WCLC 2024: Ensuring Everyone Benefits From Advances in Lung Cancer Treatment

Recent years have seen encouraging strides in the management of lung cancer, but concerns persist that these innovations may not be reaching global patient populations equitably. Progress and room for improvement on this quest will be major topics of discussion at the 2024 World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC), which will take place in San Diego, California, from September 7 to 10.

This year’s WCLC will include festivities to mark the 50th anniversary of its sponsoring organization, the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer. While there’s a lot of progress to celebrate in the field of lung cancer diagnosis and treatment, the agenda also reflects the need to keep striving toward making these options available worldwide, not just in the most advanced cancer centers and wealthiest countries.

The agenda reflects the need to keep striving toward making new lung cancer diagnosis and treatment options available worldwide. | Image Credit: © sergey nivens - stock.adobe.com

For instance, a session on screening and early detection will feature speakers delivering their case studies from around the world—from Argentina to Serbia to Hong Kong to Australia and beyond. A common thread of these presentations will be the need to make interventions culturally and linguistically relevant to the populations they serve.

Another recurring theme on the agenda is the recognition of the influence that factors other than tobacco smoking can have on lung cancer risk. For example, one session will feature presentations on indoor and outdoor air pollution and genetic alterations as drivers of lung cancer development, and a plenary session will discuss the roles of climate change, inflammatory responses, and airborne carcinogens.

WCLC will feature a number of sessions and posters on how to support patients through the lung cancer journey, such as by incorporating multidisciplinary care teams and offering digital therapeutics. The research to be presented at the conference reflects the knowledge that a lung cancer diagnosis impacts not just a patient’s physical health but also their finances, mental health, sexual well-being, and relationships with their caregivers.

A welcome message from WCLC heralds the meeting as “the premier platform—not only for the presentation of new science—but also for unique networking opportunities,” and the agenda promises chances for attendees to enjoy both. The networking opportunities will come in the form of the 50th anniversary celebration event as well as poster viewing networking receptions and other events sprinkled throughout the program, and the presentation of new science will occur at events like the presidential symposia and plenary sessions.

In the 2 presidential symposia, researchers will present updates on biomarker testing, machine learning, screening protocols, and the tumor microenvironment, as well as trial results of new and established agents as monotherapy or in combinations. Drugs under investigation in these trials span the alphabet from aumonertinib to zongertinib, and presenting authors will be on hand for press conferences afterwards to answer questions on how their results may change clinical practice.

The WCLC welcome message notes that the conference is open to patients, survivors, and advocates in addition to physicians, nurses, researchers, and scientists. “It is only through an exchange of the widest variety of research that we can offer the best program and benefits to our members and patients,” the letter states.

Reference

Welcome message. 2024 World Conference on Lung Cancer. Accessed September 5, 2024. https://wclc2024.iaslc.org/welcome-message/