Annals of Oncology

About Annals of Oncology

Overview

Annals of Oncology is a peer-reviewed medical journal of oncology published by Elsevier and the official journal of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) (sources: Wikipedia journal page; OncoDaily; official editorial board page at annalsofoncology.org). Launched in 1990, it is published monthly in English under a hybrid open-access model, and it ranks among the most influential clinical oncology journals in the world.

The journal's identifiers are: print ISSN 0923-7534, online ISSN 1569-8041, CODEN ANONE2, and ISO 4 abbreviation Ann. Oncol. (source: Wikipedia). ESMO describes it as its multidisciplinary journal, publishing articles addressing medical oncology, surgery, radiotherapy, paediatric oncology, basic research and the comprehensive management of patients with malignant diseases (source: Medscape journal information, reflecting the journal's self-description; ESMO press materials).

Annals of Oncology is particularly known for publishing practice-changing clinical trials, influential consensus statements (such as the St Gallen breast-cancer consensus series), ESMO's Magnitude of Clinical Benefit Scale, and ESMO Clinical Practice Guidelines — outputs that directly shape everyday cancer care worldwide.

History

Annals of Oncology was launched in 1990 with Kluwer Academic Publishers as the journal of the European Society for Medical Oncology (source: Wikipedia). Over its history the publishing home changed hands: after Kluwer it was published by Springer, then by Oxford University Press, and it is currently published by Elsevier (sources: Wikipedia; OncoDaily; Wikimd).

The journal's trajectory mirrors the rise of medical oncology as a distinct specialty in Europe. Under successive editors-in-chief — Franco Cavalli, David J. Kerr, Jan Vermorken, Jean-Charles Soria and Fabrice André (source: Wikipedia, listing previous editors) — it grew from a European society journal into a global top-tier title. A notable milestone came in 2017, when ESMO announced that the journal's Impact Factor had risen to 11.855, placing it 10th in the oncology field and within the top 5% of oncology titles (source: ESMO press release via bioengineer.org, 15 June 2017). In early 2024, Thomas Powles succeeded Fabrice André as Editor-in-Chief (source: OncoDaily; confirmed by the current official editorial board page at annalsofoncology.org).

ESMO has also described Annals of Oncology as the journal of both the European Society for Medical Oncology and the Japanese Society of Medical Oncology (source: ESMO press release, June 2017), reflecting its reach beyond Europe.

Aims and Scope

Annals of Oncology is ESMO's flagship multidisciplinary journal. Its scope, as reflected in its editorial structure and society descriptions, covers:

• Medical oncology — systemic anticancer therapy across all tumour types;
• Clinical trials — with emphasis on rigorous, practice-changing therapeutic trials;
• Translational research — biomarker and translational studies tied to clinical questions, precision medicine, early drug development;
• Tumour-site specialties — reflected in its editorial-lead structure: urogenital, breast, gynaecological, gastrointestinal and thoracic tumours, melanoma and onco-immunology, head and neck tumours, leukaemias/myeloma/haematological malignancies;
• Cross-cutting disciplines — AI in oncology, data science, epidemiology, supportive care, all formally represented among its associate editors (source: official editorial board, annalsofoncology.org);
• Guidelines and consensus — ESMO Clinical Practice Guidelines and major consensus statements;
• Surgery, radiotherapy, paediatric oncology and basic research insofar as they relate to the comprehensive management of patients with malignant diseases (source: journal self-description via Medscape).

The journal favours rigorous, clinically consequential oncology research with direct implications for the systemic treatment of cancer. Authors should always re-check the live Instructions for Authors on annalsofoncology.org before submitting, as scope details evolve.

Editorial Leadership

The current Editor-in-Chief is Thomas Powles, London, UK (source: official Editorial Board page, annalsofoncology.org; confirmed on Elsevier's ScienceDirect editorial board page). Professor Powles — Professor at the University of London and Director of the Barts Cancer Centre — specialises in urological cancers, biomarker development and drug development, with multiple EMA and FDA approvals to his name, including advances in front-line immune/targeted therapy combinations in renal-cell carcinoma and immune checkpoint inhibition in bladder cancer (source: OncoDaily). He was appointed in early 2024, succeeding Fabrice André (source: OncoDaily).

Previous editors-in-chief include Fabrice André, Jean-Charles Soria, Jan Vermorken, David J. Kerr and Franco Cavalli (source: Wikipedia). The journal is supported by a large international team: editorial leads for each tumour-site area (e.g. Toni Choueiri for urogenital tumours, Sara Tolaney for breast tumours, Solange Peters for thoracic tumours, Filippo Pietrantonio for gastrointestinal tumours, Bradley Monk for gynaecological tumours), associate editors spanning AI in oncology, precision medicine, supportive care, epidemiology and data science, a liaison with ESMO, social media editors, and an editorial board of more than a hundred members across some 18 countries/regions (sources: annalsofoncology.org editorial board; ScienceDirect editorial board page).

Indexing and Metrics

Annals of Oncology is indexed in the major scholarly databases, including Scopus, the Web of Science (Science Citation Index Expanded), MEDLINE/PubMed and Embase (sources: Wikipedia indexing row; general database listings). Its metrics are among the highest in oncology, though third-party aggregators disagree on exact current values — each figure below is therefore given with source and vintage.

Important caveat: aggregator values for this journal vary widely (for example, the Wikipedia infobox currently displays 80.4 for 2025, which conflicts with the other aggregators above and should be treated with caution, and research.com displays 65.4). For any formal purpose, verify the current figure in Clarivate's Journal Citation Reports directly rather than relying on aggregators.

Landmark Papers

The following field-shaping papers were published in Annals of Oncology. Each DOI has been individually verified against PubMed/Crossref-indexed records.

1. Estimates of the cancer incidence and mortality in Europe in 2006

Ferlay J, Autier P, Boniol M, Heanue M, Colombet M, Boyle P. Annals of Oncology. 2007;18(3):581–592. DOI: 10.1093/annonc/mdl498 (PubMed PMID 17287242; verified via PubMed record).

Using IARC data and short-term projection methods, the authors estimated 3,191,600 new cancer cases and 1,703,000 cancer deaths in Europe in 2006. Breast cancer was the most commonly diagnosed cancer; lung cancer the leading cause of cancer death. The paper became a cornerstone reference for European cancer epidemiology and health-policy planning.

2. St Gallen 2011: strategies for subtypes — dealing with the diversity of breast cancer

Goldhirsch A, Wood WC, Coates AS, Gelber RD, Thürlimann B, Senn HJ; Panel members. Annals of Oncology. 2011;22(8):1736–1747. DOI: 10.1093/annonc/mdr304 (PubMed PMID 21709140; verified via PubMed record).

The highlights of the 12th St Gallen International Breast Cancer Conference expert consensus, which adopted intrinsic biological subtypes (Luminal A, Luminal B, HER2-positive, triple-negative) — approximated by clinicopathological criteria — as the basis for systemic therapy recommendations. One of the most cited breast-oncology consensus papers ever published, it reshaped everyday treatment decision-making worldwide.

3. St Gallen 2013: personalizing the treatment of women with early breast cancer

Goldhirsch A, Winer EP, Coates AS, Gelber RD, Piccart-Gebhart M, Thürlimann B, et al.; Panel members. Annals of Oncology. 2013;24(9):2206–2223. DOI: 10.1093/annonc/mdt303 (verified via independent citation records).

The successor St Gallen consensus, extending the subtype-based framework toward personalised therapy of early breast cancer — further cementing Annals of Oncology as the home journal of the St Gallen consensus series.

4. The ESMO Magnitude of Clinical Benefit Scale (ESMO-MCBS)

Cherny NI, Sullivan R, Dafni U, Kerst JM, Sobrero A, Zielinski C, de Vries EGE, Piccart MJ. Annals of Oncology. 2015;26(8):1547–1573. DOI: 10.1093/annonc/mdv249 (PubMed PMID 26026162; verified via PubMed/Crossref-indexed records and the official ESMO-MCBS booklet).

Introduced ESMO's validated, reproducible scale for grading the magnitude of clinical benefit of anticancer therapies — a landmark in value-based cancer care, later updated to version 1.1 (2017, doi:10.1093/annonc/mdx310) and version 2.0 (2025). Few journal papers have had comparable policy impact: the scale is now used by clinicians, regulators and payers across Europe.

Publishing Information

Annals of Oncology operates a hybrid open-access model: some articles are freely available to the public, while the journal otherwise publishes under subscription (sources: Wikipedia; OncoDaily; official Open Access Information page, annalsofoncology.org).

• Article Publishing Charge (APC): EUR 5,556 (excluding taxes) for all article types published gold open access, to be met by the authors, their institution or funders (source: annalsofoncology.org/open-access-information, official Elsevier page).
• Open-access agreements: Elsevier maintains OA agreements with institutions and consortia worldwide that may cover the APC; authors should check eligibility via Elsevier's open-access agreements page (source: annalsofoncology.org/open-access-information).
• Acceptance rate and review timelines: not officially published by the journal in the sources consulted. The journal does not state a public acceptance rate; treat third-party claims with caution.

How to Publish in Annals of Oncology

Submissions are made through the journal's online submission system via the official site annalsofoncology.org; the current Instructions for Authors should be consulted for formatting, ethics and reporting requirements. Guidance for prospective authors:

1. Aim high on clinical consequence. Annals of Oncology prioritises practice-changing therapeutic trials, high-quality biomarker and translational studies with a clear clinical bridge, and major guidelines/consensus work. Purely preclinical studies without clinical relevance, small retrospective series and single-arm early-phase studies without a clear development path are weak fits.
2. Match the editorial structure. The journal's editorial leads are organised by tumour site (urogenital, breast, gynaecological, gastrointestinal, thoracic, melanoma/onco-immunology, head and neck, haematological malignancies) plus cross-cutting areas (AI in oncology, precision medicine, supportive care, epidemiology, data science) — frame the manuscript for its relevant section.
3. Meet the evidence bar. Expect requirements for prospective trial registration, CONSORT/REMARK/PRISMA-compliant reporting as applicable, and robust statistical design; the journal's bar for randomised evidence is among the highest in oncology.
4. Choose the publishing route. Gold open access costs EUR 5,556 (excl. taxes) and makes the article immediately and permanently free to everyone; the subscription route has no author fee. Check whether your institution's Elsevier open-access agreement covers the fee.
5. Consider the sister journal. ESMO also publishes ESMO Open, its online-only gold open-access journal — a natural alternative venue within the same society family for strong work that does not meet Annals' selectivity bar.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who publishes Annals of Oncology?

Elsevier, on behalf of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO). It was previously published by Oxford University Press and Springer, and launched in 1990 with Kluwer Academic Publishers (sources: Wikipedia; OncoDaily).

What are the ISSNs of Annals of Oncology?

Print ISSN 0923-7534 and online ISSN 1569-8041 (sources: Wikipedia; OncoDaily).

Who is the Editor-in-Chief?

Thomas Powles (London, UK), appointed in early 2024, succeeding Fabrice André (sources: official editorial board, annalsofoncology.org; OncoDaily; ScienceDirect editorial board page).

Is Annals of Oncology open access?

It is a hybrid journal. Gold open access costs EUR 5,556 excluding taxes; subscription-route articles carry no author fee, and some articles are freely available (sources: annalsofoncology.org/open-access-information; Wikipedia).

What is the impact factor of Annals of Oncology?

Aggregator-reported figures vary: 25.930 for 2025 per SciJournal (citing JCR), a Scopus-based impact score of 22.61 per Resurchify (June 2025), 32.976 for 2020 per OncoDaily, and 11.855 for the 2016 data per ESMO's 2017 announcement. Check Clarivate's Journal Citation Reports for the authoritative current figure.

Which society is the journal affiliated with?

The European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO); ESMO has also described it as the journal of ESMO and the Japanese Society of Medical Oncology (source: ESMO press release, June 2017).

How often is it published?

Monthly (source: Wikipedia journal infobox).

What is the acceptance rate?

The journal does not officially publish an acceptance rate. Treat third-party acceptance-rate claims with caution.

ESMO, Guidelines and the Journal's Policy Role

As ESMO's official journal, Annals of Oncology is more than a research outlet: it is one of the principal channels through which ESMO speaks to the global oncology community. The journal publishes ESMO Clinical Practice Guidelines and major consensus outputs, including the ESMO Magnitude of Clinical Benefit Scale series (2015, 2017 v1.1, 2025 v2.0 — all in Annals of Oncology). This guideline-adjacent role amplifies the journal's real-world impact: a paper published here can move directly into clinical recommendations and reimbursement debates.

The ESMO-MCBS story illustrates the point. First published in 2015 (Cherny et al., doi:10.1093/annonc/mdv249), the scale offered a validated, reproducible method for grading the clinical benefit of anticancer drugs — addressing the problem that modest incremental advances were routinely presented as breakthroughs. ESMO's own booklet notes that the scale was developed to promote clear, evidence-based communication about treatment benefit and to support value-based priority-setting (source: ESMO ESMO-MCBS booklet). Version 2.0, published in Annals of Oncology in 2025 (volume 36, issue 8, pages 866–908), extended the methodology with more robust handling of survival-curve tails, toxicity penalties and near-equivalence studies (source: ESMO-MCBS booklet).

Publisher History in Detail

The journal's publishing journey reflects consolidation in scholarly publishing over three decades. It was launched in 1990 with Kluwer Academic Publishers (source: Wikipedia). It subsequently moved to Springer (Springer Science+Business Media), then to Oxford University Press — under which imprint much of its most-cited work, including the St Gallen consensus papers and the original ESMO-MCBS paper, appeared — before arriving at its current publisher, Elsevier (sources: Wikipedia; OncoDaily). Each transition preserved the journal's ESMO affiliation and its volume numbering, so the bibliographic record is continuous from 1990 to the present.

Readership and Influence

Published monthly and read worldwide, Annals of Oncology reaches medical oncologists, translational researchers, trialists, guideline developers, regulators and policymakers. Its impact-factor trajectory — from 11.855 (2016 data, announced 2017) to the low-30s around 2020 and the mid-20s in recent releases (sources and vintages in the metrics table above) — places it consistently among the top clinical oncology journals globally. The journal's most-cited papers share a pattern: they answer questions the whole field needs answered — how much cancer is there (Ferlay burden estimates), how should we classify and treat early breast cancer (St Gallen), and how should we judge whether a new drug is worth it (ESMO-MCBS).

Frequently Asked Questions (continued)

What is the difference between Annals of Oncology and ESMO Open?

Both belong to the ESMO journal family. Annals of Oncology is the flagship, highly selective, hybrid subscription journal; ESMO Open is ESMO's online-only, gold open-access journal with a broader scope. Strong clinical and translational work that does not meet Annals' selectivity bar is often suited to ESMO Open.

Does Annals of Oncology publish ESMO guidelines?

Yes. ESMO Clinical Practice Guidelines and major ESMO consensus outputs — including the ESMO-MCBS series — are published in the journal, which is one reason its papers carry unusual policy weight (sources: ESMO-MCBS booklet; journal scope).

Who were the previous editors-in-chief?

Before Thomas Powles (2024–present), the editors included Fabrice André, Jean-Charles Soria, Jan Vermorken, David J. Kerr and Franco Cavalli (source: Wikipedia).

What article types does the journal publish?

Original articles, reviews, editorials, correspondence and guideline/consensus documents. Consult the current Instructions for Authors on annalsofoncology.org for the definitive, up-to-date list.

Where is the journal indexed?

Scopus, Web of Science (Science Citation Index Expanded), MEDLINE/PubMed and Embase, among others (source: Wikipedia indexing row).

Sources and Methodology

Profile identifier: JW-DEPTH-ANONC-20261011. This profile was compiled in October 2026 from the journal's official publisher pages (annalsofoncology.org editorial board and Open Access Information), ESMO press materials and the ESMO-MCBS booklet, Elsevier's ScienceDirect editorial board page, PubMed records for the cited landmark papers, and third-party metrics aggregators (clearly attributed with vintage where available). No editors, metrics, fees or dates have been invented: where an official figure could not be verified, that is stated explicitly.