Lung Cancer Voices Summit

[Judy M2]

Today I watched the opening presentation of the GO2 Foundation's Lung Cancer Voices Summit, the purpose of which is to advocate to Congress for increased Federal funding for lung cancer research, as well as passage of The Women and Lung Cancer Preventative Services Act of 2021. This Act is meant to look at why lung cancer is striking more younger women and never-smokers.  Regrettably, I registered too late to participate in the virtual meetings with members of Congress (or their staff). 

One of the keynote speakers was the wonderful Dr. Christine Lovly, who spoke at LUNGevity's 2020 International Lung Cancer Survivorship Conference. She discussed the ongoing research into targeted therapies and immunotherapies, clinical trials for less common gene mutations that are not currently treatable and research into treatments for SCLC. Dr. Lovly was very encouraged and optimistic by all of the work that is being undertaken. 

I also had the opportunity to hear from Dr. Jennifer King (Chief Scientific Officer of GO2), who said that they have an ongoing study for young women (under 50) with a diagnosis of lung cancer. The link to the study is: https://go2foundation.org/blog/cracking-the-code-on-lung-cancer-in-younger-adults/. I thought this might be of interest to our younger members. 

My takeaway from the presentation is that as fast as the science has moved in the last 5 years, it continues to speed into the future. It sounds like the FDA has a lot in the approvals pipeline to help everyone in this community.