As in 2017, this year’s ESMO Congress brought many members of the oncology community together in Madrid, this time with >33,000 delegates attending in person or online. Even the uncharacteristically wet weather could not dampen the enthusiasm raised by the ground-breaking results presented. ESMO 2023 will probably be remembered mostly for featuring many high-impact studies involving patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), as highlighted in another dedicated article in this journal. However, key advances in many other areas were reported.