By Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD
The National Cancer Institute’s (NCI’s) Lung Cancer Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPORE) and their affiliates met June 21-22, 2017, to discuss current trends in translational lung cancer research, plan collaborations, and design new projects. The event was hosted by Yale Cancer Center, the Yale SPORE in Lung Cancer team, and me.
More than 200 people attended, representing a broad spectrum of scientists, clinicians, NCI staff, and patient advocates. Tyler Jacks, PhD, delivered the keynote address, “Engineering the Cancer Genome.” Abstracts covering immunotherapy, molecular targets, metabolism, therapeutic response and resistance, molecular profiling and biomarkers, early detection, models and metastasis, and other topics were presented orally or in poster sessions by more than 70 meeting participants over the course of the 2-day workshop, which provided ample time for networking. The dinner program was centered on a discussion of opportunities for inter-institutional collaboration in lung cancer. A patient advocate session and an interview with Ellen Sigal, PhD, from Friends of Cancer Research presented opportunities to discuss how the research community could work with advocates to advance the field and bring new therapies to patients. The planning committee members included Lisa DeChello; Philip Grover; Edward Kaftan, PhD; Meina Wang, PhD; Yang Zhou, PhD, MPH; all of Yale School of Medicine—and co-hosts Katerina Politi, PhD, of Yale, and Christine Lovly, MD, PhD, of Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center. The program was made possible in part by sponsorship from AstraZeneca and Eli Lilly.
The next event, which will be hosted by University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, will be held on June 20-21, 2018. ✦
About the Author: Dr. Herbst is Ensign Professor of Medicine (Medical Oncology) and Professor of Pharmacology; Chief of Medical Oncology, Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital; Associate Director for Translational Research, Yale Cancer Center; and Disease Aligned Research Team (DART) Leader, Thoracic Oncology Program, Yale Cancer Center. He is Principal Investigator for the Yale SPORE in Lung Cancer.
