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7:30AM - 8:15AM EDT Sheraton Times Square, Empire East
Industry Breakfast Symposium: ATEZOLIZUMAB (TECENTRIQ): First FDA-Approved Adjuvant Cancer Immunotherapy In NSCLC | Sponsored by: Genentech*
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8:00AM - 2:00PM EDT Sheraton Times Square, Central Park
Poster Viewing
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8:30AM - 10:30AM EDT Sheraton Times Square, Metropolitan East
Plenary Session I: Lung Cancer Advances: Evolving Treatment Paradigms in Operable NSCLC
David Jones, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Biography: David R. Jones, MD
Dr. Jones graduated Phi Beta Kappa from West Virginia University and received his medical degree from West Virginia University School of Medicine where he was AOA. He completed his Thoracic Surgery Residency at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC. In 1999, Dr. Jones joined the faculty at the University of Virginia where he became Professor and Vice-Chairman of the Department. In 2013 Dr. Jones was recruited to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center as Chief of Thoracic Surgery.
Dr. Jones is Professor & Chief of Thoracic Surgery and Executive Vice-chair of the Department of Surgery at MSKCC. He is also the Co-Director of the Fiona and Stanly Druckenmiller Center for Lung Cancer Research. He is the current Secretary of the AATS and Chair of the AATS-MSKCC Thoracic Surgery Oncology Group (TSOG) for clinical trials. Dr. Jones is Associate Editor for the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery. He is recent past Chair of the NIH/NCI Tumor Progression and Metastasis (TPM) study section and currently serves on the NCI Board of Scientific Advisors. He serves on numerous national and international committees related to thoracic surgical research and clinical care.
Dr. Jones’s research focuses on mechanisms and drivers of metastases in lung cancer. His research has been funded by the NIH/NCI, Department of Defense, and the AACR. He has been the Principal Investigator or Co-PI on over 35 funded grants and currently holds 2 R01 awards from the NCI. He has published over 380 papers and has written over 35 book chapters. He was an early adopter of VATS anatomic resections and minimally-invasive esophagectomies and performs the majority of his operations using these minimally-invasive approaches.
Betty Tong, Duke University
Betty C. Tong, MD, MHS is an Associate Professor of Surgery at the Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, USA. Her clinical interests are in lung cancer screening, surgical management of thoracic malignancies such as lung cancer and soft tissue sarcoma of the chest, and video assisted thoracic surgery. Her research interests are centered in the area of health services research, and include the study of disparities in thoracic surgical patients, and patient preferences and decision making in the management of thoracic disease.
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10:30AM - 10:45AM EDT Sheraton Times Square
Break and Poster Viewing in the Exhibit Hall
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10:45AM - 12:00PM EDT Sheraton Times Square, Empire East
Concurrent Session A: Multidisciplinary Therapeutic Strategies in Operable Esophageal Cancer
Mark Berry, Leland Stanford Junior University
Dr. Berry is the Mylavarapu Rogers Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Stanford University. He trained in General Surgery at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and in Thoracic Surgery at Duke University, and has a Masters of Health Sciences in Clinical Research from Duke University. His clinical and research activities focus on optimizing short-term and long-term outcomes of patients with thoracic surgical conditions. He has more than 150 peer-reviewed publications, most of which are related to both the use of minimally invasive thoracic surgical techniques as well as evaluating outcomes after treatment of thoracic malignancies. His clinical practice and his research both focus on choosing the most appropriate treatment and approach for patients based on the individual characteristics of the patient and their disease process.
Daniela Molena, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Dr. Daniela Molena is an Associate Professor of Surgery at Weill Cornell Medicine and Associate Attending and Director of the Esophageal Program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC). She is the Chair of the Thoracic Education Committee with the AATS, a Member of the AATS Thoracic Quality Committee and a Member of the Board of Directors of the AATS Foundation. She is also the Vice President of the Women in Thoracic Surgery and a Councilor of the Southern Thoracic Surgical Association. Dr Molena is a Deputy Editor for the Annals of Thoracic Surgery and associate Editors for Disease of the Esophagus. She serves in numerous national and international committees related to esophageal and thoracic surgery.
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10:45AM - 12:00PM EDT Sheraton Times Square, Metropolitan East
Concurrent Session B: Pathology & Risk Assessment in NSCLC
Christopher Seder, Rush University Medical Center
Dr. Seder is the Arthur E. Diggs, MD and L. Penfield Faber, MD Chair of Surgical Sciences and Chief of Thoracic Surgey at Rush University Medical Center. His academic interests include investigating blood-based tumor markers to identify lung cancers at the earliest stage, outcomes research, and resident education. Dr. Seder is also the cardiothoracic surgery residency program director and has been awarded the L. Penfield Faber Teaching Award for excellence in education multiple times.
Matthew Bott, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Dr. Bott is a thoracic surgeon at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. After completing an undergraduate degree at Duke University, he went on to medical school at the University of Virginia and then a general surgery residency at New York Presbyterian Hospital - Weill Cornell Medical Center. During his residency he took part in a research fellowship at MSK which investigated genomic pertubations in malignant pleural mesothelioma. Following his completion of cardiothoracic surgery fellowship at Washington University in St. Louis in 2015, he joined the faculty of MSKCC and currently has a practice focused on thoracic surgical oncology. He is currently the surgical director of endobronchial therapies and co-leads MSK's robotic bronchoscopy program. He also has an active basic and translational research program which explores cellular responses to therapy in lung cancer.
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12:00PM - 12:30PM EDT Sheraton Times Square
Break and Poster Viewing in the Exhibit Hall
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12:30PM - 1:15PM EDT Sheraton Times Square, Metropolitan East
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12:30PM - 1:15PM EDT Sheraton Times Square, Empire East
Lunch Symposium: A Treatment Option for Patients with Resectable NSCLC | Sponsored by: AstraZeneca*
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1:15PM - 1:45PM EDT Sheraton Times Square
Break and Poster Viewing in the Exhibit Hall
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1:45PM - 3:15PM EDT Sheraton Times Square, Metropolitan East
Concurrent Session C: Technical Aspects of Pulmonary Lung Cancer Resections
Scott Swanson, Brigham and Women's Hospital
Dr. Scott J. Swanson is a thoracic surgeon and director of Minimally Invasive Thoracic Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He is associate chief of surgery at Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center and is a professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Swanson received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School and completed his general and cardiothoracic surgical residencies at the Brigham. He completed a fellowship in vascular biology at Harvard Medical School and a thoracic oncology fellowship at the Brigham. Dr. Swanson is board certified in surgery and thoracic surgery. He has been listed as one of America’s Top Doctors by Castle Connolly and named a top thoracic surgeon by Boston Magazine.
Dr. Swanson’s clinical interests include minimally invasive thoracic surgery and lung cancer. His research is focused on better understanding early stage lung cancer, its biologic fingerprint and clinical behavior.
Lana Schumacher, Tufts Medical Center
Dr. Lana Schumacher is the Director of Thoracic Robotic Surgery for Massachusetts General Hospital Network, Program Director for Robotic Surgical Education at Massachusetts General Hospital and Thoracic Director of the MGH SHED program for foregut disorders. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery at Harvard School of Medicine. Dr. Schumacher received her medical degree from UCLA School of Medicine in Los Angeles, CA. She completed her surgical internship and residency at Stanford University Hospital in Stanford, CA. and her cardiothoracic fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Pittsburgh, PA. She also did further training at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, NY.
Dr. Schumacher is board certified by the American Board of Surgery and the American Board of Thoracic Surgery. She has extensive experience in minimally invasive approaches to esophageal and lung diseases. Her expertise lies in advancing robotic thoracic techniques for the treatment of lung cancer, esophageal cancer, benign esophageal disorders and mediastinal diseases. Dr. Schumacher runs a scholarship for the Women in Thoracic Surgery for Robotic surgery training. She also serves on faculty for the American Association for Thoracic Surgery Graham Foundation Robotic Fellowship.
Dr. Schumacher’s research focuses are on the utilization of artificial intelligence for deep dive analysis of neural networks for robotic thoracic surgery. In addition, she researches the utilization of near infrared imaging and nanoparticles in the detection of micro-metastatic disease for lung and esophageal cancer. Her third area of interest is the outcomes in robotic surgery for lung cancer and esophageal cancer.
Recent honors/distinctions include participation in the 2018 AATS Leadership Academy and recipient of Intuitive Surgical Foundation Grant.
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1:45PM - 3:15PM EDT Sheraton Times Square, Empire East
Concurrent Session D: Tracheal & Mediastinal Tumors
Robert Merritt, Ohio State Wexner Medical Center
Robert E Merritt, MD is a Clinical Professor of Surgery and the Director of the Division of Thoracic Surgery at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. Dr. Merritt graduated from Cornell University School of Medicine in 1998. He completed his general surgery residency at the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center in 2005. He completed his cardiothoracic surgery residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital in 2007. He served as an assistant professor in cardiothoracic surgery at the Stanford Hospitals and Clinics from September 2008 to January 2014. He joined Division of Thoracic surgery at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in January 2014. His clinical interests include robotic surgery for lung cancer and minimally invasive esophagectomy for esophageal cancer. His research interests include outcomes research, racial disparities in surgical care, and identifying unique biomarkers for lung cancer.
Chadrick Denlinger, Indiana University
Dr. Denlinger is a tenured Professor of Surgery at Indiana University who joined the faculty there in 2020. He is a graduate of the Ohio State University College of Medicine and completed his general surgery and thoracic training at the University of Virginia and Washington University. His clinical interests include the treatment of lung and esophageal cancers, benign foregut surgery and lung transplantation. He currently serves as an editorial board member for the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery as well as the Annals of Thoracic Surgery.
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3:15PM - 3:30PM EDT Sheraton Times Square
Break and Poster Viewing in the Exhibit Hall
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3:30PM - 5:00PM EDT Sheraton Times Square, Metropolitan East
Concurrent Session E: Management of Stage IA NSCLC
Alexander Krupnick, University of Maryland Medical System
Dr. Krupnick is the chief of thoracic surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine with an academic and clinical focus dedicated to the care of patients with end-stage lung failure and oncologic disease. He provides a full range of thoracic surgery services, including minimally invasive lung and esophageal resections, on the University of Maryland Medical School main campus as as affiliated hospitals. His laboratory has made seminal contributions toward the understanding lung transplant immunology, including the development of the world’s first model of vascularized orthotopic lung transplantation in the mouse (PMC3848695). He has also described numerous mechanistic aspects of lung allograft tolerance and rejection including the role of CD8+ T cells and eosinophils in mediating lung allograft tolerance (PMC3938255, PMC6629120). In addition to work on transplantation my laboratory has focused extensive efforts on understanding and reversing immunological dysfunction associated with cancer. His laboratory has made contributions in describing the role of natural killer cells in controlling lung cancer development and progression (PMID: 22751136), as well as advancing the understanding of immunological factors that limit natural killer cell function in malignancies (PMID: 30381460, 28123874). Based this understanding he has developed a rationally designed retargeted cytokine to activate natural killer cells and CD8+ cytotoxic lymphocytes (PMID: 27650575). These efforts are now being advanced toward human applications with an IND application in progress, GMP drug production initiated, and clinical trials planned for summer of 2022.Justin Blasberg, Yale University School of Medicine
Justin D. Blasberg, MD is an Associate Professor of Surgery and Director of Robotic Thoracic Surgery at the Yale School of Medicine. He earned his medical degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and completed his cardiothoracic training at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Blasberg's practice includes minimally invasive and open management for diseases for a broad range of thoracic pathology. Dr. Blasberg leads a clinical research program on surgical outcomes research in thoracic surgery as well as the clinical trial efforts of the section of thoracic surgery
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3:30PM - 5:00PM EDT Sheraton Times Square, Empire East
Concurrent Session F: Diagnosis and Staging in NSCLC
Joseph Shrager, Stanford University
Dr. Shrager is Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery; Chief of the Division of Thoracic Surgery at Stanford University School of Medicine; and co-Director of the Thoracic Oncology Clinical Care Program within Stanford Cancer Institute. He is a busy clinical surgeon who has also maintained a federally-funded research program focused on the cellular physiology of the diaphragm, resulting in an NIH-funded clinical trial of a drug to prevent ventilator-induced diaphragm dysfunction. He also founded the Thoracic-track residency training program at Stanford and is extremely proud of its graduates.
Gunda Leschber, ELK Chest Hospital Berlin
2023 Gordon Visiting Professor at Brigham and Women Hospital, Boston
2019 David Sugarbaker Visiting Professor at Brigham and Women Hospital, Boston
2003-2021 Head of Department of Thoracic Surgery, ELK Berlin Chest Hospital, Berlin, Germany
2010-2011 President of ESTS (European Society of Thoracic Surgeons)
2015-2017 President of German Society of Thoracic Surgery (DGT - Deutsche Gesellschaft für Thoraxchirurgie)
2012-2014 Member of the International Advisory Committee of AATS
2007-2013 Board Member of the Professional Organisation of German Surgeons (BDC)
2007-2017 Head of the Working Group „Lung Cancer“of the Berlin Tumorcenter
2013-2014 Member of UICC TNM Expert Panel for Lung Cancer
2006 Founder and first Speaker of the Section „FiT“(Frauen in Thoraxchirurgie- Women in Thoracic Surgery) of DGT
2012 Founder and Chairwomen of Leadership-Program for Women in Surgery, organised by Professional Organisation of German Surgeons (BDC)
2020 Founding Member of ESTS Women in General Thoracic Surgery
Awards:
2015 Recipient of Müller-Osten medal by Professional Organisation of German Surgeons (BDC) for long-standing engagement
2023 Honorary member of „Die Chirurginnen“ - Association of Female Surgeons in Germany
Training:
10/1977 – 05/1984 Medical School Free University of Berlin
09/1980 – 07/1981 Medical School , Faculté de Médecine de Tours (France)01/1986 – 02/1988 Surgical Resident, Tufts University, Boston, USA and Research Fellow, Veterans Administration Hospital, Boston, USA
12/1993 Board certification in General Surgery
09/1996 Board certificationin Thoracic SurgeryOther
2022-2023 President of Rotary Club Berlin-Metropole
since 2015 Member of the “Ehrenrat” (Senior council) of Professional Organisation of German Surgeons (BDC)
2012 Initiation of "Kindergarden" at the annual meeting of the German Surgical Society
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5:00PM - 6:30PM EDT Sheraton Times Square, Metropolitan West
Welcome Reception and Poster Competition in the Exhibit Hall
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5:30PM - 6:30PM EDT Sheraton Times Square, Central Park
Poster Presentation Competition
Daniela Molena, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Dr. Daniela Molena is an Associate Professor of Surgery at Weill Cornell Medicine and Associate Attending and Director of the Esophageal Program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC). She is the Chair of the Thoracic Education Committee with the AATS, a Member of the AATS Thoracic Quality Committee and a Member of the Board of Directors of the AATS Foundation. She is also the Vice President of the Women in Thoracic Surgery and a Councilor of the Southern Thoracic Surgical Association. Dr Molena is a Deputy Editor for the Annals of Thoracic Surgery and associate Editors for Disease of the Esophagus. She serves in numerous national and international committees related to esophageal and thoracic surgery.
Justin Blasberg, Yale University School of Medicine
Justin D. Blasberg, MD is an Associate Professor of Surgery and Director of Robotic Thoracic Surgery at the Yale School of Medicine. He earned his medical degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and completed his cardiothoracic training at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Blasberg's practice includes minimally invasive and open management for diseases for a broad range of thoracic pathology. Dr. Blasberg leads a clinical research program on surgical outcomes research in thoracic surgery as well as the clinical trial efforts of the section of thoracic surgery