Fawzi F. Abu Rous, MD
Medical Oncologist,
Henry Ford Health
Detroit, MI
Mehmet Altan, MD
Associate Professor
Department of Thoracic-Head & Neck Medical Oncology
Division of Cancer Medicine
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Houston, TX
Valsamo Anagnostou, MD, PhD
Professor of Oncology
The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Baltimore, MD
Mara Antonoff, MD, FACS
Associate Professor
Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery
Division of Surgery
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Houston, TX
Zhaohui (Ann) Liao Arter, MD
Assistant Clinical Professor
Thoracic Oncologist
Division of Hematology/Oncology
University of California Irvine Medical Center
Orange, CA
Matthew Bott, MD
Associate Attending Surgeon
Department of Surgery
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
New York, NY
David P. Carbone, MD, PhD
Professor of Medicine
Director, James Thoracic Oncology Center
Barbara J. Bonner Chair, Lung Cancer Research
The Ohio State University
Columbus, OH
Jamie E. Chaft, MD
Attending Physician
Thoracic Medical Oncologist
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
New York, NY
Devika Das, MD, MSHQS
Associate Professor-Clinical
Associate Director, Clinical Affairs
Division Director, Hematology and Medical Oncology
University of Mississippi Medical Center
Madison, MS
Afshin Dowlati, MD
Professor of Medicine and Oncology
Case Western Reserve University
Director, Early Phase Therapeutics Program
Director, Thoracic Oncology
University Hospitals
Cleveland, OH
Renata Ferrarotto, MD
Professor
Thoracic Head and Neck Medical Oncology
University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Houston, TX
Mary Jo Fidler, MD
Alice Pirie Wirtz Professor of Medical Oncology
Section Chief of Medical Oncology
Rush University Medical Center
Division of Hematology, Oncology, and Cell Therapy
Chicago IL
Shirish Madhav Gadgeel, MD
Chief of Division of Hematology & Oncology
Associate Director, Medical Oncology,
Henry Ford Cancer Institute
Department of Internal Medicine, Henry Ford Hospital
Detroit, MI
Marina Chiara Garassino, MD
Professor of Medicine
Director, Thoracic Oncology Program
The University of Chicago
Chicago, IL
Erin Gillaspie, MD, MPH
Associate Professor
Department of Surgery
Chief of Thoracic Surgery
Creighton University School of Medicine
Ohama, NE
Richard D. Hall, MD, MS
Associate Professor of Medicine
Thoracic Medical Oncology
Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology / Oncology
UVA Health
Charlottesville, VA
Zhonglin Hao, MD, PhD
Professor of Medicine, Cancer Biology
Donna and William Shively Professor of Translational
Clinical Oncology
Co-Leader, Thoracic Oncology Program
Division of Medical Oncology
Department of Medicine and Markey Cancer Center,
College of Medicine, University of Kentucky
Lexington, KY
Raffit Hassan, MD
Chief, Thoracic and GI Malignancies Branch
Center for Cancer Research
National Cancer Institute
National Institutes of Health
Bethesda, MD
Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD
Deputy Director, Yale Cancer Center
Chief of Medical Oncology and Hematology
Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital
Ensign Professor of Medicine
Program Director, Master’s Program in Clinical Investigation
Professor of Pharmacology
Yale School of Medicine
New Haven, CT
John Heymach, MD, PhD
Chair; Professor
David Bruton, Jr Chair in Cancer Research
Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology
Division of Cancer Medicine
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center,
Houston, TX
Fred R. Hirsch, MD, PhD, FASCO
Executive Director, Center for Thoracic Oncology
Professor in Medicine and Pathology
Ning Zhao Chair Professor in Lung Cancer
Icahn School of Medicine
Associate Director, Tisch Cancer Institute,
Mount Sinai Health System
New York, NY
Aditya Juloori, MD
Assistant Professor of Radiation and Cellular Oncology
The University of Chicago
Chicago, IL
Michael J. Kelley, MD
Professor of Medicine
Member of the Duke Cancer Institute
Duke University
Durham, NC
Hina Khan, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Thoracic Oncologist
Brown University Warren Alpert School of Medicine
Attending Physician, Hematology/Oncology
Lifespan Cancer Institute
Providence, RI
Brendan Knapp, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Division of Oncology
Washington University School of Medicine
St. Louis, MO
Corey J. Langer, MD, FACP
Director of Thoracic Oncology
Abramson Cancer Center
Professor of Medicine
Perelman School of Medicine
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA
Xiuning Le, MD, PhD
Associate Professor,
Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology,
Division of Internal Medicine,
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center,
Houston, TX
Jay Moon Lee, MD
Associate Professor and Chief, Department of Surgery,
Thoracic Surgery
Surgical Director, UCLA Thoracic Oncology Program
Surgical Director, UCLA Center for Esophageal Disorders
Member, Tumor Immunology & Immunotherapy
UCLA Health
Los Angeles, CA
Matthew Lee, MD MPH
Assistant Professor
Thoracic Medical Oncology
Department of Medical Oncology and Therapeutics Research
Associate Member in Developmental Cancer
Therapeutics (DCT) program
City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center-Duarte
Duarte, CA
Percy Lee, MD, FASTRO
Medical Director
City of Hope
Department of Radiation Oncology
Irvine, CA
Natasha Leighl, MD, MMSc, FRCPC, FASCO
Lead Medical Oncologist
Clinician Investigator
Clinical Research Unit (CCRU)
Princess Margaret Cancer Centre
Professor
Department of Medicine
University of Toronto
Toronto, ON, Canada
Steven H. Lin, MD, PhD
Professor
Department of Radiation Oncology
Division of Radiation Oncology
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Houston, TX
Thomas U. Marron, MD, PhD
Director, Early Phase Trials Unit
Associate Director, Tisch Cancer Center
Professor of Medicine, Hematology & Oncology
Professor of Immunology & Immunotherapy
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
New York, NY
Erminia Massarelli, MD, PhD, MS
Professor
Division Chief Hematology/Oncology,
University of Texas Health East Texas
Tyler, TX
Bharathi Muthusamy, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Department of Hematology/Oncology
Indiana University School of Medicine
Indianapolis, IN
Misako Nagasaka, MD, PhD
Associate Professor
Division of Hematology/Oncology
Department of Medicine
University of California Irvine School of Medicine
Orange, CA
Matthew Oser, MD, PhD
Associate Professor of Medicine
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA
Henry S. Park, MD, MPH
Professor of Therapeutic Radiology
Vice Chair for Clinical Research, Health Services
Research, and Faculty Development
Chief of Thoracic Radiotherapy and PET-guided Radiotherapy
Assistant Medical Director, Clinical Trials Office,
Yale Cancer Center
Head of Advisory House, Horstmann House, Office of Student Affairs
Yale School of Medicine
New Haven, CT
Sandip P. Patel, MD
Professor, Member
Thoracic Oncology, Cancer Immunotherapy Programs
Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology/Oncology
UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center
La Jolla, CA
William Jeffrey Petty, MD
Professor of Medicine
Section on Hematology and Oncology
Wake Forest University School of Medicine
Winston-Salem, NC
Jonathan W. Riess, MD, MS
Medical Director of Thoracic Oncology
Professor of Medicine
Division of Hematology/Oncology
UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center
Sacramento, CA
Helen J. Ross, MD
Professor of Medicine
Division of Hematology, Oncology, and Cell Therapy
Rush University Medical Center
Chicago, IL
Julia Rotow, MD
Physician
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Clinical Director, Lowe Center for Thoracic Oncology
Director of Clinical Research
Assistant Professor of Medicine,
Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA
Joshua K. Sabari, MD
Assistant Professor
Department of Medicine
NYU Grossman School of Medicine
NYU Langone Health
Director, High Reliability Organization Initiative
Perlmutter Cancer Center
New York, NY
Ravi Salgia, MD, PhD
Professor and Chair, Department of Medical Oncology & Therapeutics Research
Arthur & Rosalie Kaplan Chair in Medical Oncology
City of Hope
Duarte, CA
Jonathan Schoenfeld, MD, MPhil, MPH
Director, Melanoma Radiation Oncology
Director, Head and Neck Radiation Oncology
Senior Physician
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Professor of Radiation Oncology
Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA
Triparna Sen, PhD
Professor (Tenured)
Max Moore Chair of Cancer Research
Associate Director of Research
Director, Lung Cancer Preclinical Therapeutics Platform
Division of Medical Oncology
Department of Internal Medicine
The Ohio State University
Columbus, OH
Misty D. Shields, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor of Medicine,
Indiana University School of Medicine
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Medical &
Molecular Genetics
Associate Member, Experimental and
Developmental Therapeutics
Department of Medicine, Division of
Hematology/Oncology, Thoracic Oncology
Indiana University Melvin & Bren Simon
Comprehensive Cancer Center
Indianapolis, IN
Elaine Shum, MD
Assistant Professor
Department of Medicine
NYU Grossman School of Medicine
New York, NY
Surbhi Singhal, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine, Clinical-X series
Division of Hematology and Oncology
University of California Davis,
Comprehensive Cancer Center
Sacramento CA
Ferdinandos Skoulidis, MD, PhD, MRCP
Associate Professor,
Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Houston, TX
Stephen Swisher, MD, FACS
Professor
Charles A. LeMaistre Distinguished Chair in Thoracic Oncology
Division Head, Division of Surgery
Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Houston, TX
Gregory Videtic, MD
Professor
Section Head for Thoracic Malignancies
Department of Radiation Oncology
Cleveland Clinic
Cleveland, OH
Everett E. Vokes, MD, FASCO
John E. Ultmann Distinguished Service Professor
Chair, Department of Medicine
Physician-in-Chief,
University of Chicago Medicine and Biological Sciences
Chicago, IL
Heather Wakelee, MD, FASCO
Winston Chen and Phyllis Huang Professor
Professor of Medicine/Chief-Division of Oncology
Stanford University School of Medicine
Deputy Director, Stanford Cancer Institute
Past President, International Association for
the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC)
Stanford, CA
Timothy A. Yap MBBS, PhD, FRCP
Head of Clinical Development and
Vice President, Therapeutics Discovery Division
Ransom Home, Jr. Endowed Professor for Cancer Research, Department of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics
(Phase I Program); Department of Thoracic/Head and
Neck Medical Oncology
Associate Director of Translational Research,
Khalifa Institute for Personalized Cancer Therapy
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Houston, TX
Fawzi F. Abu Rous, MD
Medical Oncologist,
Henry Ford Health
Detroit, MI
Dr. Fawzi Abu Rous is a medical oncologist at Henry Ford Health Care. He is a specialist in the care of patients diagnosed with lung cancer, malignant pleural mesothelioma, and other thoracic malignancies. Dr. Abu Rous graduated from the University of Jordan Faculty of Medicine in 2015. He completed his Internal Medicine residency from Michigan State University/Sparrow Hospital in 2019 and Hematology/Oncology fellowship from Henry Ford Hospital in 2023.
Dr. Abu Rous conducts research on lung cancer, specializing in developing biomarkers to guide treatment decisions. He secured funding from the ASCO Conquer Cancer Foundation in 2023 for his work on squamous cell carcinoma biomarkers. Additionally, he designs and leads clinical trials for lung cancer treatment, exploring innovative combinations such as immunotherapy, targeted therapies, and antibody-drug conjugates.
Mehmet Altan, MD
Associate Professor,
Department of Thoracic-Head & Neck Medical Oncology,
Division of Cancer Medicine,
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center,
Houston, TX
Mehmet Altan is a board-certified medical oncologist and clinical investigator in the Department of Thoracic and Head and Neck Medical Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. His research focuses on immuno-oncology, with specific interests in: (1) clinical trial designs to overcome primary resistance to anti–PD- (L)1 and targeted therapies in non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC); (2) development of novel targets and therapies for pleural mesothelioma and thymic malignancies; and (3) elucidating the mechanisms and risk factors underlying treatment-related pneumonitis.
He is leading studies at MD Anderson Cancer Center focused on the mechanisms, risk factors, and early detection of immune checkpoint inhibitor–related pneumonitis. His group was the first to identify pre-treatment interstitial lung abnormalities and the MUC5B rs35705950-T polymorphism as potential risk markers for the development of ICI-related pneumonitis.
As a clinical investigator he is serving as PI for the studies below:
Valsamo Anagnostou, MD, PhD
Professor of Oncology
The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Baltimore, MD
Dr. Anagnostou is Professor of Oncology in the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins. She graduated from the Medical School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece and received a PhD in cancer biology from the same institution. Dr. Anagnostou completed her internal medicine residency at Yale-New Haven Hospital and subsequently trained in Medical Oncology at Johns Hopkins. She has established the Molecular Oncology laboratory that seeks to understand the genomic wiring of response and resistance to immunotherapy through integrative genomic, transcriptomic, single-cell and liquid biopsy analyses of tumor and immune evolution.
Dr. Anagnostou is also the Director of the Thoracic Oncology Biorepository at Johns Hopkins. Her group has discovered novel mechanisms of response and resistance to immunotherapy and is also developing liquid biopsy assays that capture the dynamics of response and may more accurately predict emergence of resistance to immunotherapy. Her work has provided the foundation for a molecular response-adaptive clinical trial, where therapeutic decisions are made not based on imaging but based on molecular responses derived from liquid biopsies. Overall, Dr. Anagnostou focuses on studying the temporal and spatial order of the metastatic and immune cascade under the selective pressure of immunotherapy with the goal to translate this knowledge into “next-generation” immuno-oncology clinical trials and change the way oncologists select patients for these therapies.
Mara Antonoff, MD, FACS
Associate Professor
Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery
Division of Surgery
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Houston, TX
Dr. Antonoff completed her undergraduate studies in Chemistry and Biology at the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, after which she earned her medical degree at the University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis. She completed her internship and residency in General Surgery at the University of Minnesota, in Minneapolis, where she served as Chief Administrative Surgical Resident. During her surgical residency, Dr. Antonoff completed 3 years of dedicated research time, including basic science benchwork examining the roles of heat shock proteins in cancer proliferation. During this period, she additionally focused on research in the areas of thoracic surgical clinical outcomes and surgical education, while completing the Association for Surgical Education’s Surgical Education Research Fellowship. Following her residency training, Dr. Antonoff completed a fellowship in Cardiothoracic Surgery at the Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, with a clinical focus in the General Thoracic track. She then joined the faculty at MD Anderson in the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery in 2014, where she is currently an Assistant Professor and Assistant Program Director for Education. Dr. Antonoff is certified by the American Board of Thoracic Surgery, having trained in all aspects of cardiothoracic disease, with special concentration on thoracic oncology, lung transplantation, and diseases of the foregut, and an emphasis on minimally invasive surgical therapies.
Dr. Antonoff’s clinical research interests include pulmonary metastatic disease, early detection of lung cancer, and localized therapy for metastatic lung cancer. She is the primary investigator in a multi-institutional trial for lung-limited metastatic colorectal cancer, and she is the surgical PI for multiple trials evaluating the role of local consolidative therapy for metastatic non-small cell lung cancer. She continues to be involved in educational research, aiming to improve curricular design and assessment tools in Thoracic Surgical training. She holds leadership roles in the Women in Thoracic Surgery, the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, the American Association for Thoracic Surgery, and the Thoracic Surgery Directors Association. She is recognized as a founding member of both the Thoracic Education Cooperative Group and the Thoracic Surgery Social Media Network. She holds Editorial Board positions for the Annals of Thoracic Surgery, the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, CTSNet, and the Journal of Thoracic Disease.
Zhaohui (Ann) Liao Arter, MD
Assistant Clinical Professor
Thoracic Oncologist
Division of Hematology/Oncology
University of California Irvine Medical Center
Orange, CA
Dr. Zhaohui (Ann) Liao Arter, MD is a thoracic medical oncologist and Assistant Clinical Professor at the University of California, Irvine Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. She specializes in the care of patients with lung cancer, with a strong focus on precision oncology and early-phase clinical trials. Dr. Arter currently serves as principal investigator on more than 10 clinical trials and as sub-investigator on more than 30 trials.
She has published more than 30 peer-reviewed articles in leading oncology journals, including Journal of Thoracic Oncology, JCO Global Oncology, and Nature Reviews, and has presented her work at major national and international conferences such as ASCO, AACR, ELCC, ESMO Asia, and ASCO Breakthrough. Dr. Arter is actively engaged in professional service and leadership, having served as a session chair and invited speaker at multiple conferences, including the WCLC. She also serves as an ad hoc reviewer for several oncology journals and is a member of the IASLC Early Career Development Committee. Her contributions have been recognized with multiple national and international awards for research excellence, education, and early-career leadership, including the ASCO Merit Award, ESMO Merit Award and IASLC Education Award.
Matthew Bott, MD
Associate Attending Surgeon
Department of Surgery
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
New York, NY
Dr. Matthew Bott, MD, is a thoracic surgeon and Associate Attending Surgeon in the Department of Surgery at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK). He earned his medical degree from the University of Virginia after completing undergraduate studies at Duke University, then completed general surgery residency training at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, including a dedicated research fellowship at MSK. He went on to complete a cardiothoracic surgery fellowship at Washington University in St. Louis/Barnes-Jewish Hospital, and is board certified in general surgery and cardiothoracic surgery.
Clinically, Dr. Bott focuses on thoracic surgical oncology, treating cancers of the chest such as lung and esophageal cancers, thymic tumors, mesothelioma, and neuroendocrine tumors, with expertise in minimally invasive approaches (including VATS) and advanced endobronchial/diagnostic technologies such as robotic bronchoscopy. His research program spans basic and translational studies, including work on tumor biology and cellular responses to therapy in lung cancer. He also serves as a co-investigator on clinical trials evaluating treatments (including immunotherapy strategies) in earlier-stage disease. Most recently, he was appointed to the Lung Cancer Research Foundation (LCRF) Scientific Advisory Board, reflecting his ongoing contributions to the lung cancer research community.
David P Carbone, MD, PhD
Professor of Medicine
Director, James Thoracic Oncology Center
Barbara J. Bonner Chair, Lung Cancer Research
The Ohio State University
Columbus, OH
David Carbone is Professor of Internal Medicine, Director of the James Thoracic Oncology Center at the OSUMC. He graduated summa cum laude from Amherst College in 1977 and received an MD and a PhD in Molecular Biology and Genetics at Johns Hopkins University in 1985. After an Internal Medicine internship and residency at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, he did a Medical Oncology fellowship at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, MD. At Vanderbilt he was Director of the Thoracic/Head and Neck Cancer Program, Director of a SPORE in Lung Cancer for 11 years. He was recruited to The Ohio State University in 2012 to direct the James Thoracic Oncology Center. His research interests have been focused on lung cancer and specifically proteomic and expression signature development, lung cancer genetics, tumor-associated immunosuppression mechanisms, proteogenomic profiling of lung cancers to guide the development of novel therapeutics and targeting novel immunosuppression mechanisms. He has over 300 peer-reviewed publications, has served on the Board of Scientific Counselors, and has continuous NCI funding since early in his career. He was previously Past-President of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC).
Jamie E. Chaft, MD
Attending Physician
Thoracic Medical Oncologist
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
New York, NY
Dr. Chaft specializes in Medical Oncology, with a special focus on Lung Cancer and is affiliated with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She graduated from NYU School of Medicine in 2006 and completed her training at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She is board certified in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology. She is the lead investigator on all trials evaluating multimodality treatment for non-small cell lung cancers. Dr. Chaft’s research interest lies in identifying biomarkers to preferentially select a drug treatment regimen that is likely to be more effective against that individual’s lung cancer.
Devika Das, MD, MSHQS
Associate Professor-Clinical,
Associate Director, Clinical Affairs,
Division Director, Hematology and Medical Oncology,
University of Mississippi Medical Center,
Madison, MS
Dr. Devika G. Das, MD, MS is an Associate Professor (Clinical) in the Department of Medicine (Hematology/Oncology) at the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) and serves as Division Director/Chief of Hematology and Oncology and Associate Director of Clinical Affairs for the UMMC Cancer Center and Research Institute. She earned her medical degree from Grant Medical College (India), completed internal medicine residency and a hematology/oncology fellowship at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), and holds a Master’s in Healthcare Quality and Safety from UAB.
Dr. Das’ academic focus spans thoracic oncology and the integration of quality improvement/implementation science to improve real-world cancer care delivery, particularly in areas such as lung cancer screening and multidisciplinary care. Her work has included leadership and funded initiatives in lung cancer screening implementation and VA-based collaborative efforts in precision oncology and value assessment, reflecting a sustained commitment to evidence-based program building and measurable improvements in outcomes.
Afshin Dowlati, MD
Professor of Medicine and Oncology
Case Western Reserve University
Director, Early Phase Therapeutics Program
Director, Thoracic Oncology
University Hospitals
Cleveland, OH
Afshin Dowlati, MD is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology and Oncology at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and serves as Associate Director for Clinical Research at the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center in Cleveland, Ohio. He is also a Member of the Developmental Therapeutics Program at the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Dowlati earned his medical degree and completed advanced training in internal medicine and medical oncology, followed by a career focused on academic oncology, clinical investigation, and leadership in cancer research infrastructure. He is a board-certified medical oncologist with long-standing involvement in early-phase and investigator-initiated clinical trials.
Dr. Dowlati’s research focuses on thoracic malignancies, particularly lung cancer, with an emphasis on early-phase clinical trial development, novel therapeutics, and biomarker-driven treatment strategies. He has served as principal investigator on numerous Phase I and II studies evaluating targeted agents and immunotherapies and has played a key role in translating promising therapies from bench to bedside. Dr. Dowlati has authored extensively in peer-reviewed journals and continues to lead multidisciplinary efforts to advance innovative clinical research and improve outcomes for patients with lung cancer.
Renata Ferrarotto, MD
Professor
Thoracic Head and Neck Medical Oncology
University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Houston, TX
Dr. Ferrarotto is a Professor and Director of Head and Neck Oncology Clinical Research of Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical. In this role, she dedicates time to patient care as well as to clinical and translational research. Her work focuses on clinical development of new personalized cancer therapies for patients with head and neck malignancies, with a particular interest in salivary gland cancers and other rarer tumor subtypes. She has conducted multiple investigator-initiated trials. Dr. Ferrarotto was a recipient of the MD Anderson Jeffrey Lee Cousins Fellowship in Lung Cancer in 2013, the ASCO Career Development Award in 2016, the Khalifa grant in 2016, a Stiefel grant in 2018, an Institutional Research Grant in 2020, three pilot grants from the Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma Research Foundation in 2000, 2021, and 2022, a DOD Impact Award in 2021, R03 grant in 2022 and a R01 grant in 2024.
Mary Jo Fidler, MD
Alice Pirie Wirtz Professor of Medical Oncology,
Section Chief of Medical Oncology,
Rush University Medical Center,
Division of Hematology, Oncology, and Cell Therapy,
Chicago, IL
Dr. Fidler is the section chief of medical oncology and professor in the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Hematology, Oncology and Cell Therapy at Rush Medical College.
Dr. Fidler attended Cornell University in Ithaca, New York for undergraduate work. She received her medical degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx , New York and then went on to complete her internal medicine residency at the McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University in Chicago and Fellowship in Hematology/Oncology at Rush University Medical Center.
Dr. Fidler specializes in the treatment of thoracic and head and neck cancers. Her translational research interests focus on mechanisms of chemotherapy and radiotherapy resistance, predictors of response to immune check point inhibitors, and cancer cachexia. She has enrolled patients on several clinical trials testing both immune checkpoint inhibitors and targeted therapies. Dr. Fidler has authored and co- authored several manuscripts, publications and abstracts.
She has served on the Boards of Trustees for the Chicago Medical Society and the Illinois State Medical Society and has chaired various advocacy groups through these organizations.
Shirish Madhav Gadgeel, MD
Chief of Division of Hematology & Oncology
Associate Director, Medical Oncology, Henry Ford Cancer Institute
Department of Internal Medicine, Henry Ford Hospital
Detroit, MI
Dr. Gadgeel is the Vice-Chief of Division of Hematology/Oncology for Academics at Henry Ford Health. He is also Professor of Internal Medicine at Michigan State University.
After graduating with his MBBS medical degree from the University of Bombay in Mumbai, India, he completed his Internal Medicine residency in Mumbai. He also completed residency in Internal Medicine as well as his Hematology/Oncology residency at Wayne State University, in Detroit, MI. Following his fellowship, Dr. Gadgeel served as director of the Thoracic Oncology Program and co-leader of Molecular Therapeutics Program at Karmanos Cancer Institute.
Prior to Henry Ford, Dr. Gadgeel was a professor in the Department of Internal Medicine and the Mary Lou Kennedy Research Professor in Thoracic Oncology at the University of Michigan/Michigan Medicine.
He is the principal investigator on numerous clinical trials, and has published extensively in peer-reviewed literature, with over 200 publications.
His clinical research experience spans 20 years. He is the Associate Editor of Clinical Lung Cancer and a reviewer for many journals, including Clinical Cancer Research, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Lancet Oncology, and Journal of Thoracic Oncology. He has served as faculty for the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and as a member of the education committee of ASCO. He is a member of the Communications committee of the International Association of Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC). He was awarded by the National Cancer Institute the Cancer Clinical Investigator Team Leadership Award in 2012.
Marina Chiara Garassino, MD
Professor of Medicine
Director, Thoracic Oncology Program
The University of Chicago
Chicago, IL
Dr. Marina Chiara Garassino, MD is a Professor of Medicine and Director of Thoracic Programs in the Section of Hematology/Oncology at the University of Chicago, where she leads multidisciplinary clinical care and research in thoracic malignancies. She earned her medical degree from the Università degli Studi di Milano in Italy and completed oncology training there, followed by clinical fellowships at San Raffaele Scientific Institute, the Istituto Nazionale deiTumori (INT) in Milan, and Christie’s Hospital in Manchester, UK. Prior to joining UChicago in 2021, she served as Chief of the Medical Thoracic Oncology Unit at INT Milan, one of Europe’s premier cancer centers, and also holds a Master’s in Oncology Management from Bocconi University.
Dr. Garassino’s research focuses on advancing precision medicine, immunotherapy, and novel therapeutic strategies in thoracic cancers, including non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), small cell lung cancer (SCLC), mesothelioma, and thymic malignancies. She has been pivotal in global trials that reshaped standards of care—serving as global principal investigator for the KEYNOTE-189 trial that established chemo-immunotherapy as first-line therapy in metastatic NSCLC and contributing to landmark studies like PACIFIC and KEYNOTE-671. Her work spans clinical trials, biomarker research, and AI-driven individualized therapy approaches, and she has authored 350+ peer-reviewed publications in leading oncology journals. Additionally, she founded the TERAVOLT global registry for thoracic cancer patients with COVID-19 and is active in initiatives promoting women in oncology.
Erin Gillaspie, MD, MPH
Associate Professor
Department of Surgery
Chief of Thoracic Surgery
Creighton University School of Medicine
Ohama, NE
Erin Gillaspie, MD, MPH, FACS is an Associate Professor with tenure in the Department of Surgery at Creighton University School of Medicine and serves as Chief of Thoracic Surgery at Creighton University Medical Center – Bergan Mercy/CHI Health in Omaha, Nebraska. She earned her medical degree from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and completed her General Surgery internship and residency at Bassett Medical Center in Cooperstown, NY, followed by a thoracic surgery fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. Dr. Gillaspie also holds a Master of Public Health from Vanderbilt University and is board-certified in General and Thoracic Surgery. Prior to joining Creighton, she held faculty roles at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where she directed thoracic robotics and medical student surgical education.
Dr. Gillaspie’s clinical and research interests focus on the surgical management of lung cancer and other thoracic malignancies, the integration of minimally invasive and robotic techniques, and advancing multidisciplinary peri-operative care. She has authored numerous scientific publications and book chapters and has been instrumental in establishing advanced thoracic surgical programs in Nebraska, including robotic lung cancer resections, complex airway procedures, and comprehensive mesothelioma care. Since her arrival at Creighton, she has expanded access to high-complexity thoracic surgery statewide and continues to lead initiatives in lung cancer screening, surgical innovation, and collaborative clinical research.
Richard D. Hall, MD, MS
Associate Professor of Medicine
Thoracic Medical Oncology
Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology / Oncology
UVA Health
Charlottesville, VA
Dr. Richard D. Hall, MD, MS, is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology & Oncology at the University of Virginia School of Medicine and a faculty physician with UVA Health’s Emily Couric Clinical Cancer Center in Charlottesville, VA. He earned his MD from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in 2007 and an MS in Clinical & Translational Research from the University of South Florida. Dr. Hall completed his Internal Medicine residency (including Chief Residency) at UVA and a Hematology–Oncology fellowship at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute.
Dr. Hall’s research focuses on clinical trial design and the development of novel therapeutics and immunotherapy for thoracic malignancies, including non–small cell and small cell lung cancer, thymoma, and mesothelioma. He serves as principal investigator on multiple early-phase lung cancer trials at UVA Cancer Center and has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications in leading oncology journals. Notably, Dr. Hall led the UVA Cancer Center team to become the first in Virginia to offer a newly approved immunotherapy for small cell lung cancer, and he is regularly invited to present his work at national conferences such as ASCO and SITC.
Zhonglin Hao, MD, PhD
Professor of Medicine, Cancer Biology
Donna and William Shively Professor of Translational Clinical Oncology
Co-Leader, Thoracic Oncology Program
Division of Medical Oncology
Department of Medicine and Markey Cancer Center,
College of Medicine,
University of Kentucky,
Lexington, KY
Dr. Hao got his medical degree from Inner Mongolia Medical College in Northern China. He subsequently pursued his passion in research and earned a PhD in molecular biology and biochemistry in the University of Tokyo. Following a productive postdoctoral period in the University of Virginia, he trained in internal medicine in Mercer University School of Medicine and in Hematology and Oncology in Emory’s Winship Cancer Institute. He is currently co-leader of thoracic medical oncology program in Markey Cancer Center, Professor of Medicine and Cancer Biology at the University of Kentucky’s Markey Cancer Center. He is also medical director of the Markey Clinical Research Organization and the founding medical director of Markey’s Multisite Research Operations and Donna and William Shively Endowed Professor in Clinical Translational Oncology. His research interests include molecularly targeted therapy and immunotherapy in lung cancer. He coauthored ~ 60 peer reviewed scientific papers and is PI of multiple Investigator Initiated Clinical Trials and PI of the first in human CART cell and Tri-specific engager in small cell lung cancer.
Learning objectives:
There is unleashed power of our immune system to tap for cure for locally advanced NSCLC
Raffit Hassan, MD
Chief, Thoracic and GI Malignancies Branch
Center for Cancer Research
National Cancer Institute
National Institutes of Health
Bethesda, MD
Dr. Raffit Hassan, M.D., is a Senior Investigator and Chief of the Thoracic and Gastrointestinal Malignancies Branch in the Center for Cancer Research at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Bethesda, Maryland. He earned his medical degree from the University of Kashmir, India, in 1988, completed his internship and residency in Internal Medicine at Sisters Hospital, University of Buffalo, and subsequently trained as a medical oncology fellow at the NCI. After serving on the faculty at the University of Oklahoma from 1998 to 2002, he returned to NCI as a tenure-track investigator, achieving tenure in 2008.
Dr. Hassan’s laboratory leads the development and clinical translation of mesothelin-targeted therapies, ranging from immunotoxins and antibody–drug conjugates to cancer vaccines and checkpoint inhibitors, for malignant mesothelioma and other solid tumors. He has served as principal investigator on numerous early-phase trials of agents such as SS1P, Amatuximab, BAY 94-9343, and CRS-207, and is exploring combinations with PARP and mTOR inhibitors. His contributions have been recognized with the ASCO Career Development Award, the NIH Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award, and the Pioneer Award from the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation; he was also invited to the ASCO expert panel that authored the 2018 mesothelioma practice guidelines.
Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD
Deputy Director, Yale Cancer Center
Chief of Medical Oncology and Hematology
Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital
Ensign Professor of Medicine
Program Director, Master’s Program in Clinical Investigation
Professor of Pharmacology
Yale School of Medicine
New Haven, CT
Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD, is ensign professor of medicine at Yale School of Medicine, deputy director for Yale Cancer Center (YCC), chief of medical oncology and hematology, and program director, Master of Health Science—Clinical Investigation track at Yale School of Medicine. He is the principal investigator (PI) of the Yale SPORE in Lung Cancer, PI of the YCC Advanced Training Program for Physician-Scientists, PI on the National Cancer Institute (NCI) NCTN LAPS Grant, and PI of the Yale-AstraZeneca Alliance, which has 12 projects spanning various cancer types.
Dr Herbst has led Phase I development of multiple targeted agents for non-small cell lung cancer, including gefitinib, cetuximab, bevacizumab, axitinib, atezolizumab, and anti-PD1/PDL1 therapies. Additionally, he has helped bring targeted therapy to early-stage disease as the PI of the adjuvant osimertinib study (ADAURA). He co-led MD Anderson’s BATTLE-1 effort, which led to the BATTLE-2 trial defining biomarkers as standard for the use of targeted therapies. He served as the national PI of the SWOG S0819 trial and held the role of founding PI for the NCI Lung Cancer Master Protocol (Lung-MAP, S1400) for a decade. He has authored or coauthored more than 450 publications, and his work published in Nature was awarded Clinical Research Forum’s 2015 Herbert Pardes Clinical Research Excellence Award.
Dr Herbst is a member of the National Cancer Policy Forum for which he organized National Academy of Medicine meetings focused on policy issues in personalized medicine and tobacco control. He is an elected member of the NCI Thoracic Malignancies Steering Committee and the chair of the American Association for Cancer Research Science Policy and Government Affairs Committee. He is a member of the Association of American Physicians.
Dr Herbst received the 2022 Giants of Cancer Care® award for lung cancer as one of their 25 scientific and advocacy leaders who have been instrumental over the course of the last 25 years in making significant advancements for patients. Most recently, Dr. Herbst received the 2024 Ezra Greenspan Award from the Chemotherapy+ Foundation for the work he has done throughout his career and the work he continues to do for lung cancer patients.
Scholar, she integrates learning science principles into curriculum development, equipping her trainees with essential skills for excellence in patient care and research. She was inducted into the Weill Cornell Institute for Health Equity and Advocacy Leaders (I-HEAL) and serves as a mentor for faculty scholar projects in health equity. Dr. Garcia received her undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, an M.P.H. from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and her medical degree with Distinction in Research from St. George’s University. She completed her residency at Stony Brook University Hospital and her fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Outside of her professional achievements, Dr. Garcia values the support of her family, including her husband, Nick; daughter, Brett; and their Shetland sheepdog, Meeko. She enjoys cooking, yoga, art and volunteering in her free time.
John Heymach, MD, PhD
Chair; Professor
David Bruton, Jr Chair in Cancer Research
Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology
Division of Cancer Medicine
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center,
Houston, TX
Dr. Heymach is the Chair of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center. He holds the David Bruton Endowed Chair in Cancer Research. He received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University and his MD/PhD from Stanford. He completed his Internship and Residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and his fellowship in Medical Oncology from the Dana Farber/Mass General Brigham program. As a physician-scientist, Dr. Heymach’s research focuses on investigating mechanisms of therapeutic resistance to targeted agents, understanding the regulation of angiogenesis in lung cancer, and the development of biomarkers for targeted agents and immunotherapy. His research has led to new therapeutic approaches for KRAS mutant lung cancer, small cell lung cancer (SCLC), EGFR mutant non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), adenoid cystic carcinoma, and oligometastatic NSCLC, many of which are now considered standard of care regimens or undergoing clinical testing. He serves as PI on 4 R01 awards investigating molecular subsets of lung cancer, and on an U01 focused on SCLC. He serves as the MDACC PI for the SU2C-ACS Lung Cancer Dream Team targeting KRAS mutant lung cancers, as the leader of the Lung CCSG Program, and the co-leader of the Lung Cancer Moon Shot. He is also the co-PI and project leader of the Lung SPORE. As a clinical investigator, he leads a number of biomarker-directed clinical trials using targeted and immunotherapy agents in lung cancer. He has directly mentored numerous fellows, including physician-scientists, and serves as chair of the NCI Molecular Cancer Therapeutics-1 study section.
Ramaswamy Govindan, MD
Professor of Medicine Anheuser Busch, Chair in Medical Oncology, Director, Section of Medical Oncology, Division of Oncology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO
Dr. Ramaswamy Govindan is the Director of the Section of Medical Oncology at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis. As a medical oncologist interested in thoracic malignancies, Dr. Govindan has led a number of institutional and multi- center phase II and III studies in lung cancer over the past decade. Working with The McDonnell Genome Institute at the Washington University School of Medicine and with The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) project (as a co-chair) sponsored by the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI), he is actively involved in sequencing the whole genomes and exomes of several hundred patients with lung cancer. He led the group that has recently discovered mechanisms of resistance for chemotherapy in small cell lung cancer. Ongoing work led by him on the genomic alterations in primary and the corresponding brain metastases from patients with lung cancer is expected to provide new insights into how cancer cells metastasize. Dr. Govindan is the Principal Investigator for the NCI funded ALCHEMIST trial to study the role of erlotinib in patients with early-stage EGFR mutated lung cancer. Dr. Govindan is keen on translating genomic discoveries from the laboratory setting to clinical setting to improve the outcomes of patients with lung cancer. Dr. Govindan leads the effort to develop biomarkers in early-stage NSCLC using comprehensive genomic and proteomic analyses. His research is supported by multiple grants from the NCI. He has published over 370 peer- reviewed papers in scientific journals.
David H. Harpole, Jr, MD
Professor of Surgery and Pathology, George Barth Geller Endowed Professor for Research in Cancer, Division of Thoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Duke University Medical Center, Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Durham, NC
David H. Harpole, Jr. is the George Barth Geller Distinguished Professor of Surgery in the Division of Thoracic Surgery at the Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, where he serves as Director of the Duke Surgical Research Fellowship and leads Duke’s Lung Cancer Research Laboratory and Biorepository. Dr. Harpole received his medical degree from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia in 1984 and completed his General and Thoracic Surgery Residencies in 1993 at Duke University. Dr. Harpole is an internationally-recognized expert in thoracic oncology in translational science, clinical research and education. He is also one of the innovators of minimally-invasive approaches to lung cancer and the multi-modality treatment of mesothelioma. He has contributed numerous articles (> 200) and abstracts to the medical literature. He has directed an active translational thoracic oncology research laboratory for more 25 years that has had National Institutes of Health, Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense peer reviewed grant support and has served on NCI and VA grant review study sections for more than 15 years, including chair of the NCI R03, R21, R33 grant review study section for the last 5 years. He has led several large multi-institutional lung cancer clinical trials based on his laboratory efforts.
Eric Haura, MD
Associate Clinical Director, Clinical Science, Senior Member, Department of Thoracic Oncology & Drug Discovery, Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, FL
Dr. Eric Haura is a Thoracic Medical Oncologist with a laboratory-based research program in signal transduction, cancer proteomics, and experimental therapeutics. He received his M.D. from Duke University in 1994. He completed internal medicine residency at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1997 and completed fellowship training in Hematology & Oncology at Duke in 2000. He joined the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute in the Department of Thoracic Oncology in 2000 and is currently a Senior Member. He is the Director of the Moffitt Lung Cancer Center of Excellence. He is currently the Associate Center Director for Clinical Science. Dr. Haura’s major contribution has been as a leader in advancing the field of translational cancer proteomics and molecular characterization of cancers using highly integrative mass spectrometry-based proteomics. He has characterized protein architectures that regulate tumor growth and response to therapy. He developed approaches to discern mechanisms of complex drugs in cancer allowing repurposing of drugs and expanded uses. He has published more than 200 papers in top-tier scientific journals including Science Signaling, Nature Chemical Biology, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Molecular Systems Biology, Journal of Clinical Oncology, and Cancer Research. He has received numerous grants through the National Cancer Institute, industry partners, and private foundations.
John Heymach, MD, PhD
Chair; Professor, David Bruton, Jr Chair in Cancer Research, Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck, Medical Oncology, Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Dr. Heymach is the Chair of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center. He holds the David Bruton Endowed Chair in Cancer Research. He received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University and his MD/PhD from Stanford. He completed his Internship and Residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and his fellowship in Medical Oncology from the Dana Farber/Mass General Brigham program. As a physician-scientist, Dr. Heymach’s research focuses on investigating mechanisms of therapeutic resistance to targeted agents, understanding the regulation of angiogenesis in lung cancer, and the development of biomarkers for targeted agents and immunotherapy. His research has led to new therapeutic approaches for KRAS mutant lung cancer, small cell lung cancer (SCLC), EGFR mutant non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), adenoid cystic carcinoma, and oligometastatic NSCLC, many of which are now considered standard of care regimens or undergoing clinical testing. He serves as PI on 4 R01 awards investigating molecular subsets of lung cancer, and on an U01 focused on SCLC. He serves as the MDACC PI for the SU2C-ACS Lung Cancer Dream Team targeting KRAS mutant lung cancers, as the leader of the Lung CCSG Program, and the co-leader of the Lung Cancer Moon Shot. He is also the co-PI and project leader of the Lung SPORE. As a clinical investigator, he leads a number of biomarker-directed clinical trials using targeted and immunotherapy agents in lung cancer. He has directly mentored numerous fellows, including physician-scientists, and serves as chair of the NCI Molecular Cancer Therapeutics-1 study section.
Chris Holsinger, MD, FACS
Professor of Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery, Stanford University, Affiliated Faculty, Center for Artificial Intelligence in Medicine and Imaging, Member, Stanford Cancer Institute, Palo Alto, CA
Dr. Chris Holsinger is Professor of Head and Neck Surgery at Stanford University. He received his medical degree from Vanderbilt School of Medicine, completed his internship and residency at Baylor College of Medicine and his Fellowship in head and neck surgical oncology at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Holsinger’s research focuses on surgical innovation, AI, and clinical trials. He serves as surgical principal investigator for RTOG920 and coordinated surgeon-credentialing for ECOG 3311, a prospective clinical trial to study robotic head and neck surgery. Dr. Holsinger’s surgical practice focuses on the surgical management of thyroid as well as head and neck cancer. His areas of research interest include endoscopic head and neck surgery, including transoral robotic surgery and transoral laser microsurgery, as well as time-honoured approaches of conservation laryngeal surgery and supracricoid partial laryngectomy.
Robert Hsu, MD
Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Medical Oncology, University of Southern California/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center,
Los Angeles, CA
Dr. Robert Hsu is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Medical Oncology at University of Southern California. His research interests are focused on lung cancer research along with cancer disparities across multiple solid tumor types. His research includes projects involving analysis of comprehensive genomic profiling of novel biomarkers in lung cancer, retrospective database work characterizing the lung cancer population treated at USC in Hispanic and young lung cancer patients, epidemiological research studying risk factors and mortality trends in lung and thyroid cancer incorporating the California Cancer Registry, and translational research studying the immune tumor microenvironment. Dr. Hsu was part of the IASLC Academy in 2024 and a recipient of the Robert A. Winn Excellence in Clinical Trials Career Development Award, a program focused on improving diversity in clinical trials.
Puneeth Iyengar, MD, PhD
Director, Metastatic Program, Department of Radiation Oncology Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center New York, NY Director, Metastatic Program, Department of Radiation Oncology Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY
Dr. Puneeth Iyengar works as Director (Metastatic Program) at the Department of Radiation Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He received his MD, PhD degrees at Albert Einstein College of Medicine (NYC), following which he completed his residency in Radiation Oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Iyengar’s clinical focus is on investigating the use of local therapy (SBRT) in the setting of oligometastatic NSCLC (Iyengar et al, JCO 2014, Iyengar et al, JAMA Oncology 2017), hypofractionated therapies for stage III NSCLC (Iyengar et al, JAMA Oncology 2021). He is principal investigator of NRG LU 002, a phase III randomized trial assessing the benefits of immunotherapy -/+ local therapy on overall survival for stage IV NSCLC. Dr. Iyengar also runs an independent NIH-funded research laboratory studying cancer cachexia from a basic science and translational perspective.
Hari B. Keshava, MD, MS, FACS
Assistant Clinical Professor of Surgery, Thoracic Surgery, Division of Thoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of California, Irvine – School of Medicine, Orange, CA
Dr. Hari Keshava is a UCI Health thoracic surgeon who specializes in disorders of the chest, including lung cancer, metastatic lung cancer, mesothelioma, esophageal cancer and malignancies of the thymus. His clinical focus also includes gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), mediastinal malignancies, tracheal diseases and chest wall deformities. Keshava earned his medical degree from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, followed by a general surgery internship at UC San Francisco School of Medicine. He completed a residency in general surgery at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, as well as a research fellowship in thoracic oncology at Yale-New Haven Hospital in New Haven, Conn. Next he completed a cardiothoracic surgery fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Weill-Cornell Medical Center in New York City, which included a fellowship in thoracic surgical robotics from the American Association for Thoracic Surgery. Keshava also holds a master’s degree medical device and diagnostic engineering from USC. His research interests include outcomes in lung cancer, esophageal cancer and mesothelioma, as well as cancer survivorship, cancer detection devices and health policy. He is the author or co-author of numerous research articles in peer-reviewed journals, including the European Journal of Surgical Oncology, the Annals of Thoracic Surgery, and the World Journal of Surgery. He also has made presentations at national and international conferences, including the American College of Surgeons, the American Association for Thoracic Surgery, and The International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer.
Chul Kim, MD
Associate Professor, Georgetown University, Attending Physician, MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, Washington, DC
Dr. Chul Kim is an Associate Professor at Georgetown University with a focus on thoracic oncology. His goal as a thoracic medical oncologist is to introduce innovative cancer therapies into clinical practice, and he is devoted to formulating clinical trials aimed at promoting personalized cancer treatments. Dr. Kim’s academic journey began at the Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine in Seoul, South Korea, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude. He furthered his studies at the Harvard School of Public Health, obtaining a Master’s degree in Public Health. His medical training continued at the University of Minnesota where he trained in internal medicine. Later, he became a clinical fellow in hematology and oncology at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In 2018, Dr. Kim was honored with the Norman Rales Young Investigator Award from the Conquer Cancer Foundation of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). In 2021, he received the John F. Potter, MD, Award from Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Kim has authored more than 60 articles in reputable peer-reviewed journals, including Lancet Oncology, JAMA Oncology, Journal of Thoracic Oncology, Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, and Clinical Cancer Research. Additionally, he has served as a reviewer for various journals such as Journal of Clinical Oncology, Clinical Lung Cancer, Lancet HIV, Lancet Haematology, and JCO Precision Oncology. He is an active member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer.
Robert Kratzke, MD
Professor of Medicine, John Skoglund Chair in Lung Cancer, University of Minnesota Medical School, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
Dr. Kratzke graduated from the University of Washington School of Medicine in 1983 and completed his residency training in Internal Medicine at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics in 1986. Between 1986 and 1988, he did research at the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research at the University of Wisconsin Madison in the laboratory of Dr. Jeff Ross. He was a Medical Oncology Fellow at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) of the National Institutes of Health from 1988 to 1991, and stayed at the NCI doing research with Dr Frederick Kaye until 1994. From 1993 through 1994, Dr. Kratzke was also an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, MD. From 1994 to 2004, he was a Staff Physician at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center in the Section of Hematology/Oncology. He has spent his entire career in translational mesothelioma and lung cancer research beginning during his fellowship at the NCI-Navy Medical Oncology Branch (John Minna, Director). Based on his accomplishments in 2004 he was awarded the John Skoglund Chair for Lung Cancer Research at the University of Minnesota. In recent years he has redirected his research interests to projects involving oncolytic virotherapy and improving response to immunotherapy for lung cancer or mesothelioma therapy.
Corey J. Langer, MD, FACP
Director of Thoracic Oncology, Abramson Cancer Center ,Professor of Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Dr. Langer is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine, where he serves as Clinical Director of Thoracic Oncology in the Abramson Cancer Center. Professor Langer received his medical degree from Boston University in 1981 and completed his residency in medicine at the Graduate Hospital, University of Pennsylvania, and his hematology/oncology fellowship at Presbyterian University of Pennsylvania and Fox Chase Cancer Center in 1987. Professor Langer served in the Oncology division of Fox Chase Cancer Center from 1986–2008, leading its Thoracic Oncology Program from 1994–2008. He moved to the University of Pennsylvania in 2008, where he currently leads clinical research efforts in thoracic malignancy as part of the Interdisciplinary Thoracic Oncology Program (I-TOP) and conducts research studies focused on the role of targeted therapy and immunotherapy in NSCLC. He also co-directs the Thoracic Translational Center of Excellence, where he concentrates on the clinical end of bench to bedside projects. Professor Langer is Co-Chair of the Medical Oncology Committee for NRG Cooperative Oncology Group and serves on the core thoracic committees of both NRG and ECOG. Professor Langer is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and is a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC). Since 2016, he has been Editor-in-Chief of the International Lung Cancer News (ILCN) under the aegis of the IASLC. For the past 34 years, since completing his fellowship, Professor Langer has led or co-led over 140 clinical trials in both small cell (SCLC) and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), as well as mesothelioma and head and neck cancer. Professor Langer has contributed numerous articles and abstracts to the medical literature and is the author or co-author of over 270 peer-reviewed papers.
Xiuning Le, MD, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology, Division of Internal Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
As Assistant Professor in the Thoracic/Head and Neck department Dr. Le has contributed her knowledge via trials, clinical journals and lectures with focus non-small cell lung cancer with actionable oncogenes. Le earned her medical degree from the Peking Union Medical College. She then went on to earn a degree in Biological and Biomedical Sciences at Harvard Medical School in Boston. She completed her internship and residency at The University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester, MA, an additional residency at the University of Texas. Prior to joining the staff at M.D. Anderson, she also completed a fellowship at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School. Board certified in both internal medicine and medical oncology, Dr. Le specializes in thoracic, head, and neck oncology. Dr. Le has published more than 40 articles in the field of lung and head and neck cancer. She was first- or last author of many high-impact papers, including New England Journal of Medicine, Cancer Discovery, Clinical Cancer Research and Journal of Thoracic Oncology. Just recently Dr. Le received the ASCO Young Investigator Award, SU2C-TVF Convergence Program, Claudia Adams Barr for Innovative Cancer Research, ASCO Career Development Award, Paul Calabresi NIH K12 Award and more.
Natasha Leighl, MD, MMSc, FRCPC, FASCO
Lead Medical Oncologist, Clinician Investigator, Clinical Research Unit (CCRU), Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Professor Department of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON
Dr. Natasha Leighl leads the Thoracic Medical Oncology Group at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, and is Professor in the Department of Medicine, and Adjunct Professor in the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. She holds the OSI Pharmaceuticals Foundation Chair in Cancer New Drug Development through the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation. After receiving her MD from the University of Toronto, Canada, Dr. Leighl completed residencies in internal medicine at the University of Calgary and in medical oncology at the University of Toronto. She subsequently completed her fellowship in thoracic oncology at the Princess Margaret Hospital, Canada and a fellowship in clinical oncology at the University of Sydney, Australia. She received her Masters in Medical Science (MMSc) in clinical epidemiology at the University of Newcastle, Australia. Dr Leighl’s main interest is in developing new treatments in lung cancer and improving lung cancer diagnostics. She is involved in clinical studies of novel agents for the treatment of thoracic cancers, has led several international and cooperative group studies in lung cancer and has served as a member of the Lung Disease Site Group Executive of the Canadian Cancer Clinical Trials Group. She was Co-Chair of the CCTG Committee on Economic Analysis, Congress Co-President of the 2018 WCLC, and serves on multiple committees including the ASCO Thoracic Guidelines Advisory Group, is co-section editor of The Oncologist and Current Oncology, an editorial board member of the Journal of Thoracic Oncology, British Journal of Cancer, a member of the IASLC Quality and Value Committee, on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Lung Cancer Foundation of America, and was recently elected to the Board of Directors of the Americas Health Foundation.
Jessica Lin, MD
Associate Professor, Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Clinical Assistant in Medicine, Hematology/Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA
Jessica J. Lin, MD, is an attending physician in the Center for Thoracic Cancers and Henri and Belinda Termeer Center for Targeted Therapies at Massachusetts General Hospital. She is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Lin earned her bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry at Harvard College and medical degree from Harvard Medical School. She completed her internship and residency in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, serving as Chief Medical Resident at Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital. She subsequently trained in the Dana-Farber/MGH joint hematology/oncology fellowship program. Dr. Lin cares for patients with lung cancer and other thoracic malignancies and additionally performs clinical and translational research. Dr. Lin’s major research interests include studying driver oncogene alterations in non-small cell lung cancer and development of resistance to targeted therapies. She leads clinical trials of novel targeted therapy and immunotherapy agents in lung cancer. Her work has been recognized by awards and grants from organizations such as the Conquer Cancer Foundation/American Society of Clinical Oncology, International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer, and prIME Oncology.
Jennifer Marks, MD
Instructor in Medicine, Harvard Medical School Affiliate Staff, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Medical Oncologist, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Lowe Center for Thoracic Oncology, Boston, MA
Jennifer A. Marks, MD is a Thoracic Medical Oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital and an Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She received her medical degree from Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans, LA. She completed her internship and residency in Internal Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, GA, and her Medical Oncology fellowship at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, DC. Dr. Marks’ professional interests lie in precision medicine and biomarker identification, thymic tumors, and cellular therapies in lung cancers. Her research in MET Exon 14 Skipping Mutations in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer earned her prestigious recognitions including an Early Career Education Award at the 2022 World Conference on Lung Cancer and a Conquer Cancer Merit Award at the 2023 American Society of Clinical Oncology Conference. Her recent work investigates SEZ6 expression in neuroendocrine tumors and multicomplex immunofluorescent staining in thymic epithelial tumors. She developed a clinical trial protocol studying sacituzumab govitecan in advanced thymoma and thymic carcinoma at the AACR/ASCO Methods in Clinical Research Workshop, a trial that is actively enrolling. Dr. Marks is dedicated to advancing personalized care in thoracic oncology, driving innovation through clinical and translational research, and improving patient outcomes worldwide.
Nitin Ohri, MD, MS
Professor, Radiation Oncology, Montefiore Einstein, Bronx, NY
Dr. Nitin Ohri is Professor, Radiation Oncology at Montefiore Einstein. He is a radiation oncologist with a clinical focus on treating lung and gastrointestinal cancers. Dr. Ohri earned his Doctor of Medicine from Washington University in 2007. He then completed an internship in internal medicine at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in 2008 and then participated in a radiation oncology residency at Thomas Jefferson University, completing it in 2012. Dr. Ohri earned his Master’s degree from the Clinical Research Training Program at Montefiore Einstein in 2015. Dr. Ohri’s research focuses on incorporating novel imaging metrics in the implementation of radiotherapy for non-small cell lung cancer, understanding how physical activity data can be leveraged to enhance the value of cancer care, and exploring novel combinations of immunotherapy and radiotherapy. Dr. Ohri has designed numerous ongoing and completed investigator-initiated trials that test novel functional imaging-based radiotherapy delivery strategies and new combinations of immunotherapy and radiotherapy. He is also leading a series of trials incorporating continuous activity monitoring with wearable devices into the care of cancer patients. Dr. Ohri is board certified in Radiation Oncology by the American Board of Radiology and is a member of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology, the American Society for Clinical Oncology and the American Association for Cancer Research. He has won multiple awards, including numerous “Outstanding Reviewer” Awards from the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics, the Cancer Care Delivery Research Pilot Project Award from NRG Oncology and the Fellowship Award from the Empire Clinical Research Investigator Program.
Kelsey Pan, MD, MPH
MD Anderson Chief Fellow of Education, Hematology/Oncology Fellow, PGY-6, Division of Cancer Medicine, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Kelsey Pan is currently a third-year Hematology/ Oncology fellow at MD Anderson Cancer Center with a primary focus on clinical/ translational research in non-small cell lung cancer. Her interests within thoracic malignancies include clinical outcomes of novel targeted therapies, CNS metastases and LMD in oncogene-driven NSCLC. She will be joining Emory University Winship Cancer Center this fall as a thoracic medical oncologist and clinical investigator. She is interested in continuing her work in treating CNS metastases in NSCLC by designing clinical trials of intrathecal therapies and novel TKIs with enhanced CNS penetrance.
Cathleen Park, MD
Assistant Clinical Professor (Thoracic Oncology), Division of Hematology/Oncology, University of California Irvine Health, Orange, CA
Cathleen Park is a board-certified Medical Oncologist with expertise in treating thoracic malignancies at the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California, Irvine. Her research interests encompass targeted therapy, early phase clinical trials, and the application of plasma-based cancer biomarkers.
Sandip P. Patel, MD
Professor, Member Thoracic Oncology, Cancer Immunotherapy Programs, Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology/Oncology UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center, La Jolla, CA
Sandip Patel, MD is a Professor at UCSD and a Medical Oncologist focusing on early phase clinical trials of immunotherapy and thoracic oncology. He is the leader for the Experimental Therapeutics (Phase 1) Program and Deputy Director for the Center for Precision Immunotherapy at UCSD. He is co-leader of the NRG Developmental Therapeutics Committee and co-leader of the University of California Lung Cancer Consortium.
Shetal A. Patel, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor, Division of Oncology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, Chapel Hill, NC
Shetal Patel, MD, PhD, has a clinical focus in treating patients with thoracic and head/neck malignancies. Her research interests include translational studies and clinical trials to improve treatment options for patients, with a particular focus on novel immunotherapy combinations, genomic profiling, and targeted therapies. She leads the lung cancer clinical trials research group and co-leads the Precision Oncology Program at UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Carolyn J. Presley, MD MHS
Associate Professor with Tenure Section, Chief, Thoracic Medical Oncology, Thoracic Oncology/Geriatric Oncology, Co-Director of the Cancer and Aging Resiliency (CARE) Clinic Associate Medical Director of the Oncogeriatrics Program, The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, The James Cancer Hospital/Solove Research Institute, Columbus, OH
Dr. Carolyn Presley is an Associate Professor on the tenure track in the Division of Medical Oncology/Department of Internal Medicine at The Ohio State University, Comprehensive Cancer Center and The James Cancer Hospital/Solove Research Institute. She earned her medical degree from Dartmouth Medical School and completed residency in Internal Medicine and combined fellowship in Geriatric Oncology and Hematology at Yale University. Dr. Presley is an active member of the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Program, The American Geriatrics Society, and the American Society of Clinical Oncology. She has been a long-time member of the international Cancer and Aging Research Group (CARG). She currently leads studies focused on maintaining functional independence among older adults with lung cancer. These studies incorporate geriatric assessment, embedded palliative care, and interventions to improve risk factors for treatment toxicity and functional decline.
Suresh Ramalingam, MD, FACP, FASCO
Professor, Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology Roberto C. Goizueta, Distinguished Chair for Cancer Research, Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA
Board certified in medical oncology, Suresh S. Ramalingam, MD, FACP, FASCO, is nationally recognized as an investigator and a physician in the area of small cell and non-small cell lung cancer. Dr. Ramalingam serves as executive director of Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University and associate vice president for cancer of Woodruff Health Sciences Center. He is past-president of the Georgia Society of Oncology and a member of the board of Georgia CORE. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and a Georgia Cancer Coalition Distinguished Cancer Scholar. Dr. Ramalingam holds professional memberships with American Society of Clinical Oncology, American Association for Cancer Research, and International Association of Lung Cancer Study. He plays an active role in the ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group as the Chair of the Thoracic Malignancies Committee and as the Deputy Chair of Therapeutics Programs. He serves on several international, national and institutional committees. He is a member of the Medical Oncology Board Exam Committee for American Board of Internal Medicine.
Estelamari Rodriguez, MD, MPH
Clinical Research Lead Thoracic Site Disease Group, Associate Director for Community Outreach, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Aventura, FL
Dr. Estelamari Rodriguez is Co-Lead of the Thoracic Site Disease Group and Associate Director of Community Outreach and of the NCI-designated Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. She is an active member of the Sylvester Experimental Therapeutics Program and has served as principal investigator of several early phase and cooperative group clinical trials. Dr. Rodriguez received her bachelor’s degree from Columbia College and her medical degree from State University of New York (SUNY) Downstate College of Medicine. She completed her internal medicine residency at Columbia University’s New York- Presbyterian Hospital and her medical oncology fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Rodriguez also has a master’s degree in Public Health from the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Spain. She has given numerous lectures as invited speaker on issues related to lung cancer and healthcare disparities.
Anjali Rohatgi, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor, Medicine, Division of Internal Medicine, Section of Medical Oncology, Washington University, St. Louis, MO
Dr. Anjali Rohatgi is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Medical Oncology at Washington University. She received her MD and completed her residence in Internal Medicine from Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine. Following which, she completed her fellowship in Hematology/Oncology from University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Dr. Rohatgi has clinical interest in applying targeted therapies and immunotherapy to improve survival outcomes for patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer.
Logan N. Roof, MD, MS
Assistant Professor, Thoracic Medical Oncology, The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, Columbus, OH
Dr. Logan Roof is an Assistant Professor in Thoracic Medical Oncology at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center. She graduated from Medical University of South Carolina College of Medicine and completed her residency in Internal Medicine and fellowship in Hematology/Oncology from University of Cincinnati and Cleveland Clinic Foundation, respectively. Dr. Roof’s research is focused on advancing care for patients with mesothelioma, improving immunotherapy and targeted therapy techniques, and expanding access to lung cancer screening. She specializes in thoracic malignancies including lung cancer, mesothelioma, and thymic cancers. She has a particular interest in treating patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma.
Ari J. Rosenberg, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine, Section of Hematology/Oncology, Department of Medicine, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Dr. Rosenberg is currently an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Chicago. He completed his residency in internal medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago and his fellowship training in medical oncology and hematology at Northwestern University. He is a medical oncologist and clinical investigator focusing on head and neck cancer. Dr. Rosenberg develops and conducts clinical trials that incorporate novel tissue and blood-based biomarkers, and he has a particular focus on novel therapies and immunotherapeutic strategies, as well as developing multimodality treatment paradigms to reduce treatment-related toxicity.
Samuel S. Rosner, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine, Marlene & Stewart Greenebaum Cancer Center, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD
Dr. Rosner is a thoracic oncologist with expertise in peri-operative clinical trial design and immunotherapeutic drug development for early and advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Currently, he serves as an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Maryland Marlene & Stewart Greenebaum Cancer Center. In his clinical role, he treats patients with thoracic malignancies. Prior to joining faculty at the University of Maryland, he completed his post-graduate oncology fellowship training at the Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center (SKCCC), during which time he served as Chief Oncology Fellow from 2022-2023. One of Dr. Rosner’s research goals focuses on improving peri-operative outcomes for patients with early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Key research efforts in this treatment space include evaluating the role of immune checkpoint blockade in the perioperative management of early-stage NSCLC, as well as assessing the surrogacy of pathologic endpoints, such as pathological complete response (pCR), in terms of long-term clinical outcomes for patients who receive neoadjuvant therapy. Dr. Rosner is also actively involved in the conception, design and implementation of early-phase clinical trials testing novel immunotherapeutic strategies for both early and advanced stage NSCLC. For his effort evaluating the immunologic responses of KRAS-mutant NSCLC, he was awarded the 2022 ASCO Young Investigator Award. In addition, his work evaluating the response of oncogene-driven NSCLC to neoadjuvant immune checkpoint blockade was recognized with an ASCO Merit award at the 2023 ASCO annual meeting. Dr. Rosner is an active member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC).
Julia Rotow, MD
Medical Oncologist, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Lowe Center for Thoracic Oncology, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
Dr. Rotow received her MD from the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. She completed her residency training in Internal Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital and her fellowship training in Hematology/Oncology at the University of California, San Francisco. She practices as a thoracic oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute where she is and clinical director of the Lowe Center for Thoracic Oncology and an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School. Her research interests include the development of targeted therapies for the treatment of oncogene-driven lung cancer.
Nabil Saba, MD, FACP
Professor and Vice Chair for Quality and Safety, Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Emory University School of Medicine, Co-Director, Head and Neck Cancer Multidisciplinary Program, Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, Atlanta, GA
Nabil F. Saba, MD, FACP, is an internationally recognized expert in the treatment of head and neck cancers. Dr. Saba is professor and vice chair in the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology, and the Inaugural Lynne and Howard Halpern Chair in Head and Neck Cancer Research. He holds a joint appointment as professor in the Department of Otolaryngology at Emory University School of Medicine. He serves as director of the Head and Neck Cancer Medical Oncology Program and is co-leader of the Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Program at Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University. Dr. Saba earned his Medical Degree from the American University of Beirut Medical School. He completed a Residency in Internal Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, and a Clinical Fellowship in Hematology and Oncology at Brown University School of Medicine. He subsequently completed a Bone Marrow Transplant Fellowship at the University of Toronto Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto, Canada. Dr. Saba is a well-recognized expert in immunotherapy for head and neck cancer and upper aero-digestive malignancies. His work is focused on translational research and the study and development of novel therapeutic agents and modalities in these diseases. He has been principal investigator in more than 50 clinical trials and chairs national as well as investigator initiated multi-institution studies focusing on novel approaches for treating head and neck and esophageal cancer. Dr Saba has been instrumental in establishing the head and neck cancer research working group at Winship Cancer Institute and is the contact principal investigator of the Lead Academic Participating Site (LAPS) grant of the NCI’s National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN).
Joshua K. Sabari, MD
Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, NYU Langone Health Director, High Reliability Organization Initiative Perlmutter Cancer Center, New York, NY
Dr. Sabari is an Assistant Professor of Medicine, Thoracic Medical Oncologist and member of the Phase I Experimental Therapeutics Group in the Department of Medical Oncology at New York University School of Medicine, NYU Langone Health Perlmutter Cancer Center. Dr. Sabari’s research focus includes developing new treatments for people with lung cancers. His goal is to develop biomarker-driven clinical trials that offer patients unprecedented access to novel therapies and personalized treatments.
Jacob Sands, MD
Assistant Professor, Medicine, Harvard Medical School Physician, Thoracic Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA
Dr. Jacob Sands joined the faculty in the Lowe Center for Thoracic Oncology at Dana-Farber in 2017. He received his MD from the University of Cincinnati in 2005. He completed his residency in internal medicine at the University of California, Davis and fellowship training in hematology/oncology also at the University of California, Davis. His research focuses on improved diagnostics and treatments for small cell lung cancer as well as improving lung screening and assisting in the development of lung screening programs throughout the country. Dr. Sands conducts clinical trials with novel treatment options with particular focus on small cell lung cancer and antibody drug conjugates. He leads the small cell lung cancer clinical research program at DFCI and has helped develop multiple protocols for small cell lung cancer trials. His largest clinical trial is an NCI-sponsored adjuvant non-small cell lung cancer study incorporating immunotherapy either concurrent with chemotherapy or sequential after chemotherapy. Dr. Sands was a member of the committee that developed and oversaw a benchmark lung screening program that has become a model for program development throughout the country. He is a co-founder and President of the Rescue Lung Society, a 501(c)3 non-profit medical society focused on advancing lung cancer screening.
Ashish Saxena, MD, PhD
Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY
Dr. Saxena is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College and Assistant Attending Physician at the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. He graduated from the Medical Scientist Training Program at Stony Brook University, receiving his MD and a PhD in Genetics. Following this he completed his residency in internal medicine at Montefiore Medical Center and fellowship in Hematology/Oncology at Weill Cornell Medical College-New York-Presbyterian Hospital. After fellowship Dr. Saxena worked as a post-doctoral research fellow at the Sloan Kettering Institute of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center where his research focused on the study of exosomes. He returned to Weill Cornell Medical College in 2015 to join the faculty of the Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology in their Thoracic Oncology program. Dr. Saxena’s clinical and research interests have been in the study and management of different forms of lung cancer. He currently treats patients with non-small cell and small-cell lung cancers, mesothelioma, thymoma, and sarcomas of the lung. He is involved in both clinical and laboratory research, collaborating with physicians and scientists at Weill Cornell as well as other institutions.
Jaime Schneider, MD, PhD
Attending Physician, Center for Thoracic Cancers, MGH Cancer Center, Assistant in Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Instructor in Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
Dr. Jaime Schneider is a medical oncologist specializing in the care of patients with thoracic malignancies at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston, MA. She is an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School where she uses integrative metabolomics approaches to study metabolic dependencies in lung cancer. Dr. Schneider received her MD and PhD degrees from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and completed her residency training in Internal Medicine at MGH. Dr. Schneider then matriculated into the Hematology/Oncology fellowship program at Harvard where she trained as a medical oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and MGH Cancer Center. She joined the laboratory of Dr. Marcia Haigis at Harvard Medical School for her post-doctoral work to investigate mechanisms of cancer resistance through metabolic reprogramming. She is the recipient of research awards from organizations including A Breath of Hope Lung Foundation, Lung Cancer Research Foundation, ALK Positive, EGFR Resisters, American Cancer Society, AACR, and the IASLC. The primary focus of Dr. Schneider’s research is to develop novel therapeutic strategies for patients with advanced lung cancers. Her basic/translational research efforts are dedicated to the study of resistance mechanisms in molecularly defined subsets of lung cancer. The ultimate goal of her research is to improve outcomes for patients living with lung cancer.
Kasmintan (Intan) Schrader, MBBS, FRCPC, PhD, DABMG
Assistant Professor, Department of Medical Genetics, The University of British Columbia, Program Medical Co-Director, Hereditary Cancer BC Cancer, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Dr. Kasmintan Schrader works as Program Medical Co-Director at the BC Cancer agency’s Provincial Hereditary Cancer Program. She received her medical degree from the University of Melbourne (2003), and completed her residency in Medical Genetics at the University of British Columbia, Canada. Dr Schrader undertook the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada Clinician Investigator Program to undertake graduate studies in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine to investigate the association between germline mutations in CDH1 and lobular breast cancer. Her PhD work evolved to include use of next-generation sequencing technology to identify Mendelian disease genes. She was subsequently awarded a Canadian Institutes of Health and Research training award to pursue her interests in using next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology to determine novel susceptibility genes in familial colon cancer as a research fellow at MSKCC. Dr Schrader utilized NGS to co-discover PAX5 as a novel susceptibility gene to Pre-B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. She has also utilized NGS to analyze DNA of multiple primary tumors in parallel with the germline DNA and successfully determined the underlying cancer susceptibility in the patient. In addition to looking for novel susceptibility genes, in view of the rapid sequencing advances in oncology, Dr. Schrader’s research involves assessing the scope and impact of incidental findings identified in the course of next generation sequencing in the research and clinical setting.
Eric Kumar Singhi, MD
Assistant Professor, General Oncology, Assistant Professor, Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Dr. Eric K. Singhi is an Assistant Professor and Thoracic Medical Oncologist at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. He completed his Internal Medicine residency at Vanderbilt University and served as Chief Hematology/Oncology fellow at MD Anderson during his training. As faculty at MD Anderson, Dr. Singhi specializes in patient education research and young onset lung cancer research. He serves as the Patient Safety and Quality Officer for the Thoracic Medical Oncology Service Line, and as Co-Director of the Thoracic Medical Oncology rotation for the MD Anderson medical oncology fellowship program.
Ferdinandos Skoulidis, MD, PhD, MRCP
Associate Professor, Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Dr. Ferdinanados Skoulidis is currently a Tenured Associate Professor (Physician Scientist) at the Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. He obtained a Medical Degree from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece in 2000 and a PhD from the University of Cambridge, UK in 2011. He completed general medicine residency and medical oncology fellowship training in Cambridge and London, UK. Dr Skoulidis’ laboratory is focused on (a) unraveling the molecular and clinical heterogeneity of KRAS-mutant non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and developing novel therapeutic strategies to target KRAS-mutant lung tumors; (b) maximizing the therapeutic potential of direct KRAS inhibitors and (c) elucidating the impact of individual somatic genomic alterations on the NSCLC immune contexture and immunotherapy response, with the goal of developing novel precision oncogenotype-tailored immunotherapeutic strategies. Dr Skoulidis has received several awards for his research including a 2019 AACR NextGen Star award. His work has been published in high-impact scientific journals including The New England Journal of Medicine, Cancer Discovery, Cancer Cell, Nature Reviews Cancer and his research has attracted research funding from the NIH/NCI, the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas and the US Department of Defense.
Fangdi Sun, MD
Fellow, Hematology & Medical Oncology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA
Dr. Fangdi Sun is Hematology & Medical Oncology Fellow at Stanford University School of Medicine. She completed her undergraduate studies in Biological Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, followed by her medical degree at Harvard Medical School. She then completed a residency and chief residency in Internal Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco as part of the PRIME clinical research pathway, working with Dr. Caroline McCoach to study clinical outcomes of novel tyrosine kinase inhibitors in oncogene-addicted non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). As a fellow at Stanford, she hopes to hone her interests in thoracic oncology as a clinical trial investigator, with a focus on mechanisms of resistance to targeted therapies in NSCLC.
Salomon Tendler, MD, PhD
Advanced Medical Oncology Fellow & Research Associate, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY
Dr. Salomon Tendler, MD, PhD, is a medical oncologist and research fellow at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in New York City. He is affiliated with both the Jason Lewis Lab and the Charles Rudin Lab at MSKCC . Dr. Tendler earned his PhD in Oncology-Pathology from the Karolinska Institutet in 2020, where his doctoral research focused on the epidemiology of small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) and the analysis of clinical and tumor-specific prognostic biomarkers . He is currently licensed to practice medicine in New York State and is board certified in medical oncology . Dr. Tendler’s research interests center on thoracic oncology, particularly small-cell lung cancer and neuroendocrine tumors. His recent work includes a first-in-human imaging study using a zirconium-labeled anti-DLL3 antibody to detect high-grade neuroendocrine tumors of the lung and prostate, published in The Lancet Oncology in August 2024 . Additionally, he co-authored a commentary on the potential of tarlatamab, a DLL3-targeted therapy, for treating SCLC, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology in June 2023 . Dr. Tendler’s contributions to oncology research, particularly in the development of novel imaging techniques and targeted therapies, underscore his commitment to advancing cancer diagnosis and treatment.
Ana I. Velázquez Mañana, MD, MSc, FASCO
Assistant Professor of Medicine | UCSF Division of Hematology/Oncology at ZSFG, Assistant Director of DEIA for Training | UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, John A. Watson Scholar, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
Dr. Ana Velázquez Mañana, MD, MSc, is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the UCSF Division of Hematology/Oncology at Zuckerberg San Francisco General and a thoracic oncologist at the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. She also serves as Assistant Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility for Trainees of the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and co-chairs the UCSF Department of Medicine Fellowship Diversity Committee. She completed her MD at the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine, and Internal Medicine residency at Mount Sinai Beth Israel. She joined UCSF in 2018 to complete her clinical fellowship in Medical Oncology. Dr. Velazquez’s research portfolio centers on the use of health services and cancer disparities research to decrease barriers to clinical trial participation, improve the quality of care delivered to underserved and racial minority patients with cancer, and evaluate the unmet social and supportive care needs of patients with lung cancer from vulnerable backgrounds. Her goals are to develop interventions that improve healthcare access and cancer care delivery for vulnerable populations. Dr. Velazquez’s research is supported by the American Association for Cancer Research, Conquer Cancer Foundation of ASCO, Stavros Niarchos Foundation, LUNGevity, National Institute on Aging, National Cancer Institute, and pilot funds from the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Ming Sound Tsao, MD, FRCPC, FRSC, FCAHS
Senior Scientist and Consultant, Thoracic Pathologist, University Health Network, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, Professor of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON
Dr. Tsao is a Thoracic Pathologist and Senior Scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto, Canada, Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology and Professor of Medical Biophysics at the University of Toronto. He is the current Secretary and a member of the Board of Directors, member of the Staging and Prognostic Factor Committee, and member and past Chair of the Pathology Committee of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC). He has published extensively in the pathology, prognostic and predictive biomarkers, and molecular pathobiology of lung cancer. Dr. Tsao was a member of the Standing Editorial Board for the 5th Edition of the WHO Classification on Tumours, and past Chair (2006-23) of the Canadian Cancer Trials Group (CCTG) Correlative Science and Tumor Biology Committee. He is globally known as a leader in molecular testing for lung cancer and has led several multi-center projects to standardize lung cancer biomarker assays in Canada. Dr. Tsao was a recipient of the Canadian Cancer Society O. Harold Warwick Award, the IASLC Mary Matthew Pathology and Translational Research Award, and the CCTG Dr. Joseph Pater Founder’s Award for Excellence in Clinical Trials Research. He is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.
Rajwanth Veluswamy, MD
Associate Professor of Medicine, Perlmutter Cancer Center, NYU Langone Health,
New York, NY
Dr. Rajwanth Veluswamy is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Perlmutter Cancer Center – NYU Langone Health. He is a board-certified medical oncologist who specializes in the treatment of lung cancer and other thoracic malignancies. He earned his M.D. from the University of Szeged and a Masters of Science in Clinical Research at Mount Sinai. Following which, he completed residency in Internal Medicine at Methodist Dallas Medical Center, and a research internship at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. He then, completed both a clinical fellowship in Hematology and Medical Oncology and a General Medicine research fellowship at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Dr. Veluswamy’s research focuses on understanding the factors responsible for clinical outcomes in lung cancer patients, from patterns of care to differences in therapeutic drug efficacy. He has published extensively and presented his research at international meetings where he has received numerous merit awards. He received a prestigious ASCO Young Investigator Award in recognition and support of his research during fellowship. Dr. Veluswamy’s clinical interest is to provide personalized treatment that best fits each patient. He collaborates with a multidisciplinary team of experts and scientists that are highly active in the treatment and research of thoracic malignancies.
Mitchell von Itzstein, MD
Assistant Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Hematology and Oncology, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX
Mitchell von Itzstein, M.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine’s Division of Hematology and Oncology at UT Southwestern Medical Center. He specializes in lung cancer, thoracic oncology, and cancer immunotherapy. Dr. von Itzstein earned his medical degree at Griffith University in Queensland, Australia. He completed both his residency in internal medicine and fellowship in medical oncology at UT Southwestern. Certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in medical oncology and internal medicine, he joined the UT Southwestern faculty in 2024.Dr. von Itzstein is a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer, and he serves as Review Editor for Frontiers in Immunology and Frontiers in Oncology.He has delivered invited lectures and published peer-reviewed academic articles, reviews, editorials, and case reports related to his areas of expertise. He also has intellectual property related to his studies on genetic predictors of immune-related adverse events. He serves as site principal investigator on several studies.
Heather Wakelee, MD, FASCO
Winston Chen and Phyllis Huang, Professor, Professor of Medicine/Chief-Division of Oncology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Deputy Director, Stanford Cancer Institute, Past President, International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC), Stanford, CA
Dr. Heather Wakelee is a Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Oncology at Stanford University, and Deputy Director of the Stanford Cancer Institute. Dr. Wakelee serves as the Past President of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) and she is a Fellow of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (FASCO). She is a graduate of Princeton University and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and completed her post-graduate training at Stanford University. As an experienced lung cancer investigator, Dr. Wakelee has authored or co-authored over 300 medical articles on lung cancer and thymic malignancies and is involved in dozens of clinical trials involving adjuvant therapy, immunotherapy, and anti-angiogenesis agents. Her research focuses on many specific lung cancer subtypes defined by specific mutations in EGFR, ALK, ROS1, RET, BRAF and others. Her translational efforts to date have involved collaborations with colleagues in medical oncology, thoracic radiation oncology, thoracic surgery, radiology, pulmonary medicine, and population sciences.
Frank Weinberg, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology and Oncology, University of Illinois College of Medicine, Chicago, IL
Frank Weinberg, MD, PhD, is a physician-researcher, Assistant Professor in the Division of Hematology and Oncology at the University of Illinois College of Medicine Chicago and a medical oncologist at UI Health focused on providing the best care for patients with lung cancer. He graduated from University of Illinois and completed his residency and fellowship from University of Michigan. In his research, Dr. Weinberg focuses on improving outcomes for patients undergoing immunotherapy, with a particular interest in advancing the understanding of cancer biology and metabolism. As a member of the University of Illinois Cancer Center, his contributions to these fields have led to important discoveries that inform clinical practice. Under his leadership, UI Health’s lung cancer immunotherapy trials are establishing new benchmarks in cancer treatment, further advancing the standard of care in this area.
Frederick Wilson, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor of Medicine, Yale School of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, CT
Dr. Frederick Wilson, MD, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Medicine (Medical Oncology) at Yale School of Medicine. He is affiliated with the Smilow Cancer Hospital Thoracic Oncology Program and the Yale Cancer Center. Dr. Wilson earned his PhD from Yale University in 2002 and his MD from Harvard Medical School in 2007. He completed his internship and residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, followed by a fellowship in medical oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Massachusetts General Hospital. Additionally, he undertook a research fellowship at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT. Dr. Wilson’s research focuses on identifying and characterizing genetic vulnerabilities in cancer, as well as understanding resistance mechanisms to targeted therapies. His recent work includes the identification of RASGRF1 gene fusions as oncogenic drivers in non-small cell lung cancer, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, and sarcoma, demonstrating sensitivity to MAP kinase pathway inhibition. He has also investigated PRMT5 pathway inhibition as a therapeutic strategy in cancers with MTAP loss, providing a rationale for the development of PRMT5 and MAT2A inhibitors. Furthermore, Dr. Wilson has explored resistance to targeted therapies in lung cancer, identifying novel genetic drivers of resistance to ALK inhibitors in ALK-dependent lung cancer models. His work aims to inform the development of treatment paradigms to delay or overcome resistance to targeted therapies in patients with advanced lung cancers.
Francis Paul Worden, MD
Clinical Professor, Endocrine Oncology Clinic, Roger Cancer Center, University of Michigan Health, Ann Arbor, MI
Dr Frank Worden is a Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center. Dr Worden earned a degree in pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences from Purdue University and is a graduate from the Indiana University School of Medicine. He then completed a residency in Medicine and Pediatrics at the Detroit Medical Center. Following residency, Dr Worden completed a fellowship in hematology and oncology at the University of Michigan and joined the faculty in 2000. Dr Worden is the director of the Michigan Medicine Head and Neck Clinical Research Team and lead endocrine oncologist for the Michigan Medicine Endocrine Oncology Program. He is the former fellowship program director for hematology/oncology at Michigan Medicine. In 2019, Dr Worden was named the Nancy Wigginton Endowed Chair of Thyroid Cancer Research. His clinical interests include organ preservation strategies for locally advanced, HPV-related head and neck cancers and clinical trials research for thyroid cancers.
John Wrangle, MD, MPH
Associate Professor, MUSC Hollings Cancer Center, Medical University of South Carolina,
Charleston, SC
Dr. John Wrangle is a thoracic medical oncologist who specializes in treating non-small cell and small cell lung cancer as well as other thoracic malignancies at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). His medical degree was awarded by Tulane University School of Medicine. He completed a residency in internal medicine at Emory University School of Medicine, followed by fellowship training at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Dr. Wrangle is dedicated to bringing novel combination immunotherapy treatments to patient care and has developed precision medicine protocols designed to create additional options for patients so they can avoid poorly tolerated, low-efficacy chemotherapy treatment. Dr. Wrangle is actively involved in clinical trials and research examining the use of immunotherapy drugs in the treatment of lung cancer and other thoracic malignancies.
Evan Wu, MD, PhD
Director of Thoracic Oncology, Hawaii Pacific Health, Assistant Professor, Translational and Clinical Research Program, University of Hawaii Cancer Center, Hawaii, HI
Dr. Evan Wu earned his Medical Degree from the University of Miami and Ph.D. in Biostatistics from Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Wu attended Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Division of Hematology and Oncology, where he was fellowship trained in medical oncology. Dr. Wu is a board-certified medical oncologist and clinical researcher focusing on thoracic cancers, including lung cancer and mesothelioma. Dr. Wu previously worked as a Medical Director in early oncology at AstraZeneca, where he led the development of targeted therapies for lung cancer.
Jia Wu
Associate Professor, Department of Thoracic-Head & Neck Medical Oncology, Division of Diagnostic Imaging, Associate Professor, Department of Imaging Physics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Dr. Wu is an NIH-funded Principal Investigator and an Associate Professor in the Department of Imaging Physics and in the Department of Thoracic/Head & Neck Medical Oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. He is a trained computational scientist and obtained a Ph.D. in Bioengineering and Civil Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh. He was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania and an instructor at Stanford University. His Laboratory is focused on the development and application of innovative computational and analytical approaches to improve the diagnosis, treatment, early detection and prevention of cancer.
Jianjun Zhang, MD, PhD
Professor, Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology, Professor, Department of Genomic Medicine Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Jianjun Zhang is Professor of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center. He serves as the Chair of Lung Moon Shot GEMINI database, the Director of Lung Cancer Interception Program and Director of Lung Cancer Genomics Program. He is a physician scientist with research focusing on elucidating the impact of cancer molecular features on host anti-tumor immune surveillance during cancer evolution with or without anti- tumor therapy and the molecular mechanisms underlying the transformation of premalignancy into invasive lung cancer. His group has made critical contributions to understand the molecular evolution during early lung carcinogenesis. His group has led a series of studies that demonstrated progressive genomic/epigenomic alterations from normal lung cells to lung premalignancies, preinvasive lung cancers and invasive lung cancers accompanied by a gradually less effective and more intensively regulated immune response; driver mutations, chromosomal copy number aberrations (CNAs) and aberrant DNA methylation may collectively impinge host immune responses and facilitate immune evasion, promoting the outgrowth of fit subclones in preneoplasia into dominant clones in invasive lung cancer; complex molecular heterogeneity is associated with impaired T cell response and inferior survival. He published >200 peer-reviewed papers in high-impact journals including Nature, Science, Cell, Lancet Oncology, Journal of Clinical Oncology, etc. His studies have led to the development of two unique clinical trials in a completely novel clinical research field: targeting tumor immune microenvironment for lung cancer prevention: IMPRINT-Lung and Can-Prevent-Lung.