Welcome to the Thoracic Oncology Group of Australasia Podcast series. 

This TOGA Podcast focuses on thriving with lung cancer and overcoming the challenges associated with long term survivorship and lung cancer. The past decade has seen significant advances in the management of metastatic NSCLC with the advent of multiple targeted therapies, immunotherapy approaches and combination approaches and associated improvements in survival outcomes for patients. There is an emerging cohort of patients with advanced NSCLC who experience long periods of disease control whilst on these treatments. 

Traditionally survivorship has referred to the care of or issues for patients following curative treatment of early-stage disease. However, due to the recent advances described here, there is a compelling need to begin addressing the issues faced by long term metastatic disease ’survivors’. 

In this Podcast, we welcome Lillian Leigh, a long-term survivor of lung cancer, Dr Sarah Heynemann, Oncology Fellow from the Chris O’Brien Lifehouse and Mary Duffy, Lung Cancer Clinical Nurse Consultant (CNC) in the Lung MDT at Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute about the issue’s patients face and how to support long term survivors of lung cancer.