NetWork Updates

The Thoracic Oncology NetWork develops sessions for annual CHEST meetings, carries out projects aimed at improving the care of patients with thoracic malignancies, and provides an entry point for interested individuals to participate in ACCP activities.

A collaborative project of the ACCP and the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) is approaching completion. This systematic review will summarize available evidence for care of the highrisk, early-stage lung cancer patient. Additionally, NetWork steering committee members will be grading applications for The CHEST Foundation’s OneBreath^™ Lung Cancer Clinical Research Award (http://onebreath.org). The deadline for applications is May 4, 2011.

Finally, the NetWork is considering a project that would propose quality measures for lung cancer care. This is critical, as third-party payers increasingly focus on quality of care.

The NetWork generated several sessions for CHEST 2011 in Honolulu, HI. These include NetWork Highlights, “Becoming More Personal: What We Know, and What We Don’t Know About Individualized Therapy for Lung Cancer,” and “Radiation From Medical Imaging: How Much Cause for Concern?”

We strongly encourage all interested individuals to attend the NetWork open meeting, featuring Dr. Johan Brandes’ talk on the Emergence of Targeted Lung Cancer Therapy. The NetWork also wishes to highlight another upcoming scientific meeting of interest, The 14th World Congress on Lung Cancer, to be held July 2011, and the affiliated International Thymic Malignancies Interest Group (ITMIG).

Dr. Douglas Arenberg, FCCP
Chair, Thoracic Oncology