EMCTO (European Multidisciplinary Conference in Thoracic Oncology) 2013

While initial identification of targets was slow in this area, there have been three new areas where agents are now being developed for personalized inhibition of squamous cell lung cancer.

Dr Walter Kleptko explains that thymoma, a rare disease compared to other lung cancer, normally presents in heterogeneous form. The difficulty in diagnosis comes from the very different histological and pathological factors that require expert analysis for identification. Dr Kleptko also discusses surgical treatment options, as well as treatment with drugs in rare cases.

Dr Martin Edelman talks with ecancer at EMCTO 2013 in Lugano, Switzerland about the recent classification of the different lung cancer sub-types. Within the past 10 years, lung cancer was only categorized as small cell and non-small cell; however recent studies have shown the large number of sub-types within these classifications. Dr Edelman elaborates on how this division has led to many advances in drug development and diagnosis.

Dr Paul Bass talks with ecancer at EMCTO 2013 about surgical progress made in treating mesothelioma. Primarily advances include reducing toxicity and reducing resection.

Dr Normanno discusses individualized therapy and developments in screening patients for gene mutations. Previously only KRas and EGFR were screened for; however, there is now the ability to look for an exponentially larger amount for each patient. This will ultimately lead to a more personalized approach to treatment.

Dr Solange Peters talks with ecancer about ETOP's current projects, including three new clinical trials, as well as updates on three ongoing trials that center around the platform. The ETOP platform aims to improve collaboration in clinical and translational research in lung cancer and mesothelioma.

Dr Ken O’Byrne discusses his talk at EMCTO 2013 in Lugano, Switzerland on how bevacizumab developed as a treatment for adenocarcinoma and other tumour types. Bevacizumab, which targets VGFR, originally produced positive phase III results; however, there has been difficulty reproducing this, but there are improved response. Prof O’Byrne talks about the reasons behind the varying results in response rate and long term survival.

Dr Paul Van Schil and Dr Kevin Franks discuss the benefits of treating non small cell lung cancer with surgery and with stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR)

Dr Suresh Senan talks to ecancer at EMCTO 2013 about a new style of treatment for lung cancer known as stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR).

Dr Lucas Bubendorf explains the process of multitarget fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), other lung cancer biomarkers, immunochemistry and testing modalities.

Dr Dirk Dr Ruysscher talks with ecancer at EMCTO 2013 in Lugano, Switzerland about chemotherapy with concurrent radiotherapy in non-small cell lung cancer. Unfortunately, only 40% of patients are able to receive concurrent radiotherapy because of the high toxicity. Patients that are able to receive this treatment have already received a poor prognosis and long-term studies are unavailable due to outcomes. Dr De Ruysscher explains current research on how to reduce toxicity and increase long-term survival.

Dr Barbara Fischer talks with ecancer at EMCTO 2013 in Lugano, Switzerland about the diagnostic workup of lung cancer. PET CT can identify which pulmonary nodules are benign and which are malignant. This screening can give an impression of the function of the nodules and a better picture of what the next step should be in terms of diagnostics and treatment. However, one of the pitfalls of PET is its inability to show the specifics of whether a lesion is malignant or benign.

Dr Keith Kerr discusses the molecular characteristics of adenocarcinoma at EMCTO 2013 in Lugano, Switzerland. With non-small cell lung cancer, there are a large number of abnormalities and mutations, but very few that offer a therapeutic option. At the moment, the two most important mutations, with available drugs, are patients who posses EGFR and ALK fusion protein abnormalities. Dr Kerr also discusses the need for all patients to be assessed for these and other abnormalities early in diagnosis.

Dr Emanuela Felley-Bosco talks with ecancer at EMCTO 2013 in Lugano, Switzerland about the difficulties of treating mesothelioma. NF2 is the tumour suppressor gene most abundant in mesotheleoma; however there are a number of difficulties in targeting this mutation. Mesothelioma is often associated with exposure to asbestos fibers and leads to continuous tissue damage. Due to the problems in targeting NF2, Dr Felly-Bosco explains how researchers are trying to circumvent this by targeting other stimuli that make the tumour cells to proliferate.

Dr Antonio Marchetti talks to ecancer at EMCTO 2013 in Lugano, Switzerland about molecular predictive medicine and the techniques behind using genome sequencing in cancer treatment.