It is an actively managed, oncology-themed ETF that invests in listed companies that derive their revenue from cancer treatment and diagnostics. It allocates most of its net assets to companies with a high share of cancer-related revenue, and the management team selects holdings directly.

It suits long-term investors who want concentrated exposure to a specific growth theme within healthcare and are prepared to tolerate biotech volatility.

It is an ETF run with an active management approach by Themes.

It typically invests most of its net assets in listed companies that generate a significant portion of their revenue from oncology. Rather than mechanically tracking an index, it takes an active approach in which the management team selects stocks across the cancer value chain, and as a non-diversified fund, its weightings may be concentrated in a small number of holdings.

• A concentrated portfolio specialized in the cancer theme
• Active stock selection at the discretion of the management team

Assets under management (AUM) stand at $216.2M, and the total expense ratio is 0.75% per year.

As is typical of thematic active ETFs, the fee burden is heavier than that of broad core ETFs, and concentration and volatility are also higher.

Given the nature of the cancer theme, volatility tends to stand out depending on new drug clinical trial results and healthcare sector sentiment. Events affecting individual biotech stocks have a relatively large impact on overall performance.

Because the fund concentrates on a specific theme, its fund flows are sensitive to healthcare and biotech investor sentiment and to new drug cycles. It belongs to a category with relatively small asset size compared with broad core ETFs.

Concentrated exposure to the cancer theme is its strength, while non-diversified concentration, biotech volatility, and a relatively high expense ratio are its drawbacks.

Comparable products shown in the table include SECT in the sector rotation theme, AVRE in the REIT theme, VOLT in the electrification theme, and HRTS in the cardiovascular and health theme. These cover different asset classes from CANC, and their expense ratios also differ by product. Because few products directly follow the same cancer theme, investors seeking broader healthcare exposure can also consider XLV, the representative sector ETF, and those wanting to diversify across biotech as a whole can look at ETFs such as IBB and XBI. For investors who want to focus more on cancer, CANC is a theme-specific option.

Here are the points to review before investing in CANC. As an active ETF specialized in the cancer theme, it is important for decision-making to check non-diversified concentration, biotech volatility, management costs, and currency exposure in advance.

Non-diversified concentration and the clinical event volatility unique to biotech are the main risk factors. Short-term losses can be large depending on drug development cycles and healthcare sector sentiment.

It is a theme-specific option suited to investors who want concentrated exposure to the structural growth theme of cancer. If broad diversification is the priority, it is advisable to compare healthcare and biotech ETFs such as XLV and IBB as well.