Thoracic oncology
Respiratory tumours are a major part of daily practice for many respiratory physicians. Lung cancer is the biggest cancer killer in Europe today - a pandemic of the 20th and 21st century due to exposure to new causative agents combined with increasing lifespan. There have been significant developments in surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, but still seven out of eight people die within five years of diagnosis. The most recent advances, however, focus on understanding the biology of lung cancer and are leading to promising new targeted therapies.
Head of the ERS Thoracic oncology assembly, Professor Nir Peled notes "Lung cancer treatment has gone through a significant change in recent years. We are able to detect the disease earlier due to screening and we have reduced mortality by 20%. We also stratify the disease upon its genetic abnormality and treat 25% of non-small cell lung cancer with tablets, whilst 30% is treated with first line immunotherapy. Most exciting, is that we can even see a cure among stage IV lung cancer, thanks to the progress in immunotherapy. The congress programme this year will facilitate discussion around novel technologies for gene analysis and liquid biopsy, and score the cutting-edge therapies in lung cancer, including targeted and immune- therapies."
Join the ERS Thoracic oncology assembly via our online platform myERS and ensure that you are kept up to date with developments and opportunities in this area.
Below is a selection of thoracic oncology related sessions and educational opportunities available at this year's Congress. Alternatively, you can browse the full programme using the search facility.
Note: Educational sessions (postgraduate courses, skills workshops, challenging clinical cases, professional development workshops and meet the expert sessions) can be attended at an additional cost to the standard registration fee.