A man in his late 60s enters a lung cancer screening program and is found to have a 4.5 cm tumor—stage II by size, with high-stakes decisions ahead. The case seems to point toward modern perioperative therapy, until biomarker testing changes everything. In this episode, host Lisa Moores, MD, FCCP, is joined by CHEST Guideline Chair John Howington, MD, MBA, FCCP, and oncologist Natasha Leighl, MD, to show how multidisciplinary care—and molecular results—can reroute the entire treatment journey.

They discuss why nodal staging matters, when perioperative therapy improves outcomes, and how biomarker-driven choices can reshape the safest path, while still leaving room for shared decision-making.

Faculty