By Chairs Suresh Ramalingam, MD, Paul Bunn, MD, PhD, Leora Horn, MD, MSc, and Roy Herbst, MD, PhD
Posted: February 2018
Lung cancer research has reached an exciting point with the availability of a plethora of therapeutic strategies that have resulted in improved outcomes for patients. Recent advances include novel targeted therapies based on genomic characteristics of the tumor, and immunotherapy focused on overcoming T-cell exhaustion. Several agents that belong to these categories have received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval in recent years. Consequently, lung cancer is no longer considered a single disease entity, and treatment decisions are made based on individual patient tumor characteristics.
The IASLC-sponsored 18th Annual Targeted Therapies in Lung Cancer meeting—conducted in Santa Monica, California on February 21-24, 2018—will bring together leading experts who are engaged in developing novel therapeutic options for lung cancer worldwide. This will include representation from academia, the pharmaceutical industry, and advocacy groups. The meeting will review the status of all anticancer agents that are in development for lung cancer. The topics selected for this meeting include: review of targeted therapies, such as those against EGFR, ALK, ROS1, BRAF, MET, RET, TRK, HER2; immune checkpoint inhibitors and other immunotherapies; and other novel therapies, such as DNA repair inhibitors, angiogenesis inhibitors, MEK/AKT inhibitors, and mTOR/PI3K inhibitors. The discussions will focus on monotherapy, emerging combinations, mechanisms of overcoming resistance, and biomarkers.
The meeting will also discuss exciting developments in the treatment of early-stage lung cancers, SCLC, and mesothelioma. A number of other exciting compounds that serve patients in the realm of supportive care also will be discussed. The meeting will include oral and poster presentations by young fellows in training and junior faculty, with a dedicated session for early-career investigators to discuss career development. The conference also will feature a keynote presentation by Suresh Ramalingam, MD, from Emory University and a dinner-lecture by Fadlo R. Khuri, MD, President of the American University of Beirut. Each session in the meeting includes time for extensive attendee discussion and feedback about research directions pursued for specific therapeutic strategies. ✦
