#LCSM Chat Topic 09/19/19: World Lung (#WCLC19) Wrap-Up
Please join the #lcsm community and moderator Brendon Stiles (@BrendonStilesMD) for our next #LCSM Chat on Thursday, September 19th, 2019, at 8 pm Eastern Time (5 pm Pacific).
Clinicians, researchers, patients and advocates from all over the world attended the 2019 World Conference on Lung Cancer (#WCLC19) from September 7-10 in Barcelona. This annual event, hosted by the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC), is a showcase for all of the latest news and advances in lung cancer. The meeting is somewhat unique in that it is multidisciplinary in nature and covers the breadth of the disease, from risk factors and prevention, to screening for lung cancer, to staging and molecular classification, to surgery and radiation therapy for early stage disease, and to immunotherapy, targeted therapy, and novel therapeutics for patients with advanced cancer.
WCLC19 offers a truly breathtaking and diverse collection of invited talks and original scientific presentations. Better yet, it is a chance to bring everyone interested in lung cancer together in one place to learn from each other and to foster future collaborations. Increasingly the meeting has also embraced the role that patients and advocates should have at the table during scientific meetings. This year, the IASLC unveiled their STARS program (Supportive Training for Advocates on Research and Science), training designed to increase the ability of patients and advocates to provide accurate scientific translation to their peer groups and to provide the patient perspective to lung cancer research and policy.
The meeting and the STARS program were both amazing. Several themes emerged at #WCLC19, which are all reflective of the intense interest in improving lung cancer outcomes throughout the world. With that in mind, #LCSM Chat this week will cover some of the highlights of #WCLC19 using the following questions:
- T1. Lung cancer screening was a hot topic at #WCLC19. What is new in that area?
- T2. What is important to know about molecular testing? Is universal testing coming?
- T3. What was new at #WCLC19 regarding immunotherapy?
- T4. Are there any exciting new targets being investigated in lung cancer?
- T5. What was STARS and how can patients/advocates get more involved at scientific meetings?
We are excited to have you join us for this #LCSM Chat. Please join us this Thursday and please remember to include #lcsm in ALL your tweets so the other chat participants can see them. You can read a primer on participating in the chat here.
#CANCERSM Chat topic 14-Aug-2019–Finding Balance: “Cancer Life” vs. “Real Life”
In lieu of #LCSM Chat in August 2019, please join a collaborative #CancerSM chat with other cancer hashtag communities on Twitter (#gyncsm #bcsm #btsm #mmsm #ayacsm) about Finding Balance: ‘Cancer Life’ vs. ‘Real Life’.” Note this is a different day and time than usual for #LCSM Chat–this chat will be Wednesday, August 14th at 9pm ET. Learn more at http://gyncsm.blogspot.com/2019/08/joint-cancersm-chat-finding-balance.html .
#CANCERSM Chat topic 11-Jul-2019: Basics of Biomarker Testing
Until just a few years ago, chemotherapy was often the only option for some cancer patients. In just a few short years, molecular therapies and immunotherapies have become commonplace as treatments for cancer patients. But determining whether a particular cancer patient is a candidate for these new, often very expensive, molecular and immunotherapies requires molecular biomarker testing. For many cancer patients and their families, the role of molecular biomarker testing in their diagnosis is a unfamiliar and confusing. How is testing performed? How is the test result analyzed? What is involved in getting helpful answers from biomarker testing? Does liquid biopsy have a role?
Pathologists are specialized doctors responsible for answering these questions. They identify any cancer cells in the biopsied specimen, and guide the patient’s biomarker testing. Unfortunately, pathologists do not typically speak with patients, so patients and families–and even some doctors–often do not have a clear understanding of the role of molecular biomarker testing in the diagnosis and treatment of cancers. Learning more about the basics of biomarker testing can help patients and families cut through the hype about biomarker testing, understand the patient’s specific disease more thoroughly, and learn what biomarker test results mean to the patient’s cancer treatment.
Please join moderator and pathologist Dr. Timothy Craig Allen (@TimAllenMDJD) at 8 PM Eastern Time on Thursday, July 11, 2019, for a discussion about the basics of biomarker testing, a subject potentially affecting all cancer patients and doctors. We will cover the following topics:
- T1: What is a biomarker and how is it identified?
- T2: What is biomarker testing and what is it used for?
- T3: What treatment options can be identified through biomarker testing?
- T4: What biomarker tests should be run for which types of cancers? What is a liquid biopsy and when is useful?
- T5: Can and should patients pursue biomarker testing for treatment options if their doctor does not offer it?
Please remember to include #cancersm in ALL your tweets so the other chat participants can see them. If you need a refresher, read the #LCSM primer on participating in a Twitter chat (the hashtag in your tweets will be #cancersm, not #LCSM). Note that some tweetchat apps (like tchat.io) will not display tweets longer than 140 characters. Hope you’ll join us!
