Each year during the World Conference on Lung Cancer, IASLC presents awards to clinicians and researchers who made significant contributions to the treatment of patients with lung cancer. The awardees are invited to receive their awards and deliver a state-of-the-art lecture during the conference.
This year’s IASLC Lectureship Award Presentations will take place from 08:30 – 10:30 PDT on Tuesday, September 10, in the Plenary Hall at the San Diego Convention Center. The session will be live streamed and available on-demand for all WCLC 2024 attendees. Here’s a look at the nine lung cancer leaders being honored for their contributions.
Robert J. Ginsberg Lectureship Award for Surgery
Leah Backhus, MD, MPH
Dr. Backhus, the Thelma and Henry Doelger Professor of Cardiovascular Surgery at Stanford University, Stanford, California, focuses her research on imaging surveillance following treatment for lung cancer and cancer survivorship.
“The chest is a treasure trove anatomically and an incredibly interesting place to operate,” Dr. Backhus said.
Cancer survivorship and disparities in outcomes are just as intriguing. Continuing trends in lung cancer screening and treatment success means there is an ever-growing number of lung cancer survivors who have post-treatment needs.
“These are the people who are going to be at greatest risk for developing second primary cancers, and in dealing with the sequelae of treatment,” she said. “We need to better understand what is the right thing to do for them, given whatever it was that predisposed them to get cancer in the first place?
“That ties into another issue, which is examining disparities in cancer outcomes and how we can be more inclusive to improve clinical trials and emerging treatments. Clinical trials are the cutting edge of healthcare and yet the degree to which our human population is represented in all of its diversity within those trials is underwhelming. We need to be deliberate about identifying barriers to equitable care and disseminating best practices to address some of those issues that are perpetuating the problem.”
James D. Cox Lectureship Award for Radiation Oncology
Andrea Bezjak, MDCM, MSc, FRCPC, FASTRO
Dr. Bezjak, Professor of Radiation Oncology at the University of Toronto and thoracic radiation oncologist at Princess Margaret Cancer Center, Toronto, Canada, focuses her clinical and research efforts on thoracic radiation oncology, including stereotactic body radiotherapy for lung tumors, management of locally advanced lung cancer, and management of metastatic disease. She has published more than 250 papers in the fields of lung cancer, quality of life, symptom assessment, and health services research.
“Advances in technology put a greater onus on us as oncology teams to really be working collaboratively and keeping up with advances in all of the fields—surgical, medical, and radiation—and to bring those advances to patients wherever they are being managed, from academic centers to community hospitals all over the globe,” Dr. Bezjak said.
“I would like this award to be a reminder to those who are not within the field of radiation oncology about how much we provide for our patients,” she added. “And to be a stimulus for the next generation of radiation oncologists to carry on with research and further advances in care.”
Tsuguo Naruke Lectureship Award for Surgery
Wentao Vincent Fang, MD
Dr. Fang, Professor and Chief of Thoracic Surgery and of Respiratory Surgery at Shanghai Chest Hospital and Honorary Chair of Mediastinal Tumor Committee of the Chinese Anti-Cancer Association, Shanghai, China, has been an active member of the IASLC for the past decade, serving as a member of the Staging and Prognostic Factors Committee, the Multidisciplinary Clinical Science Committee and the Biomarker Survey Focus Group.
His recent research has focused on surgery in the multidisciplinary treatment of thoracic malignancies, particularly innovation in surgery and treatment models, disease mechanisms, and development of novel drugs. During his address, Prof. Fang will explore ways in which surgery could better help lung cancer patients in the evolving era of CT screening and more effective systemic therapies.
“I expect to hear speakers from all specialties sharing their expertise and perspectives on finding novel approaches for lung cancer treatment that would help solve past and current dilemmas,” Prof. Fang said. “It is not only their achievements at the moment, but also their way of thinking which has led us to where we are today. It is helpful for all stakeholders in this field to work together toward a better future.”
08:30-10:30 PDT, Tuesday, September 10
Plenary Hall, San Diego Convention Center
IASLC Lectureship Award Presentations
Nine clinicians and researchers who have made significant contributions to the treatment of patients with lung cancer will be honored and deliver award lectures during a Tuesday morning plenary session.
IASLC Lectureship Award for Tobacco Control and Smoking Cessation
Babalola Faseru, MBChB, MPH, CPH
Dr. Faseru is Professor of Population Health and of Family Medicine and Community Health and Director of the Tobacco Treatment Education Program at the University of Kansas, Kansas City, Kansas. Dr. Faseru has trained nearly 400 tobacco treatment specialists at the University of Kansas and serves on the IASLC Tobacco Control and Smoking Cessation Committee.
Dr. Faseru’s research is focused on cancer prevention and control with a special emphasis on tobacco dependence and smoking cessation among underserved populations.
IASLC Lectureship Award for Nurses and Allied Health Professionals (NAHP)
Maria Ftanou, PhD, DPsych
Dr. Ftanou, Director of the Psychosocial Oncology Program at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and Senior Researcher at the School of Population and Global Health at the University of Melbourne, Melbourne Australia, is interested in developing and implementing research using novel technologies and interventions for people with cancer and their families. Her clinical work is focused on psychosocial oncology and her research interests include suicide prevention and improving mental health outcomes and wellbeing for people with cancer.
Dr. Ftanou is past chair of the IASLC Nurses and Allied Health Professionals Committee, which includes multidisciplinary clinicians and researchers.
Heine H. Hansen Lectureship Award for Small Cell Lung Cancer
Luis Paz-Ares, MD, PhD
Dr. Paz-Ares, Chair of Medical Oncology at the Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre, Associate Professor of Medicine at the Universidad Complutense, and Head of the Lung Cancer Unit at the National Oncology Research Center, Madrid, Spain, focuses his research on the development of therapeutic strategies in small cell lung cancer and has published more than 340 peer-reviewed articles.
“When I started in oncology, I was interested in curable tumors,” Dr. Paz-Ares said. “After some time, I started thinking that I will be in oncology for 40 years and that tumors would have the opportunity to change over that time. I wanted to get some hope, some answers, for my patients, to participate in innovations, which led me to research in lung cancer.”
Dr. Paz-Arez will discuss the genomic and immune abnormalities that underlie the pathogenesis and progression of small cell lung cancer, implications for treatment, and the research areas most likely to produce therapeutic results during the next 5 to 10 years.
“I would like to convince a few good researchers to get involved in small cell lung cancer,” he said. “We have—our patients have—tremendous unmet medical needs.”
Daniel C. Ihde Lectureship Award for Medical Oncology
Solange Peters, MD, PhD
Dr. Peters, Professor and Director of Medical Oncology and Thoracic Malignancies at the University Hospital of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland, conducts research that combines innovative immunotherapy combinations and treatments across thoracic malignancies with sociopolitical approaches to improve equitable access to diagnosis and treatment and secure diversity and gender balance in the professional cancer care environment. Prof. Peters has authored more than 500 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters.
“Imagine a landscape where every new treatment is available very quickly and without financial limitations,” Prof. Peters said. “Doing more is good only if you can scientifically accurately define the right people and the right patients for that treatment. Personalized, precision oncology is creating a landscape where defining who will benefit—and how and when they will benefit—most becomes important.
“The second chapter in that evolving landscape is political. In Switzerland, no one is deprived of a treatment opportunity for cost. But in other parts of Europe and around the world, few treatment opportunities are truly equitably available… I would like to see more young oncologists interested in the politics of access to make sure the care we give is equally distributed to people everywhere.”
Fred R. Hirsch Lectureship Award for Translational Research
Montse Sanchez-Cespedes, PhD
Dr. Sanchez-Cespedes leads the Cancer Genetics group at the Josep Carreras Leukemia Research Institute in Barcelona, Spain. While doing postdoctoral work in lung cancer genetics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, Dr. Sanchez-Cespedes’ project led to the identification of recurrent mutations in STK11 and established STK11 as a crucial cancer suppressor gene in lung cancer. Later, her team in Spain uncovered the genetic inactivation of other tumor suppressor genes, including SMARCA4, now a well-established mutated gene in human cancers. Her group has continued to study the role of SMARCA4 inactivation in cancer since and recently discovered that SMARCA4-deficient tumors in lung and other cancers are sensitive to KDM6A/B inhibitors.
“We are interested in the genomic and molecular characterization of lung tumors, and I will be talking about our expertise in identifying the genetics of two main biological pathways in cancer,” Dr. Sanchez-Cespedes said. “One is immune evasion, genetic alterations that allow tumor cells to evade the immune system. We are also interested in identifying novel therapeutics for genes and their proteins that are related with epigenetics, in particular with components of the SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complex. There are several molecules that are genetically inactivated in lung cancer that we think can be approached therapeutically.”
Clifton F. Mountain Lectureship Award for Staging
Chi-Fu Jeffrey Yang, MD
Dr. Yang, Associate Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School and a thoracic surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, specializes in minimally invasive surgical techniques. He has authored more than 160 publications and is founder of the American Lung Cancer Screening Initiative, a national non-profit focused on increasing lung cancer screening awareness and access across the US.
“I am passionate about increasing access to lung cancer screening and teaching communities about the importance of early lung cancer detection,” he said. “When my team at the American Lung Cancer Screening Initiative and I go out into the community to talk to community members about lung cancer screening, many of the people we meet are not even aware that lung cancer can be diagnosed at an early stage and can be treated and potentially cured.”
There are multiple successful approaches to treating lung cancer regardless of stage, he said, but too many people feel that once they have lung cancer, they have no hope.
“Staging is not just a way of classifying the complexity of disease,” Dr. Yang said. “I want people to think of staging more broadly in terms of how it is perceived in the community and how we can use that understanding to reduce stigma, ease fears and concerns about lung cancer screening, and make people at risk of lung cancer and people with lung cancer feel more supported.”
