Clinical Cancer Research Formatting Requirements: Complete Author Guide

Clinical Cancer Research enforces word limits strictly. Exceeding them triggers an immediate administrative return.

The 5,000-word limit covers body text only: Introduction through Discussion. It excludes the abstract, Translational Relevance statement, references, figure legends, and tables. This is the same counting convention used by Cancer Research and other AACR journals.

Research Briefs are designed for concise translational studies that make a single, clear point. They're limited to 2,500 words and 3 figures but still require the Translational Relevance statement.

This is the single most important formatting element that distinguishes Clinical Cancer Research from other oncology journals. Every Article and Research Brief must include a Translational Relevance statement, limited to 150 words.

What the Translational Relevance statement should include:

• How the study connects basic science to clinical application (or vice versa)
• Why the findings matter for patients or clinical practice
• What the next step toward clinical translation would be
• Whether the work informs biomarker development, therapeutic strategy, or disease understanding

Example structure:

"This study demonstrates that [specific finding] in [patient population or model]. These results suggest that [biomarker/target/mechanism] could be used to [clinical application: patient selection, treatment response prediction, new therapeutic approach]. If validated in prospective trials, this approach could [specific clinical impact]. Our findings provide the rationale for [next translational step]."

Common mistakes:

• Restating the abstract instead of focusing on translational implications
• Being too vague ("these findings may have clinical implications")
• Exceeding 150 words (the system enforces this)
• Omitting it entirely (the most common error for first-time submitters)

The Translational Relevance statement appears in the published article between the abstract and Introduction. Reviewers evaluate it as part of their assessment. Write it carefully because it signals to editors that your paper fits Clinical Cancer Research's translational mission.

Clinical Cancer Research uses a structured abstract of up to 250 words, but with section headings that are specific to this journal.

Required abstract headings:

• Purpose: why this study was done
• Experimental Design: how the study was conducted
• Results: specific findings with quantitative data
• Conclusions: what the findings mean for the field

Note that Clinical Cancer Research uses "Purpose" and "Experimental Design" rather than the more common "Background" and "Methods." Using the wrong headings will result in a formatting correction request.

The Results section should contain specific data: response rates, hazard ratios, p-values, fold changes. "We found that the drug was effective" is not acceptable. "Patients receiving combination therapy had an objective response rate of 42% (95% CI, 28-57%) compared with 18% for monotherapy (P = 0.003)" is what the editors expect.

Clinical Cancer Research allows up to 7 main figures for Articles, with supplementary figures handled separately.

Figure requirements:

• Minimum resolution: 300 DPI for photographs, 600 DPI for line art and graphs
• Accepted formats: TIFF, EPS, or high-resolution PDF
• Figure widths: 3.25 inches (single column) or 6.75 inches (double column)
• Font in figures: Arial, minimum 8-point
• Panel labels: uppercase letters (A, B, C), bold
• Kaplan-Meier curves must include number-at-risk tables below the x-axis
• Waterfall plots should include a response threshold line
• CONSORT flow diagrams required for clinical trials

Table formatting:

• Tables created using Word's table function
• Every column must have a header
• Patient demographic tables should follow standard oncology conventions (median age with range, percentages for categorical variables)
• Hazard ratios should include 95% confidence intervals
• P-values reported to 2-3 decimal places (use "< 0.001" for very small values)
• Horizontal rules only; no vertical lines or shading

Supplementary Data:

Clinical Cancer Research accepts supplementary figures, tables, and data files. These must be cited in the main text and are available to reviewers. There's no strict limit, but the editors discourage excessive supplementary material.

Clinical Cancer Research uses the same AACR reference format as Cancer Research. The defining feature is parenthetical citations, not superscript.

In-text citation:

• Single: (1)
• Multiple: (1, 2)
• Range: (1-3)
• NOT superscript; always in parentheses

Reference list formatting:

• Numbered in order of first appearance
• All authors up to 10; for 11+, first 10 then "et al."
• Journal titles abbreviated per NLM conventions
• Year after journal abbreviation
• Inclusive page numbers abbreviated

Example journal article:

1. Zhang Y, Liu T, Chen W, Patel SR. Circulating tumor DNA as a predictive biomarker for immunotherapy response in non-small cell lung cancer. Clin Cancer Res 2026;32:456-64.

Example clinical trial citation:

1. Garcia ML, Thompson RK, Williams JK, Anderson PH, Brown CD, Davis SE, et al. Phase II trial of neoadjuvant pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy in triple-negative breast cancer: final analysis. Clin Cancer Res 2026;32:1023-35.

The parenthetical citation style is the most common formatting error for authors new to AACR journals. If you're accustomed to superscript citations from Nature, Cell, or NEJM, you'll need to switch your reference manager output style specifically to AACR.

Word is the expected format for Clinical Cancer Research.

Word submissions:

• Use the AACR manuscript template
• Times New Roman, 12-point, double-spaced
• Continuous line numbering
• Numbered pages
• Title page as first page
• Figures at end of document or uploaded separately

LaTeX:

• Not standard for this journal
• The oncology community uses Word almost exclusively
• If submitted in LaTeX, conversion will be required during production
• Pharmacokinetic modeling papers are the rare exception where LaTeX equations may be needed

1. Translational Relevance is the gatekeeper. Editors use this statement to determine whether a paper fits Clinical Cancer Research's mission. A weak or missing Translational Relevance statement can lead to immediate rejection, even if the science is strong. If your study is purely basic biology with no clear translational angle, it probably belongs in Cancer Research instead.

2. Clinical trial reporting standards. Clinical trials submitted to Clinical Cancer Research must follow CONSORT guidelines. The CONSORT checklist is required as supplementary material, and the trial registration number (ClinicalTrials.gov, EudraCT, etc.) must appear in the abstract. CONSORT flow diagrams count against your figure limit.

3. Biomarker studies have specific expectations. Clinical Cancer Research is one of the top venues for biomarker discovery and validation. The editors expect biomarker studies to follow the REMARK guidelines (Reporting Recommendations for Tumor Marker Prognostic Studies). Discovery-only biomarker studies without any validation cohort face a steep uphill battle.

4. Patient consent and ethics. All studies involving human subjects must include IRB/ethics committee approval information and informed consent details in the Methods section. For retrospective studies, state whether a waiver of consent was obtained and why.

5. The journal distinguishes between purpose-driven headings. In the Methods section, use purpose-driven subheadings: "Patient Selection and Treatment," "Biomarker Analysis," "Statistical Analysis." Don't use vague subheadings like "Methods Part 1."

6. Pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic data. PK/PD studies should include standard noncompartmental or compartmental analysis parameters (Cmax, AUC, t1/2) in tables with appropriate units. NONMEM or similar modeling software should be cited with version numbers.

A Clinical Cancer Research Article follows this structure:

1. Title page (title, running title of 60 characters max, authors, affiliations, disclosures, word counts)
2. Abstract (250 words, structured: Purpose, Experimental Design, Results, Conclusions)
3. Translational Relevance (150 words)
4. Introduction
5. Patients and Methods (or Materials and Methods for preclinical studies)
6. Results
7. Discussion
8. Acknowledgments
9. References
10. Figure legends
11. Figures (one per page)
12. Tables (one per page)

Results and Discussion must be separate sections (combined format is not accepted). The Introduction should be concise (3-4 paragraphs). The Discussion should start with a brief summary of the main finding, discuss the results in context of existing literature, acknowledge limitations explicitly, and end with the study's implications.

These errors cause the most delays at Clinical Cancer Research:

• Missing Translational Relevance statement (the most common error)
• Using superscript citations instead of parenthetical (1) style
• Wrong abstract headings (using "Background/Methods" instead of "Purpose/Experimental Design")
• Missing clinical trial registration number in the abstract
• Kaplan-Meier curves without number-at-risk tables
• Incomplete conflict of interest disclosures
• Combined Results/Discussion section (must be separate)

For authors also submitting to Cancer Research (the basic science counterpart), see our Cancer Research formatting requirements guide. The AACR formatting conventions are similar, but the Translational Relevance statement and abstract headings differ. For clinical oncology journals outside AACR, see our JAMA formatting requirements page.

For the official author instructions, visit the Clinical Cancer Research author guidelines.