As the new year begins, the IASLC is reviewing its operations, meetings and publications to best serve its members. One of our flagship meetings, the 17th Annual Targeted Therapies of the Treatment of Lung Cancer, which takes place in Santa Monica, California, has become the meeting where novel agents and targets are discussed in a rapid-paced forum with the leaders in academia and industry. The meeting's value also comes from it being a place for young faculty to meet senior leaders in the field and for the pharma being given the opportunity to implement their own ideas.
We are also looking forward to the annual European Lung Cancer Meeting (ELCC), produced in collaboration with the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO), a planned immunotherapy meeting in August, and then the WCLC in Yokohama, Japan, on October 15-18, 2017. I hope to see each one of you at these meetings.
Phase one of the PD-L1 IHC Blueprint Project has been completed in collaboration with all major pharmaceutical companies and the FDA. It has received a lot of attention. We are currently working on Phase II, which attempts to establish a better understanding of the fragmented world of PD-L1 testing, testing for which is now the standard of care in advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The Staging and Molecular Database has also been approved by the Board of Directors, and we are in the process of getting agreements with all major groups doing genetic analysis of lung cancer.
To conclude, I am currently treating a young physician. He is a father of five with metastatic ALK fusion positive lung cancer and has done extremely well for years on TKIs, then chemotherapy. However, he is now progressing with few options. I try to be optimistic and remind myself of how far we’ve come recently in the treatment of lung cancer. But then I am yanked back to the realization that our therapies are still far from adequate. We must press on and convert responses to cures. Thank you for what you do and for your involvement in the IASLC.
Fred R. Hirsch, IASLC Chief Executive Officer
Dear Colleagues,
IASLC has many ambitious goals for 2017 including:
Increasing Regional Education Activities: There is strong need for a better education on lung cancer in many countries. The IASLC is increasing its 2017 activities in several regions, with a focus on Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa.
Increasing Our Fellowship Portfolio: Developing and educating the next generation of lung cancer investigators is a core value for the IASLC. With the development of the IASLC Foundation and strategic collaborations with other organizations (such as the Bonnie J. Addario Foundation and the Lung Cancer Foundation of America), we hope to continue expanding our fellowship program.
Guideline Developments: The IASLC is striving to be the premier thoracic oncology organization when it comes to education, and several important guideline projects are currently on-going:
1. CAP/IASLC/AMP Guidelines for Molecular Testing: This collaborative, evidence-based project is unique due to its strict analysis of the literature and conclusions. After two years of work, the steering committee is now working on the final manuscript. The revised guidelines will be publicly available within a few months.
2. IASLC/ASCO Thoracic Oncology Quality and Value Taskforce: Ensuring that patients get the best quality of care has long been an important priority for the IASLC. The high cost of drugs for thoracic malignancies has heightened the importance of value as a consideration in treatment decisions. This task force will play an integral role in defining optimal metrics that will be used to reimburse physicians for the cancer care they provide.
3. Staging and Molecular Database: A signature project for the IASLC, we are now planning the next version of the Staging Project, which will also include molecular features to be correlated with the pathological-anatomical features. Furthermore, we are planning to add an international database for molecular characteristics of thoracic tumors in advanced disease stage in order to learn demographic/ethnic differences and more robust prognostics.
Applications Now Being Accepted for the 2017 ALCF-IASLC Joint Fellowship Award for the Early Detection of Lung Cancer
The Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Foundation (ALCF), in collaboration with the IASLC, is pleased to announce their second joint Fellowship Award to support novel, innovative and translational research with potential of high clinical impact on the early detection of lung cancer.
The joint, international ALCF-IASLC Fellowship Award was first instituted in 2015 by the two organizations to support an early career scientist’s training and research on early detection modalities in an established lung cancer research laboratory of their choice, anywhere in the world. ALCF and IASLC have jointly funded an early career scientist in 2016, and are now pleased to announce the request for applications for the second joint award.
The deadline to submit applications is March 1, 2017.
The IASLC Foundation Gives Thanks for Growth in 2016
The Foundation experienced tremendous growth in donors in 2016. In 2015, a strong start occurred for this new venture with a generous donation from Dr. Adi F. Gazdar, which provided seed money to launch the IASLC Foundation.
In 2016, the Board sponsored the IASLC Fellowship Matching Challenge, which encouraged giving from those already involved with the IASLC and from the general public. Additionally, the Mozart’s Requiem Concert held at the IASLC 17th World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC) aided in raising awareness and support for the IASLC Foundation
Through the efforts of the IASLC Fellowship Matching Challenge and the Mozart’s Requiem Concert, the Annual Fund Donor base grew to 145 in 2016! THANK YOU to our new and growing donor base!
For more information on the Foundation and how it funds IASLC fellowships, to view donor benefit levels or to make a donation, please visit https://www.iaslc.org/foundation.
IASLC Readies New Edition of IASLC Textbook
We are nearing the publication of the second edition of the IASLC Multidisciplinary Approach to Thoracic Oncology textbook, the authoritative resource for the complex, ever-changing field of thoracic oncology. Produced under the editorial guidance of lung cancer experts Harvey Pass, David Ball and Giorgio Scagliotti, the textbook is now ready for pre-order on Amazon.com.
IASLC 2016 Member Opinion Survey
The IASLC seeks feedback on Membership benefits, programs and services. The survey can be completed within five minutes and we appreciate as much detailed feedback as you wish to share. Responses are due by February 15, 2017. All survey respondents will be entered into a random drawing to win an Apple iPad!
By now, you should have received the survey in your inbox; please contact us if you have not already received the invitation. Please also note that submissions are anonymous and answers will be desegregated from contact details, unless you choose to provide contact details at the end. We thank you for your support of IASLC and your work to conquer lung cancer. Feel free to contact membership@iaslc.org if you have any questions.
The Second Edition of the IASLC Staging Manual/Handbook Rolls Out
The recently-released eighth edition of the TNM staging system is informed by a database comprised of 94,708 patients that were diagnosed around the world from 1999-2010. The objective was to further explore and analyze the impact on prognosis of tumor size and of the different T descriptors; the prognostic significance of tumor burden in hilar and mediastinal lymph nodes; and the confirmation of the revised M1 categories (M1a and M1b) of the seventh edition of the classification, along with the prognostic impact of number and anatomic location of metastases.
The Second Edition of the IASLC Staging Manual/Handbook in Thoracic Oncology reports on the latest revisions of the tumor, node and metastasis (TNM) classifications of thoracic malignancies, namely, lung cancer, malignant pleural mesothelioma, carcinoma of the esophagus and of the esophago-gastric junction, and thymic epithelial tumors.
The eighth edition of the TNM staging system has been officially accepted by the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) and the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC); although, the AJCC has delayed its implementation of the eighth edition of the staging system until 2018.
IASLC to Participate in the Denver Colfax Marathon
The IASLC home office will take part in the Kaiser Permanente Colfax Marathon, held annually in Denver, Colorado. IASLC employees will be running to raise money for the IASLC Foundation, which funds our fellowship programs.
Social Media Corner: Social Media Engagement During #WCLC2016
Lillian Leigh, Sydney, Australia - Patient Advocacy Award Recipient @ProjectBreath
As a first-time attendee at the IASLC 17th World Conference on Lung Cancer (#WCLC2016), I was blown away by the magnitude of the conference. It was exciting and somewhat daunting to see the vast number of attendees, as well as the number of streams and parallel sessions on the first day. Social media played a great part (in both meanings of the word) in helping me connect with others and stay abreast of key messages from parallel streams.
For me, the greatest benefit of social media is its ability to connect people in ways that would otherwise be impossible. As an Australian advocate, it was a wonderful experience to finally meet in person the advocates and researchers from across the globe whom I had previously known only through Twitter and Facebook. It was equally wonderful to meet many others at the WCLC and to continue that connection through social media.
It was my hope to take the WCLC to the “outside” world, especially to those who were not able to travel to Austria. Through social media, I brought daily news from the #WCLC2016 to patients, families and the general community worldwide. I also shared photos of presentations and posters with relevant patient groups to update their resources and empower them to be their own advocates.
Finally, make sure to take note of the conference hashtag for the IASLC 18th World Conference on Lung Cancer: #WCLC2017, which will take place October 15-18, 2017, in Yokohama, Japan.
February 2017: The IASLC and the Journal of Thoracic Oncology (JTO) are pleased to present the Editor's Choice each month to highlight certain articles of interest. The selected articles will be made available to the public for a limited time upon printing. The articles below from the February 2017 issue of the JTO are free for three months. Please share with your colleagues around the globe!
Alex A. Adjei, MD, PhD Editor-in-Chief Journal of Thoracic Oncology
Surgical resection for SCLC has typically not been advocated as a valid treatment option, based on two old randomized trials. Also, because of the relatively advanced stage of presentation in most instances, there have not been a lot of data in the literature. However, the role of surgery in SCLC is being revisited recently, with a number of studies coming out of Asia. Thus, the role of prophylactic cranial radiation in patients surgically treated for SCLC becomes an important clinical question. The manuscript by Xu et al, based on a relatively large retrospective study of 349 patients, in this issue is therefore timely.
Monoclonal antibodies inhibiting PD-1 and PD-L1 checkpoints are revolutionizing the therapy of lung cancer. A persistent problem is the lack of predictive markers of efficacy. This problem is compounded by the use of different antibodies and definitions of positivity by different pharmaceutical companies. The Blueprint project is an effort by IASLC, AACR, FDA and pharmaceutical and diagnostic companies to harmonize PD-L1 testing in non-small cell lung cancer. The first phase of this laudable project is published in this issue.
Spread through air spaces (STAS) is a recently recognized pattern of invasion in lung adenocarcinoma. Lu and colleagues have evaluated STAS in 445 resected squamous cancers and have found this phenomenon to be a poor prognostic factor in squamous cell carcinoma.
Accumulating data from individual clinical trials suggests that oncogene-driven lung tumors may not respond to checkpoint inhibitors. In this issue, Lee and colleagues have demonstrated that this may be the case with EGFR-mutated tumors in a meta-analysis of randomized trials.
The following article was selected from the JTO by the IASLC Communications Committee to be promoted to the media and the public with press releases that were released at the time of online publication (Published Ahead of Print).
To read more IASLC press releases, please visit IASLC Research Articles. These press releases are also announced via social media, so please follow IASLC on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook to stay up to date on the latest scientific topics. Also please follow the JTO on Twitter and Facebook.
Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with advanced disease receiving standard of care treatment have a higher overall survival (OS) than similar patients not receiving treatment. January 18, 2017 | More
Members - It’s Time to Renew Your Membership for 2017!
All members whose memberships expired December 31, 2016, will begin to receive member renewal notices. If you chose a multi-year membership in 2016, your membership will continue uninterrupted.
IASLC continued the three-year registration options for all categories (except complimentary Fellow Membership). Our three-year option "locks-in" the current membership rates. Regular members will save $150.00 over three years by selecting the three-year membership option ($600.00). Developing Country Members and Allied Health Professionals can avoid potential future increases and have the convenience of not having to renew each year.
We encourage all members to renew early to ensure that there is no interruption of benefits such as JTO delivery and online access. Please review the single-year and multi-year options available to you!
Renew IASLC Membership - You will need to log in with your email and password. You can always use the “Forgot Password” option or contact membership@iaslc.org for additional assistance.
Updating Member Contact Details and Member Directory Preferences
It’s important for the IASLC to keep our records up to date so that members can receive critical information via email and post. To ensure that our records are current, the IASLC will be contacting individuals from whom we have received bounced emails or postal mail back to our headquarters.
Additionally, all members will be sent a communication to verify personal details that will be included in the Member Directory. The communication also asks your preferences for delivery of the IASLC Member Directory, which can be mailed to members at no charge. You can also opt-out of print delivery and simply access the online, searchable directory at any time.
To make updates to your IASLC account, sign into your account or feel free to email updates to membership@iaslc.org or call +1.720.325.2956.
LCAM Efforts to Kick Off in Santa Monica
In early 2016, IASLC launched a harmonized public awareness campaign in collaboration with other lung cancer organizations during November's Lung Cancer Awareness Month (LCAM). Supported by independent educational grants from Merck & Co., Inc., Eli Lilly and Company and Helsinn, the campaign included the development of a common logo, common messages, and vibrant photos and videos showing people living well despite being affected by lung cancer.
These efforts paid off for our 2016 campaign, resulting in:
more than 60 survivors & caregivers sharing their stories on www.LCAM.org;
more than 20 global partners participating in the campaign;
more than 25,000 pins, t-shirts, bracelets and posters distributed during November;
the LCAM.org website featured over 30,000 visits.
Our LCAM 2017 efforts kick off with a meeting at the IASLC 17th Annual Targeted Therapies of the Treatment of Lung Cancer meeting in Santa Monica on February 23, 2017.Our goal this year is to include more global partners and survivor stories. Additionally, we hope to include more institutional partners, improve the diversity of the participants and increase the professionalism of collateral materials.
For more information about our 2017 campaign, please contact Kristin Richeimer, IASLC Director of Membership, at kristin.richeimer@iaslc.org or +1.720.325.2953. You can also follow our campaign's social media feeds on Facebook and Twitter.
Welcome new IASLC members through January 31, 2017!
The IASLC’s premier journal, emphasizing a multidisciplinary approach including original research (clinical trials and translational or basic research), reviews and opinion pieces.
David Carbone, IASLC President
Fred R. Hirsch, IASLC Chief Executive Officer
a generous donation from Dr. Adi F. Gazdar, which provided seed money to launch the IASLC Foundation.
February 2017: The IASLC and the Journal of Thoracic Oncology (JTO) are pleased to present the Editor's Choice each month to highlight certain articles of interest. The selected articles will be made available to the public for a limited time upon printing. The articles below from the February 2017 issue of the JTO are free for three months. Please share with your colleagues around the globe! 
