asia

Copanlisib for the Treatment of Malignant Lymphoma: Clinical Experience and Future Perspectives

The high quality of content published in Targeted Oncology has been reflected in the most recent impact factor of 4.493 and CiteScore™ of 7.3. Further, Targeted Oncology has published content in a timely manner, with an average time from submission to first decision of 15 days.

The COVID-19 pandemic has continued to present many challenges and I would like to thank all who have contributed to ensuring the journal has thrived despite the ongoing issues.

I would like to start by thanking the authors of the articles published in Targeted Oncology over the course of 2021. The enthusiasm of all authors for their chosen fields and their willingness to contribute content to the journal are crucial for its continued success.

The quality of published articles is also testament to the diligence of the peer reviewers. I would like to acknowledge the following individuals who acted as reviewers for Targeted Oncology in the last 12 months:

Muhammad Zubair Afzal, USA

Thierry Alcindor, Canada

Lawrence Andrews, USA

Kazuhiro Araki, Japan

Hugo Arasanz Esteban, Spain

Rebecca Arend, USA

Jean Auliac, France

Kyaw Aung, USA

Aristotelis Bamias, Greece

Mark Barok, Finland

Viviana Bazan, Italy

Bertram Bengsch, Germany

Eric Bernicker, USA

Jan Bieńkiewicz, Poland

Annalen Bleckmann, Germany

Burkhard Brandt, Germany

Virginia Calvo, Spain

John Carucci, USA

Aude Charbonnier, France

Aman Chauhan, USA

Chao-Hua Chiu, Taiwan, Republic of China

Joanne Chiu, Hong Kong, China

Shih-Feng Cho, Taiwan, Republic of China

Petros Christopoulos, Germany

Pawel Chrom, Poland

Pippa Corrie, UK

Kristof Cuppens, Belgium

Nancy Davis, USA

Theo de Reijke, The Netherlands

Giovan Giuseppe Di Costanzo, Italy

Valérie Dutoit, Switzerland

Camille Evrard, France

Conrad Fernandez, Canada

Steven Fling, USA

Elisa Fontana, UK

Christos Fountzilas, USA

Masahide Fukudo, Japan

Thilo Gambichler, Germany

Pere Gascon, Spain

Prafull Ghatage, Canada

Paola Ghione, USA

Valerie Glutsch, Germany

María Teresa Gómez-Casares, Spain

Thomas Graillon, France

Alastair Greystoke, UK

Xiuwen Guan, China

David Guttery, UK

Jun Hanaoka, Japan

Simon Harrison, Australia

Alain Hendlisz, Belgium

Cinta Hierro, Spain

John Hilton, Canada

Maximilian J. Hochmair, Austria

Sarah A. Holstein, USA

Chih-Hung Hsu, Taiwan, Republic of China

Harun Ilhan, Germany

Gino In, USA

Hiroki Ishihara, Japan

Eiji Iwama, Japan

Stefan Kasper, Germany

Mustafa Khasraw, USA

Dennis Kim, Canada

Kyung Bo Kim, USA

Sang-We Kim, Republic of Korea

Heinz-Josef Klümpen, The Netherlands

Scott Chih-Hsi Kuo, Taiwan, Republic of China

Teiji Kuzuya, Japan

Ulrik Lassen, Denmark

Jae Cheol Lee, Republic of Korea

Jeeyun Lee, Republic of Korea

Joycelyn Lee, Singapore

Konstantinos Leventakos, USA

Bora Lim, USA

Chia-Chi Lin, Taiwan, Republic of China

Nan Lin, USA

Gabriella Liszkay, Hungary

Xue-Qun Luo, China

Susanne Malander, Sweden

Steven Maron, USA

Koji Matsuo, USA

Gianluca Mauri, Italy

Felicity May, UK

Bradley McGregor, USA

Pam McKay, UK

Joseph Mikhael, USA

Maria Carmen Mir, Spain

Alberto Montero, USA

Sarbajit Mukherjee, USA

Aiko Nagayama, Japan

Jayakumar Nair, USA

Masahito Nakano, Japan

Beatrice Nardone, USA

Takahito Negishi, Japan

Matthew Chau Hsien Ng, Singapore

Shin Nishio, Japan

Noboru Numao, Japan

Shuntaro Obi, Japan

Scott Okuno, USA

L’Houcine Ouafik, France

Tejas Patil, USA

Patricia Pautier, France

Tycel Phillips, USA

Camelia Quek, Australia

Renju Raj, USA

Emanuel Raschi, Italy

Isabelle Ray-Coquard, France

Joshua Richter, USA

Lorenza Rimassa, Italy

Daniele Rossini, Italy

Eduard Roussel, Belgium

Piotr Rutkowski, Poland

Kazutaka Saito, Japan

Martin Salzmann, Germany

Hironaga Satake, Japan

Yuki Sato, Japan

Maria Scavo, Italy

Hans-Ulrich Schildhaus, Germany

Manuela Schmidinger, Austria

Scott Schuetze, USA

Cesar Serrano, Spain

Neal Shore, USA

Darren Sigal, USA

Nicola Silvestris, Italy

Hiroshi Soda, Japan

Corey Speers, USA

Srikala Sridhar, Canada

Chunxia Su, China

Kenichi Suda, USA

Daisuke Takahari, Japan

Junko Tanizaki, Japan

Tetsu Tomonari, Japan

Nikolaos Tsoukalas, Greece

Akihiro Tsuboi, Japan

Hiroshi Ureshino, Japan

Anke van den Berg, The Netherlands

Brian van Tine, USA

Naveen Vasudev, UK

Kathelijn Versteeg, The Netherlands

Nikolaus Wagner, Germany

Yufeng Wang, USA

Muzamil Want, USA

David Waterhouse, USA

Marcel Wiesweg, Germany

Min Yan, China

Rinat Yerushalmi, Israel

Kan Yoenmori, Japan

Changhoon Yoo, Republic of Korea

Tatsuya Yoshida, Japan

Tian Zhang, USA

David Ziegler, Australia

I also very grateful to the members of the journal’s Honorary Editorial Board, who have acted as peer reviewers and authors, and have provided guidance on journal content, policy, and processes:

James Armitage, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, USA

James Berenson, Institute for Myeloma and Bone Cancer Research, West Hollywood, CA, USA

Jean-Yves Blay, University Claude Bernard Lyon I, Lyon, France

Tomas Buchler, Charles University and Thomayer Hosptial, Prague, Czech Republic

Ann-Lii Cheng, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China

Fortunato Ciardiello, Second University of Naples, Naples, Italy

Jayesh Desai, The Royal Melbourne Hospital, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

Sandrine Faivre, Beaujon University Hospital, Clichy, France

Giuseppe Giaccone, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY, USA

Petros Grivas, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

Balazs Halmos, Montefiore Medical Center, New York, NY, USA

Gabriel Hortobagyi, Houston, TX, USA

Christian Jackisch, Sana Klinikum, Offenbach, Germany

V. Craig Jordan, MD Anderson, Houston, Texas, USA

John Kirkwood, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

Heinz-Josef Lenz, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Teresa Macarulla, Vall d’Hebron University Hospital, Barcelona, Spain

Mark McKeage, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

Alain Mita, Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Monica Mita, Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Jean-François Morère, Hôpital Avicenne, Paris-Nord, France

Athanasios Papavassiliou, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece

Camilo Porta, IRCCS San Matteo University Hospital Foundation, Pavia, Italy

Timothy Price, The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Adelaide, SA, Australia

Shukui Qin, Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology, Nanjing, China

Eric Raymond, Groupe Hospitalier Paris Saint-Joseph, Paris, France

Richard Riedel, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

Olivier Rixe, Quantum Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM, USA

Helen Rizos, Macquarie University, North Ryde, NSW, Australia

Nicole Shonka, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, USA

Denis Soulières, Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada

Yu Sunakawa, St. Marianna University School of Medicine, Kawasaki, Japan

Eric Van Cutsem, University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

In terms of other important company initiatives, the Springer Nature ‘Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Programme’ is aiming to connect researchers who are tackling the world’s toughest challenges with practitioners in policy and business, while the ‘Women in Science’ initiative aims to help empower more women scientists to achieve scientific excellence. Finally, I am delighted to inform you that Springer Nature is now carbon neutral for its direct operations (offices, fleet, and flights) and earlier this year signed The Climate Pledge, making a commitment to be Net Zero carbon by 2040.

Returning to Targeted Oncology, the editorial program for 2022 is well under way, and I am looking forward to bringing you many high-quality and authoritative articles in the field of Targeted Oncology over the coming year.

I thank you for your continued support.

With best wishes,

Martin Chopra