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7:30AM - 8:15AM EDT Sheraton Times Square, Empire East
Breakfast Symposium: Alecensa (alectinib) - New Indication based on Results from the Phase III ALINA Study | Sponsored by: Genentech (non-CME)
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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 105th Past-President of the AATS and serves as Chair of the AATS-MSKCC Thoracic Surgery Oncology Group (TSOG) for clinical trials, a cooperative clincal trial consortium sponsored by MSKCC & the AATS. 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 including multiple R01 awards from the NCI. He has published over 520 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.
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.
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8:30AM - 4:00PM EDT Sheraton Times Square, Central Park
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10:30AM - 10:45AM EDT Sheraton Times Square, 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
Siva Raja, Cleveland Clinic
Dr. Raja is a general thoracic surgeon at the Clevelenad Clinic where he is also the surgical director for center for esophageal diseases. He also has an appointment as an Associate Professor of Surgery at the Lerner College of Medicine at the Case Western School of Medicine. While performing the entire spectrum of general thoracic surgery, he specilizes surgical therapies for benign and malignant diseases of the esophagus with a focus on robotic surgery.
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
Yolonda Colson, Massachusetts General Hospital
Dr. Colson is the past President of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery, having served in many roles since becoming a member in 2003, including as Co-chair of the 2015 Annual Meeting and Chair of the Advisory Council for the AATS Foundation. She is the Chief for the Division of Thoracic Surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital and Hermes C. Grillo Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School. In addition to her cardiothoracic surgical training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, her academic training includes a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, an M.D. from Mayo Medical School, and a Ph.D. and general surgery residency at University of Pittsburgh. Career awards include: the inaugural Michael A. Bell Family Chair in Healthcare Innovation, the George H.A. Clowes, Jr. Research Career Development Award from the American College of Surgeons, the Edward M. Kennedy Award for Health Care Innovation, and serving as the Exam Chair of the American Board of Thoracic Surgery from 2017-2021. She is the current PI/co-PI on five NIH R01/U01 Grants and has recently been elected to the National Academy of Medicine.
She is co-inventor on three awarded patents and has received over twenty grants including the AATS Alton Ochsner Research Scholarship and eight "R" or "U" grants from the National Institutes of Health and National Cancer Institute. Dr. Colson's research focuses on the development of unique mechanisms of polymer and nanoparticle drug delivery aimed at preventing cancer recurrence, and the investigation of novel methods to identify hidden tumor that has spread to nearby lymph nodes. She has over 150 peer reviewed publications highlighting her previous work in transplantation and her most recent investigations in sentinel lymph nodes in lung cancer and polymer-mediated drug delivery. She has formally mentored well over 30 students, residents and junior faculty since becoming an attending thoracic surgeon.
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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10:45AM - 12:00PM EDT Sheraton Times Square, Empire West
Concurrent Session C: Diagnosis and Staging in NSCLC
Harvey Pass, NYU Grossman School of Medicine
Harvey I. Pass, M.D. is the Stephen E. Banner Professor of Thoracic Oncology and Vice Chair for Research for the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the NYU Langone Medical Center and Professor, Department of Surgery. Dr. Pass was Chief of Thoracic Oncology for the Surgery Branch, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda (1986-1996) and for the Karmanos Cancer Institute Detroit Michigan (1996-2005). Dr. Pass is an AOA member and has received the NIH Directors Award, the Wagner Medallion from the International Mesothelioma Interest Group, the Landon Research Award from the American Association for Cancer Research, the Pioneer Award from the Mesothelioma Foundation, the International Association for Lung Cancer Merit Award, and the AACR-Johnson & Johnson Lung Cancer Innovation MD Anderson/NYU Science Grants. Dr. Pass has published over 660 peer-reviewed papers, and edited 14 books including four editions of Lung Cancer: Principles and Practice and 2 editions of IASLC Thoracic Oncology. He has been continuously funded by either the NCI, DOD, CDC and other agencies since 1998 for the study of lung cancer and mesothelioma. His present interests include the development of blood based biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognosis of thoracic malignancies.
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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12:00PM - 12:30PM EDT Sheraton Times Square, 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
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1:15PM - 1:45PM EDT Sheraton Times Square, Exhibit Hall
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1:45PM - 3:15PM EDT Sheraton Times Square, Metropolitan East
Concurrent Session D: Technical Aspects of Pulmonary Lung Cancer Resections (non-CME)
Mark Onaitis, University of California San Diego
Mark Onaitis is Professor of Surgery and the Sheri Kelts Chair in Cardiothoracic Surgery at the University of California, San Diego.
Sudish Murthy, Cleveland Clinic
Dr. Sudish Murthy holds the Daniel and Karen Lee Endowed Chair in Thoracic Surgery, is the Section Head of General Thoracic Surgery, and Surgical Director of the Center of Major Airway Disease. He is a Thoracic Surgeon in the Department of Thoracic & Cardiovascular Surgery at The Sydell and Arnold Miller Family Heart & Vascular Institute at Cleveland Clinic and a Professor of Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University. Dr. Murthy is over 10,000 operations throughout his lengthy and distinguished career.
Education and Training: Dr. Murthy earned his medical degree from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and a PhD in pathology from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC. At Columbia, he received the Janeway Prize for top achievement in his graduating class, the Robert F. Loeb Award for Excellence in Clinical Medicine, the Merck Award for outstanding scholarship, and several other awards.
Dr. Murthy completed an internship and a residency in surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital of Harvard University, Boston. He continued there for a residency in cardiothoracic surgery. As a Harvard University Clinical Fellow, he was selected as the Whitman Traveling Scholar and served as the surgical emissary for Harvard Medical School in the Department of Esophageal Surgery at Queen Mary Hospital Medical Center at the University of Hong Kong.
Publications and Speaking: Dr. Murthy is a dedicated researcher and prolific writer. He has authored or co-authored more than 250 scientific articles in leading peer-reviewed medical journals and more than a dozen chapters in medical textbooks. His research interests include lung cancer, lung transplant and emphysema
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1:45PM - 3:15PM EDT Sheraton Times Square, Empire East
Concurrent Session E: Update on Clinical Trials in Thoracic Oncologic Surgery
Nasser Altorki, New York Presbyterian
Chief Division of Thoracic Surgery
Leader Experimental Therapeutics Program at Meyer Cancer Center of Weill Cornell Mediicine
Chi-Fu Yang, Massachusetts General Hospital
Dr. Chi-Fu Jeffrey Yang is a thoracic surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital, Associate Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, and Founding Director of the Center for Artificial Intelligence and Innovation Research (CAIIRE). He has received numerous awards for excellence in clinical care and teaching, including the 2021 Harvard Medical School Charles McCabe Faculty Prize for Excellence in Teaching.
Dr. Yang leads multiple studies, including as co-principal investigator and project leader of a $3.5M NIH R01-funded trial on postoperative complications and recovery in cardiothoracic patients, and a $1.5M AHRQ R18-funded study on lung cancer screening on Black women at risk of developing lung cancer. He is the PI of a $450,000 NIH R21 study evaluating lung screening modeling. He is also the co-PI of the Boston Lung Cancer Study, a cancer epidemiological study of over 11,000 patients. He serves as Vice Chair of the Alliance Thoracic Surgery Group and has authored over 180 publications and senior-authored research studies in journals such as JAMA, BMJ, Journal of Clinical Oncology, JAMA Oncology, Journal of Thoracic Oncology, Annals of Surgery, and Chest.
Dr. Yang is a national leader in lung cancer screening advocacy. He founded the American Lung Cancer Screening Initiative, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that has worked across all 50 states to promote screening and has taught over 70,000 community members about the importance of the early detection of lung cancer. Since 2020, he has worked on Senate Resolutions 780, 462, 863, 512 and 912 to raise awareness of lung cancer and screening, all passed unanimously by all 100 U.S. Senators. In recognition of his lung cancer screening efforts, he has received the 2021 HMS Dean's Community Service Faculty Award, the 2024 HMS Equity, Social Justice, and Advocacy Award, the 2024 Upstage Lung Cancer Fan Award, the 2024 Boston Bruins Community All-Star Award, and the 2025 Inaugural Kraft Center Community Health Champion Award.
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1:45PM - 2:55PM EDT Sheraton Times Square, Empire West
Concurrent Session F: Rapid Fire Orals I
Stephanie Chang, NYU Langone Health
Dr. Stephanie Chang is an associate professor of cardiothoracic surgery and is the surgical director of lung transplant at NYU Langone Health. Her practice focuses on thoracic oncology, robotic thoracic surgery, and lung transplant. She currently has research funded by NHLBI focusing on risk factors for primary graft dysfunction and increasing the donor pool through novel donation techniques. She serves on the thoracic education committee, has received multiple AATS Foundation awards/grants, and has participated in Annual Meeting program committees. She performed the first fully robotic bilateral lung transplant, for which she was included in the Time 100 Health list in 2025.
- Moderator: Stephanie Chang, NYU Langone Health
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3:15PM - 3:30PM EDT Sheraton Times Square, Exhibit Hall
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3:30PM - 5:00PM EDT Sheraton Times Square, Metropolitan East
Concurrent Session G: Tracheal & Mediastinal Tumors (non-CME)
Erino Angelo Rendina, "Sapienza" Rome
Erino A. Rendina is Professor and Chairman of Thoracic Surgery at Sapienza, University of Rome, and he is Deputy Dean of the Medical School. He was the 2009 President od the European Association for Cardiothoracic Surgery. He is Deputy Editor of The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, and has published 391 papers in peer-reviewed journals with an h-index of 43 (scopus). Professor Rendina has been Visiting Professor in many mayor universities across the world. His Division performs approximately 1.400 thoracic surgical operations per year including complex oncological procedures on the bronchi, pulmonary artery, carina, superior vena cava, aorta and heart. Tracheal reconstruction is also performed routinely with a peak of 60 procedures in 2020, including 4 Tracheal replacement by aortic allograft.
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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3:30PM - 5:00PM EDT Sheraton Times Square, Empire East
Concurrent Session H: Advances in Multi-Disciplinary Management of Pleural Malignancies (non-CME)
Isabelle Opitz, University Hospital Zurich
Professor Isabelle Opitz is Director of the Department of Thoracic Surgery, Chair of the Lung Cancer Center, and Member of both the Robotic and the Transplant Center Board at University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland. She is Professor/Ordinaria for Thoracic Surgery at the University of Zurich. Her clinical areas of expertise are the surgical treatment of lung cancer, pleural mesothelioma, chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension, and lung transplantation.
She has received several national and international awards for her research. She is Past President and Past Treasurer of the European Society of Thoracic Surgeons. For this society, she also works as a member of the Steering Committee of the Working Group Robotic, organizing the newly founded ESTS Robotic School and the Clinical Trials Working Group, implementing the Thoracic European Surgical Trials (TEST) Clinical Trials Platform.She is International Director of the American Association for Thoracic Surgeryand serves in their Thoracic Education Committee and the Thoracic Clinical Practice Standards Committee. She will be co-chair of IASLC World Conference on Lung Cancer 2025 and is a member of the ESMO 2025 scientific committee.
Robert Ripley, Baylor College of Medicine
R. Taylor Ripley, M.D., is a thoracic surgical oncologist and board-certified general thoracic surgeon. He is the Meyer-DeBakey Chair of Investigative Research and a Tenure-Professor of Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine. He earned his medical degree from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, trained in thoracic surgery at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and in general Surgery at the University of Colorado. He specializes in robotic thoracic surgery and in thoracic surgical oncology with an emphasis on mesothelioma, lung cancer, and esophageal cancer. Dr. Ripley leads an R01-funded laboratory that focuses on the metabolically reprogram mesothelioma, esophageal cancer, and lung cancer to enhace the vulnerable to therapy. Dr. Ripley has lectured nationally and published extensively on his work in the field of thoracic oncology and tumor metabolism.
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3:30PM - 5:00PM EDT Sheraton Times Square, Empire West
Concurrent Session I: Innovation Workshop: Artificial Intelligence for the Thoracic Surgeon (non-CME)
Bryan Burt, University of California Los Angeles
Dr. Burt is Professor and Chief of the Division of Thoracic Surgery at UCLA. Dr. Burt is a robotic surgeon, a surgeon-scientist and clinical trialist, an editor, and an innovator and entrepreneur. Dr. Burt completed his undergraduate education at New York University and then pursued his medical degree at Weill Medical College of Cornell University. He completed residencies in general surgery and thoracic surgery at the Brigham & Women’s Hospital of Harvard Medical School. He is board-certified in both Surgery and Thoracic Surgery and has advanced expertise in robotic thoracic surgery. Dr. Burt leads an NIH-funded research laboratory and has completed several investigator-initiated clinical trials of novel immunotherapeutic strategies for patients with thoracic malignancies. His contributions to the field of thoracic surgery are extended through his role as Feature Editor at the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery. Dr. Burt is recipient of numerous honors and awards but at the end of the day, Dr. Burt is most passionate about elevating the outstanding care of the patients served at UCLA, personally caring for these individuals, and investigating solutions for the problems that affect them.
Kazuhiro Yasufuku, Toronto General Hospital
Dr. Kazuhiro Yasufuku is an internationally known Thoracic Surgeon with specific expertise in minimally invasive thoracic surgery and minimally invasive diagnostic procedures. He is the Head of the Division of Thoracic Surgery at the Toronto General Hospital, University Health Network. He is also Professor and Chair of the Division of Thoracic Surgery at University of Toronto. He holds the RFG Pearson – RJ Ginsberg Chair in Thoracic Surgery and William Coco Chair in Surgical Innovation for Lung Cancer. He serves as Director of Endoscopy and Director of the Interventional Thoracic Surgery Program at the University Health Network.
Dr. Yasufuku has been a leader in the field of minimally invasive diagnostics and therapeutics for thoracic malignancy. He co-developed the Convex Probe Endobronchial Ultrasound in collaboration with Olympus and has successfully introduced the clinical application of EBUS-TBNA in Thoracic Oncology. His clinical interests include minimally invasive diagnostic and surgery for thoracic oncology and lung transplantation. He leads the Thoracic Robotic Surgery Program and GTx Program at the University Health Network.
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5:00PM - 6:30PM EDT Sheraton Times Square, Exhibit Hall
Welcome Reception and Poster Viewing | Sponsored by: AstraZeneca
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6:45PM - 7:30PM EDT Sheraton Times Square, Metropolitan East
View Industry Programming at the 2024 International Thoracic Surgical Oncology Summit