NY Lung Seeks to Bridge Gaps in Lung Cancer Decision-Making

Balazs Halmos, MD, MS

The 18th Annual New York Lung Cancers Symposium (NY Lung), scheduled for November 11, 2023, as a live meeting in New York, New York, boasts an agenda that covers a broad range of modern clinical topics. The aim of the agenda is to synthesize the latest data for practical application from meetings such as the 2023 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting, the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer 2023 World Conference on Lung Cancer, and the European Society for Medical Oncology Congress 2023.

“We have a group of fantastic experts who, in a conversational way, will take us through specific patient [cases] that we might see next week and [discuss] how they would make key decisions to figure out the best possible [treatment] path,” cochair Balazs Halmos, MD, MS, said of the meeting’s new addition, a sunrise tumor board. “[Faculty] will [also] provide [examples of] things that [may] happen on those paths that could change their treatment decisions and management along the way. This session will be absolutely terrific. Each of us will need to wake up early to make sure we don’t miss it.”

The agenda includes topics such as best approaches for immunotherapy in resectable non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), management of immune-related adverse events, the latest on novel and approved antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), approaches for testing and treatment selection in oncogenedriven NSCLC, as well as emerging applications for circulating tumor DNA and minimal residual disease assessment.

“[Another session will focus] on immunotherapy and breaking it down to the ABCs—how to integrate immunotherapy in terms of patient management, how do we [select] patients up front with stage IV NSCLC for single-agent or combination treatment, but also how to [treat] a patient on immunotherapy when it comes to [adverse] effects, as well as duration of therapy. All the key elements that a clinician will need to know about immunotherapy administration, this session should cover,” he said.

Another element to the NY Lung symposium is the dedicated lunch session for nurse practitioners and physician assistants led by Rasheda Persinger, MSN, AGNP-C, AOCNP; and Megan Schollenberger, MSN, CRNP. “We need to adapt and change and grow over time. And I think what we’re invested in is to make sure that this [meeting] is appropriate for a broad audience and that includes nurse practitioners and physician assistants,” Halmos said. “We want a conference that is rich in terms of content and expertise but also provides a spectrum of views.”

Halmos highlighted the ADC-focused sessions on the new developments
in the field. “We’ll have terrific session on targeted therapies, focusing
on KRAS, EGFR, all the usual suspects, but also looking at acquired resistance. Additionally, 2 challenging sets of cases [will be presented] and will put an excellent finale on the day.”