Posted: April 2017
By Luis E. Raez, MD
The International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) and the Peruvian Oncology Research Group (GECO) organized and hosted the “Best of the IASLC 17th World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC)” in Lima, Peru, on February 9–10, 2017. The conference was very successful; almost 200 doctors attended from several medical specialties, including medical oncology, surgery, pulmonology, and radiation oncology, among others. The meeting chairs were: Dr. Luis E. Raez from Memorial Cancer Institute (Florida, US) who is also Chairman of the IASLC Membership Committee, Dr. Luis A. Mass from the National Cancer Institute (Lima, Peru), and Dr. Denisse Bretel from GECO (Lima, Peru). We had the opportunity to have several IASLC speakers from the US: these included Drs. Fred R. Hirsch, Luis E. Raez, Edgardo Santos, Francisco Tarrazzi, and Ana Botero. We also had several other IASLC members from other countries speak: this included Drs. Carlos Vallejos (Peru), Ignacio Gil and Pilar Garrido (Spain), and Christian Rolfo (Belgium). They joined another 12 outstanding IASLC speakers from Peru.
The meeting featured a comprehensive review of lung cancer from epidemiology, tobacco control, and screening to the latest developments in diagnosis, surgery, and radiation, culminating in molecular diagnosis, immunotherapy, and targeted therapies. Many oncology fellows from several subspecialties attended. One of the major goals of WCLC meetings in Latin America is to motivate young oncologists training in these programs to join IASLC and the fight against lung cancer. IASLC has a well-established tradition of organizing successful meetings in Peru. In 2014, Drs. Raez and Vallejos organized the 6th Latin American Lung Cancer Conference (LALCA), the largest LALCA meeting ever conducted, with more than 750 doctors attending. This was followed by IASLC World Conference on Lung Cancer in 2016. We are looking forward to another successful meeting in Lima, Peru, in 2018. ✦
