In October 1972, the First International Workshop for Therapy of Lung Cancer was held at Airlie House Conference Center outside Washington D.C. This conference, sponsored by the National Cancer Institute, drew together an international group of individuals from all disciplines of medicine interested in the problem of lung cancer. The interchange of ideas among this multi-disciplinary international group was both productive and stimulating. At the concluding meeting, held on October 20, 1972, Dr. David T. Carr from the Mayo Clinic, USA, introduced the idea of forming an international organization to continue this fruitful exchange of ideas, and generally enthusiastic support for the concept was voiced by those present at the workshop.

An organizing committee was formed and Dr. David T. Carr accepted chairmanship of a committee to prepare a constitution and bylaws. Dr. Oleg S. Selawry, with the assistance of Drs. Lawrence Broder and George Higgins from the Washington V.A. Hospital, USA, and other members of the organization committee began the slow task of development. Questionnaires and applications were sent to a wide variety of individuals with interest in the problem of lung cancer throughout the world, as well as to those who had attended the Airlie meeting. By mid 1974, approximately 250 individuals had accepted membership in the Association and plans were made to have an organization meeting in conjunction with the XIth International Cancer Congress, sponsored by the UICC in Florence, Italy.

On the evening of October 26, 1974, in Florence, Italy, the first formal organizational meeting was held under the Chairmanship of Dr. Oleg S. Selawry. Bylaws of the Organization were discussed and adopted by unanimous vote. Dr. Clifton Mountain, M.D. Anderson Hospital, Houston, USA, presented the slate of officers and board of directors with results of the ballots which had been mailed out prior to the meeting. This slate of officers was unanimously elected.

A formal meeting of the Executive Committee was held on December 11, 1974, in Key Biscayne, Florida, and many subsequent informal meetings and discussions were held concerning development and goals for the Association. The Association was incorporated as a non-profit corporation. Membership certificates were designed, with the now familiar logo, prepared and mailed to all members. Periodic newsletters were prepared and disseminated to inform membership of organizational progress. Much of this work was done by Dr. Lawrence Broder, first Secretary of the Association.

Early in 1976, Dr. Selawry assumed a new position at the Miami Cancer Center and found it impossible to devote sufficient time to the developing organization and submitted his resignation in May of 1976.

In Accordance with the Bylaws, the Vice-President, David T. Carr, assumed the office of President.

With this slow and somewhat tentative beginning, a solid foundation for the Organization had been established. Under the energetic leadership of Dr. Clifton Mountain, plans were made for the First World Congress on Lung Cancer, sponsored by IASLC. This highly successful conference was held in May of 1978, at Hilton Head, South Carolina, with large attendance by participants from throughout the world. Contributing greatly to the success of this meeting was Dr. Ronald Vincent, who served as Chairman of the conference. Now officers and directors were elected to serve during the period between 1978-80. During this period, under Dr. George A. Higgins’ leadership, there was a substantial increase in membership. Newsletters were regularly distributed and plans were made for the Second World Conference.

Under the chairmanship of Dr. Heine H. Hansen, the Second World Conference on Lung Cancer was held on June 9 to 13, 1980, in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Malmoe, Sweden. Over 1000 participants from throughout the world attended this highly successful conference. At the conclusion of the meeting, the officers and directors were elected for 1980-82.

Tokyo was chosen at the site of the Third World Conference on Lung Cancer, to he held May 17 to 20, 1982. Under the able guidance of Dr. Shichiro Ishikawa, Congress President, and the energetic assistance of Congress Vice President, Yoshihiro Hayata, the successful Third World Conference was attended by over 15000 participants representing most of the major nations of the world.

Decision was made to hold the International World Conference on Lung Cancer at three-year intervals instead of two years. Toronto was selected as the site for the Fourth International Conference on Lung Cancer with Dr. Ronald Feld serving as Secretary-General and Dr. Ronald Feld serving as Secretary-General and Dr. Ronald Ginsberg as Chairman of the Program Committee

The Sixth World Conference on Lung Cancer was attended by 1240 delegates from 47 countries and the first recipient of the IASLC Merit Award was to be found. It was decided that the award should be given to a person who had been an IASLC member for at least 10 years, had manifested himself/herself at an international level as a person engaged in the field of lung cancer, either preclinically ore clinically, and had promoted the activities of the IASLC. It was unanimously agreed that the first recipient of the IASLC Merit Award should be Dr. Clifton Mountain.

Colorado Springs, USA, was chosen as the location for the 7th World Congress with Dr. Paul A. Bunn, Jr. as Secretary General. At the same time, Dr. Yoshihiro Hayata began his period as President, and Dr. Heine H. Hansen was elected Executive Director for the expanding IASLC Office located in Copenhagen. New activities were planned with a series of workshops, now also including Eastern Europe and South Africa. With the support from the industry, traveling and educational grants within the Organization were created for promising young investigators and colleagues from developing countries.

The Seventh World conference was a gigantic success _ scientifically, socially, and economically. Set in beautiful Colorado Springs, the meeting was attended by 1347 participants from 49 countries. The IASLC Merit Award was shared by Dr. Y. Shimosato and Dr. N. Bleehen. Seven more awards were given, including Developing Nations awards and Young Investigator awards. IASLC Recommendations on Tobacco Policy were established, and Dr. Paul A. Bunn, Jr., commenced his period of presidency. Dublin, Ireland, was chosen as the venue for the 8th World Conference with Dr. Desmond N. Carney as Secretary General.

After the Colorado meeting several workshops were held on topics ranging from prevention to tumor biology. Also, the important and successful central European Lung Cancer Conferences continued with meetings in Prague, Czech Republic and Gdansk, Poland.

The 8th World Conference in Dublin took place in August 1997. Dr. Desmond N. Carney and his staff had put together an exciting and varied programme of science and entertainment. With the attendance of 2505 delegates from 63 countries, and a surplus which enabled IASLC to expand its activities during the next 3-year period, the Dublin meeting was a truly memorable event in the history if IASLC. The IASLC Merit Award was given to Dr. Heine H. Hansen, Copenhagen, in recognition o f this longstanding contributions to the IASLC and the Mary J. Matthews Award was given to Dr. William D. Travis, Washington DC, for his excellence in lung cancer pathology.

Between the World Conferences in Dublin and Tokyo, a total of 13 workshops, symposia, and other meetings were arranged under the auspices of IASLC, and 5 meetings were arranged under the Educational Programme in India, Thailand, China, Brazil and Jordan with speakers from the IASLC Facility.
Under the chairmanship of Dr. Peter Goldstraw, UK, the IASLC Staging Committee launched in 1999 the cumbersome work of creating a new staging system for lung cancer based on a truly international data register.

The 9th World Conference was held in Tokyo, Japan in September, 2000 with Dr. Y. Hayata as the Congress President. A total of 1,130 abstracts were submitted to the Conference, which was attended by 2,135 participants from 64 countries. Among the memorable events were the opening ceremony, attended by members of the Japanese imperial family, and the gigantic ball with traditional Japanese performers that made a superb conclusion to the conference. The IASLC Merit Award was given to Dr. Desmond N. Carney, Ireland, for his outstanding contribution to the IASLC; the Mary J. Matthews Award was given to Dr. Y. Shimosato, Japan, for his life long achievements in the field of pathology, and the Bristol-Myers Squibb Award was given to Daniel C. Ihde, U.S.A., for his dedication to lung cancer research and his support of IASLC and its aims. Dr. Harubumi Kato, Japan took over the Presidency and Dr. Frances Shepherd, Canada was chosen as the new President-Elect.

The Board decided on the Tokyo Declaration as an official IASLC document requesting governments worldwide to take actions against the alarming rate at which lung cancer is occurring in both men and women. The Tokyo Declaration is published in this Directory on page 9.

The first IASLC/CRFA Prevention Fellowship Award was presented in Tokyo to Dr. Jun Zhang, China and in the spring of 2001, two more Prevention Fellowship grants were awarded to Dr. Yunfei Wang, USA and Dr. Fred R. Hirsch, Denmark. Thanks to the energetic work of the President of CRFA, Carolyn Aldige, three more grants have been secured.

The IASLC Textbook of Lung Cancer, which was published in 1999, has now been translated into Chinese thanks to the efforts of Dr. Li Hou-wen, Shenyang, China.

In 2001, workshops and symposia have been arranged in Barcelona, Spain; in Prague, Czech Republic; in Reykjavik, Iceland, and in Chicago, USA. Under the IASLC Educational Programme, meetings and courses have been arranged in Dalian, China; in Istanbul, Turkey; in Bialystok. Poland and in Beijing, China.

The Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre was the venue for the 10th World Conference of Lung Cancer held in August 2003 and chaired by Nevin Murray. There were a total of 3344 registrants from 77 countries and 1149 abstracts were submitted. Awards presented by IASLC president Harubumi Kato included: the IASLC Merit Award to Paul A. Bunn, Mary Matthews Pathology Award to Adi Gazdar, BMS IASLC Distinguished Achievement Award to Paul van Houtte and The IASLC Distinguished Service Award to Heine H. Hansen. The closing gala dinner hosted 2500 delegates with entertainment by “Cirque Pacifique”. The Vancouver meeting maintained the tradition that IASLC conferences grow in size and academic content without compromise of an atmosphere of international collegiality.
The new International Convention Center of Barcelona, located in the heart of a new activity area of Barcelona on the shores of the Mediterranean, was the venue for the 11th World Conference on Lung Cancer, chaired by Rafael Rosell and Laureano Molins. This was the largest World Conference yet, with a total of 4987 registrants from 92 countries and 1488 submitted abstracts. For the first time, a special Fellows’ Day was scheduled in conjunction with the conference, encompassing topics that were appealing and useful to younger investigators. The main program of the conference included 87 sessions, with lectures given by 175 invited speakers and almost 500 contributors to the scientific program. IASLC awards included: the IASLC Merit Award to Harubumi Kato; the Mary Matthews Award to Elisabeth Brambilla; the IASLC Joseph Cullen Award to Nigel Gray; and the IASLC Scientific Award to Thierry LeChevalier. Ten Young Investigator Awards and ten Developing Nation Awards were also presented to outstanding delegates. The conference was a unique occasion for investigators from several disciplines to share their views on lung cancer research and join forces to create a useful approach to lung cancer management.

The 12th World Conference will be held in Seoul, Korea, September 2007, under the chairmanship of Dr. Jin Soo Lee. The place for the 13th World Conference (North America), 2009 will be decided July 2005. ICS (International Conference Service), Vancouver, Canada has been chosen to arrange the coming World Conferences 2007, 2009 and 2011.

The IASLC Board recommended that several changes should be considered with respect to the Society’s Journal. To this end, guidelines for the new Journal were developed and Requests for Proposals were solicited from interested publishers. RFPs were received from six publishers and four were interviewed in face-to-face meetings with a subcommittee of the Board. As a result of this process, the contract with Elsevier will end as of December 31, 2005. A new Publisher Lippincott Williams & Wilkins has been chosen to start January 1, 2006 and the Board selected
Dr. James Jett as the Editor-in-Chief for the new IASLC journal “Journal of Thoracic Oncology”.

In 2002 Workshops, Symposia and Educational meetings have been arranged in Belgium, Italy, Austria, India, Taiwan.

In 2003 Workshops, Symposia and Educational meetings have been arranged in Lithuania, China, Spain.

In 2004 IASLC arranged eight workshops, symposia and educational meetings in Portugal, US, Switzerland, Thailand, Brazil, Poland and Germany.

In 2005 IASLC arranged eight workshops, symposia and educational meetings in the UK, Japan, India, Indonesia, Russia, china, Turkey and US.

In 2006 IASLC plans to arrange nine workshops, symposia and educational meetings in the UK, Australia, Czech Republic, US, Mexico, Italy and China.