Lung Cancer Considered

In this Virtual Tumor Board episode of Lung Cancer Considered, host Dr. Stephen Liu and his guests discuss the dynamic topic of managing resectable stage III NSCLC. Joining him are:

Dr. Isabelle Schmitt-Opitz, Professor of Thoracic Surgery and Director of the Department of Thoracic Surgery at University Hospital of Zurich, Chair of the Lung Cancer Center of Zurich, and the President of the European Society of Thoracic Surgery. She received the IASLC Robert J Ginsberg Lectureship Award for Surgery at the 2022 World Conference on Lung Cancer.

Dr. Jonathan Spicer, Medical Director of the Thoracic Oncology Program at McGill University in Montreal where he is the Advanced Thoracic and Upper GI Surgical Oncology Fellowship Program Director. He is also a co-author of the CheckMate 816 study.

Dr. Tina Cascone, Assistant Professor and Thoracic Medical Oncologist at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Principal Investigator of the neoadjuvant NEOSTAR study.

In this episode of Lung Cancer Considered, host Dr. Stephen Liu leads a discussion on a specific subset of lung cancer: EGFR exon 20 insertion NSCLC. Joining the podcast are distinguished panel of clinicians and lung cancer advocates:

Dr. Rosario Garcia Campelo, the Head of Medical Oncology and the Thoracic Tumor Unit Chair at the University Hospital A Coruna, Spain.

Marcia Horn, executive director of the Exon 20 Group and CEO of ICAN, the International Cancer Advocacy Network.

Yonsei University College of Medicine, Professor Byoung-Chul Cho, Director of the Lung Cancer Center at Yonsei Cancer Hospital in Seoul, South Korea.

In this episode of Lung Cancer Considered, host Dr. Narjust Florez leads a discussion about NSCLC with RET rearrangements, including diagnosis, treatment, and new exciting research coming down the pipeline.

Podcast guests are:

Dr. Justin Gainor, the Director of the Center for Thoracic Cancers at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Director of Targeted Immunotherapy in the Henri and Belinda Termeer Center for Targeted Therapies, and Co-Leader of the SU2C Lung Cancer Dream Team. His major research interests have focused on targeted therapy and immunotherapy.

Dr. Lizza Hendricks, Assistant Professor at research institute GROW, School for Oncology and Developmental Biology of Maastricht University in the Netherlands. Her focus area is thoracic oncology, in particular prevention and optimal treatment of brain metastases in lung cancer and targeted therapy. Since 2019, Dr Hendriks has coordinated the clinical lung cancer research of the lung diseases department in Maastricht.

In this episode of Lung Cancer Considered, host Dr. Stephen Liu leads a conversation on KRAS G12C mutation. Joining the podcast are Dr. Melissa Johnson, the Program Director of Lung Cancer Research at the Sarah Cannon Research Institute and Dr. Ferdinandos Skoulidis, an Associate Professor at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

The Latin American Conference on Lung Cancer, held in Uruguay, wrapped up in late January. To provide a summary of key findings from the meeting, Lung Cancer Considered host Dr. Narjust Florez interviewed two prominent oncologists from South America:

Dr. Clarissa Mathias, Dr. Mathias is a medical oncologist and director of NOB/Oncoclinicas in Brazil. She is a member of the ASCO International Quality Steering Group and Lung cancer committee. Dr. Mathias served on the IASLC board and has led many efforts in thoracic oncology in Brazil and recently hosted an episode of Lung Cancer Considered in Portuguese.

Dr. Carlos Barrios, born in Uruguay but practicing oncologist in Brazil. Dr. Barrios is Director and Principal Investigator of the Oncology Research Center at Hospital São Lucas, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul since 1996, where he has participated in more than 300 clinical research trials during the past 15 years. He is Director of Clinical Research and Oncologist of the Oncoclínicas Group in Porto Alegre. He is Adjunct Assistant Professor of the William Harrington Latin American Program of the University of Miami School of Medicine.

On January 26, 2023, the US FDA granted approval of pembrolizumab, an anti-PD-1 antibody, as an adjuvant therapy for patients with resected NSCLC. In this episode of Lung Cancer Considered host Dr. Stephen Liu leads a discussion on this approval with two thoracic medical oncologists with extensive expertise in this space:

Dr. Jamie Chaft, an Associate Attending at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where she is the Director of Early Stage Lung Cancer Research, chair of the adjuvant nivolumab trial within the ALCHEMIST program and heavily involved in perioperative systemic therapy studies.

Dr. Mary O’Brien, Professor and Consultant Medical Oncologist at the Royal Marsden in Surrey, Head of the Lung Unit, and chair of the EORTC Lung Cancer Group. She was one of the investigators on the KEYNOTE 091 trial which provided key data that lead to this approval.

In this special episode of Lung Cancer Considered, hosts Dr. Stephen Liu and Dr. Narjust Florez discuss the seminal IPASS trial with its principal investigator, Dr. Tony Mok. IPASS was a randomized phase III trial that compared the EGFR TKI gefitinib to carboplatin plus paclitaxel and showed, for the first time, that in a selected population, targeted therapy was superior to chemotherapy. The initial results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2009 and helped usher in the era of precision oncology. Dr. Tony Mok is the Li Shu Fan Medical Foundation endowed Professor and Chairman of the Department of Clinical Oncology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He cofounded the Lung Cancer Research Group, Chinese Thoracic Oncology Research Group and Asia Thoracic Oncology Research Group.

In a special episode of Lung Cancer Considered focusing on lung cancer in Brazil, host Dr. Clarissa Mathias, medical oncologist at Oncoclinicas Bahia and Hospital Santa Izabel, is joined by Dr. Ticiana Leal, associate professor, Department of Hematology & Oncology and director of Thoracic Medical Oncology, Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University and Dr. Carlos Gil Ferreira, president of Instituto Oncoclinicas and chief medical officer – Oncoclínicas.

Host Dr. Narjust Florez engages with three leading lung cancer patient advocates on the importance of patient advocacy groups, how these were formed, challenges when managing large patient advocacy groups and the future of patient advocacy in lung cancer.

Janet Freeman-Daily is a cancer patient research advocate and activist who translates the experience and science of cancer for others. She was diagnosed with advanced lung cancer in 2011 and metastatic ROS1+ lung cancer in 2012. She collaborates, writes, and speaks with cancer organizations both internationally and within the USA, and blogs at Gray Connections.

Seamus Cotter is from Ireland and was diagnosed with stage IV NSCLC lung cancer in June 2016 and has shared his experiences with immunotherapy on many global platforms. Since his diagnosis, Seamus has been involved in drug development and the improvement of clinical trials in lung cancer. He is deeply involved in the Irish Lung Cancer Community and is also a Patient Consultant on the lung group in Cancer Trials Ireland.

Terri Conneran is one of the founders of the non-profit group “KRAS Kickers.” She was diagnosed with stage IIIa KRAS + lung cancer and has experienced separate recurrences and has persevered through multiple treatments and has dedicated her time to patient advocacy. Terri has shared her story on national and international platforms and created a community beyond lung cancer for all patients with KRAS-driven cancers.

Radon exposure is a known risk factor for lung cancer yet it does not garner as much attention as other risk factors. In this episode of Lung Cancer Considered, host Dr. Narjust Florez discusses radon, its impact on lung cancer diagnosis, new research covering radon and strategies to improve our patients and the general population's exposure to this radioactive gas. Her guest is Dr. Hina Khan, thoracic medical oncologist at the Lifespan Cancer Center and an assistant professor at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. Dr. Khan has studied the effect of radon in lung cancer and its genomic profile.