At ASCO, we firmly believe that membership is for all oncology professionals. We also listen to our members and incorporate the thoughts and feedback that they share. As such, beginning March 1, 2024, we’re making more benefits available to every member. We are doing this by rolling out a new, streamlined membership model to improve the member experience and better serve all members of the cancer care team. The new model provides all members access to the complete suite of ASCO publications, resources, and programs with applicable discounts still in place for relevant groups. These changes are a direct result of feedback we’ve heard from members who wanted more simplicity, as well as more benefits, with their ASCO membership.

“In direct response to what we’ve heard from members, we’ve upgraded our member experience to make it easier for every ASCO member to participate in our community and access our tools,” said ASCO CEO Clifford A. Hudis, MD, FACP, FASCO. “By improving our members’ access to ASCO resources, we hope to help them drive improved quality of care for patients with cancer around the world.”

To achieve our strategic goal of making a global impact, we will continue to offer free membership to physicians in low-income and lower-middle-income countries as defined by the World Bank. Additionally, this free membership now will be expanded to all members of the oncology care team, including patient advocates, in these countries. We also will continue our free membership to eligible students, trainees, and emeritus members.

“The updated member model is aligned with our main goal of growing membership by creating value and engagement with ASCO,” said Membership Committee chair Alden Chiu, MD, MPH, a medical officer with the United States Navy currently deployed with Fleet Surgical Team Seven on USS America. “The key changes to the membership model are aimed at simplifying the pricing, benefits, and application process, which we hope will complement our other efforts to expand the membership base.”

ASCO membership is for all members of the oncology care team, in all specialties, in practices of all types. By joining, one enters a community of experts dedicated to improving their professional knowledge, expanding their networks, and using evidence-based information to improve patient care. And now all members can enjoy the full complement of resources ASCO has to offer, including its most popular: access to ASCO’s six journals—including our newest one, JCO Oncology Advances—early registration to ASCO meetings, discounts on materials, and more.

Members who currently receive all ASCO benefits will not see changes but everyone else will receive more benefits than in the past. Individual emails will be sent to all current members to note the updates to their membership profiles.

“I am extremely pleased about the extension of Early Career Membership eligibility from 3 years to 5 years from completion of training because this is a critical period where ASCO can meaningfully impact careers through its mentorship, grants, educational programs, and networking opportunities,” Dr. Chiu said.

Additionally, the application to join ASCO is now simpler, shorter, and more customized, making it easier to navigate and complete. The application questions will be tailored to various roles so that applicants only have to answer questions that pertain to their respective primary role.

“We’ve made a dedicated effort to improve the application interface and minimize the amount of information asked at the time of the initial application,” noted Dr. Chiu. “Combined with the more uniform set of benefits and more straightforward pricing off a base membership rate, we hope new applicants will find the process to be relatively simple.”

Member Benefits

Benefits that all members now receive automatically with their ASCO membership include:

• Access to all of ASCO’s journals: Journal of Clinical Oncology, JCO Clinical Cancer Informatics, JCO Global Oncology, JCO Oncology Practice, JCO Precision Oncology, and our newest peer-reviewed publication, JCO Oncology Advances, which will begin accepting submissions this spring
• Discount on ASCO professional assessment products
• Early and significantly discounted registration to ASCO meetings
• Eligibility to apply for career development programs
• Eligibility to apply for awards and grants that require applicants to be members (other eligibility requirements differ with each grant and award)
• Eligibility to submit meeting abstracts
• Eligibility to volunteer
• Exclusive networking opportunities, with access to the ASCO Membership Directory, ASCO Connection, myConnection, and ASCO’s LinkedIn group