Summary of Presentations from the Ninth Annual Targeted Therapies in Lung Cancer Symposium

Abstract

Over the past several years, leading experts from around the world have been gathering annually in Santa Monica, CA, to discuss strategies for improving the outcomes of patients with lung cancer using molecularly targeted therapies. In contrast to the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology or American Association of Cancer Research, this is a large “work in progress” meeting. As we are beginning to unravel the bewildering and complex network of dysregulated pathways in cancer in lung cancer, annual conferences similar to the one held in Santa Monica have become indispensable to generate novel ideas and exchange valuable experience gleaned from ongoing studies. A formidable number of agents, summarized by Drs. George Simon and Neeta Somaiah, are being studied in lung cancer today. Keeping up with the constant flow of new information is a challenge even for the very committed student of lung cancer. As the attendance is limited (and by invitation only), we feel that the larger thoracic oncology community would benefit from an enduring material from the “Santa Monica Meeting.” The contributors were asked to provide only very brief succinct summaries and limit references and figures to a bare minimum. The articles in this supplement should be viewed more as meeting reports than as exhaustive and comprehensive review articles. We hope you, the readers of the Journal of Thoracic Oncology, will find the supplement instructive and useful. The thoracic oncology community owes a debt of gratitude to the leadership of Drs. Paul Bunn, David Johnson, and Roy Herbst for conceiving and organizing this “Santa Monica Meeting” year after year.