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Patients with cancer have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This effect has included the adverse outcomes in patients with cancer who develop COVID-19, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the delivery of cancer care, and the severe disruption to cancer research. However, patients with cancer are a heterogeneous population, and recent studies have now documented factors that allow risk stratification of patients with cancer in order to optimize care. In this review, we highlight data at the intersection of COVID-19 and cancer, including the biological interplay between the two diseases and practical recommendations for the treatment of patients with cancer during the pandemic. We additionally discuss the potential long-lasting impact of the pandemic on cancer care due to its deleterious effect on cancer research, as well as biological insights from the cancer research community that could help develop novel therapies for all patients with COVID-19., Competing Interests: Declaration of Interests Z.B. reports research support from Genentech/imCORE and Bristol-Myers Squibb. J.E.H. reports no competing interests. T.K.C. reports research support from AstraZeneca, Alexion, Bayer, Bristol-Myers Squibb/E.R. Squibb and Sons, Cerulean, Eisai, Foundation Medicine, Exelixis, Ipsen, Tracon, Genentech, Roche, Roche Products, F. Hoffmann-La Roche, GlaxoSmithKline, Eli Lilly, Merck, Novartis, Peloton, Pfizer, Prometheus Labs, Corvus, Calithera, Analysis Group, Sanofi/Aventis, and Takeda outside of the submitted work; honoraria from AstraZeneca, Alexion, Sanofi/Aventis, Bayer, Bristol-Myers Squibb/E.R. Squibb and Sons, Cerulean, Eisai, Foundation Medicine, Exelixis, Genentech, Roche, Roche Products, F. Hoffmann-La Roche, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Novartis, Peloton, Pfizer, EMD Serono, Prometheus Labs, Corvus, Ipsen, Up-to-Date, National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), Analysis Group, MJH Life Sciences (a health care communications company with several brands such as OncLive, PeerView, and Physicians' Education Resource), Research to Practice, L-path, Kidney Cancer Journal, Clinical Care Options, Platform Q, Navinata Health, Harborside Press, American Society of Medical Oncology, New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet Oncology, and Heron Therapeutics; and consulting or advisory roles for AstraZeneca, Alexion, Sanofi/Aventis, Bayer, Bristol-Myers Squibb/E.R. Squibb and Sons, Cerulean, Eisai, Foundation Medicine, Exelixis, Genentech, Heron Therapeutics, Eli Lilly, Roche, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Novartis, Peloton, Pfizer, EMD Serono, Prometheus Labs, Corvus, Ipsen, Up-to-Date, NCCN, Analysis Group, Pionyr, Tempest, and Lilly Ventures; owns stocks in Pionyr and Tempest; has leadership roles as director of GU Oncology Division at Dana-Farber, was past president of medical staff at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, is a member of the NCCN Kidney panel and the GU Steering Committee, was past chairman of the Kidney Cancer Association Medical and Scientific Steering Committee and KidneyCan advisory board, and is Kidney Cancer Research Summit co-chair (2019–present); and has patents, royalties, and other intellectual properties in International Patent Application PCT/US2018/12,209, entitled “PBRM1 Biomarkers Predictive of Anti-immune Checkpoint Response,” filed January 3, 2018 (claiming priority to US Provisional Patent Application 62/445,094, filed January 11, 2017), and International Patent Application PCT/US2018/058430, entitled “Biomarkers of Clinical Response and Benefit to Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Therapy,” filed October 31, 2018 (claiming priority to US Provisional Patent Application 62/581,175, filed November 3, 2017). T.K.C.'s institution (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute) might have received additional independent funding of drug companies or royalties potentially involved in research around the subject matter of this article. T.K.C. has mentored several non-US citizens on research projects with potential funding (in part) from non-US sources or foreign components. S.P. reports that she has received education grants, provided consultation, attended advisory boards, and/or provided lectures for Abbvie, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Biocartis, Bioinvent, Blueprint Medicines, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Clovis, Daiichi-Sankyo, Debiopharm, Eli Lilly, F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Foundation Medicine, Illumina, Janssen, Merck Sharp and Dohme, Merck Serono, Merrimack, Novartis, PharmaMar, Pfizer, Regeneron, Sanofi, Seattle Genetics, Takeda, and Vaccibody, from whom she has received honoraria (all fees to institution). B.I.R. reports that he has received research funding to his institution from Pfizer, Merck, GNE/Roche, Aveo, AstraZeneca, BMS, Exelixis; has consulted for BMS, Pfizer, GNE/Roche, Aveo, Synthorx, Compugen, Merck, Corvus, Surface Oncology, 3DMedicines, Arravive, Alkermes, Arrowhead, GSK, Shionogi; and holds stock in PTC Therapeutics. J.L.W. reports personal fees from Westat and IBM Watson Health and stock ownership in HemOnc.org LLC, outside the submitted work. C.A.P., or an immediate family member, currently or during the past 2 years, has owned stock or held an ownership interest in Pfizer, Epizyme, Inovio, OPKO Health, and Roche., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Rare cancers pose unique challenges to research due to their low incidence. Barriers include a scarcity of tissue and experimental models to enable basic research and insufficient patient accrual for clinical studies. Consequently, an understanding of the genetic and cellular features of many rare cancer types and their associated vulnerabilities has been lacking. However, new opportunities are emerging to facilitate discovery of therapeutic targets in rare cancers. Online platforms are allowing patients with rare cancers to organize on an unprecedented scale, tumor genome sequencing is now routinely performed in research and clinical settings, and the efficiency of patient-derived model generation has improved. New CRISPR/Cas9 and small-molecule libraries permit cancer dependency discovery in a rapid and systematic fashion. In parallel, large-scale studies of common cancers now provide reference datasets to help interpret rare cancer profiling data. Together, these advances motivate consideration of new research frameworks to accelerate rare cancer target discovery., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)