Christopher Gibson presented a poster outlining an upcoming breast cancer clinical trial at the Canadian Cancer Research Conference in Ottawa. This conference was an excellent experience for scientists, trainees, clinicians, and patients to learn about the state and future of cancer research, specifically in Canada. This year’s conference highlighted the importance of patient involvement in the design of research studies and real-world evidence as a tool for decision making, and hence included a number of talks from patient advocates which motivated the themes of many of the conference’s sessions.