By Marianne Davies, DNP, RN, ACNP
Posted: May 27, 2019
The International Thoracic Oncology Nursing Forum (ITONF) is an independent organization to support nurses who work in lung cancer and mesothelioma care. The organization started with a collaboration between nurse representatives from the National Lung Cancer Forum for Nurses, in the United Kingdom, and the Australia and New Zealand Lung Cancer Nurses Forum. The inaugural meeting was held at the 13th World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC) in San Francisco in 2009. There were more than 60 international nurses who attended. ITONF was officially launched in 2011, holding its first satellite workshop the following year at WCLC in Amsterdam. ITONF representatives have supported the local organizing committees for WCLC, assisting to develop the first Nursing and Allied Health Track within the scientific program in 2013 and, subsequently, the development of the IASLC Nurses and Allied Health Professionals Committee. ITONF holds its yearly workshop at the WCLC. ITONF representatives work closely with the IASLC Nurses and Allied Health Professionals Committee to support the WCLC. ITONF Membership has continued to grow with members from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Nepal, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Speakers and delegates represent more than 20 countries. The mission of ITONF is to provide leadership with a unique forum to network internationally to support patient care, research, and education. ITONF has developed online educational materials for nurses around the world, including videos from some of the workshops with translation. ITONF is currently planning its next workshop for WCLC in Barcelona, which will feature surgical and radiation updates, information about emerging therapies, global nursing perspectives, new international data about mesothelioma, and education about evidence-based practice initiatives.
To register for the ITONF workshop, visit wclc2019.iaslc.org/registration/ and select the workshop from the preconference offerings. ITONF members also receive an IASLC member dues rate of only $30/year. ✦
About the Author: Ms. Davies is an assistant professor at Yale University, Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale Comprehensive Cancer Center.
