touchPANEL DISCUSSION The role of MDTs in optimizing NSCLC management: From early disease and beyond

Solange Peters, MD, PhD, is Professor and Chair of Medical Oncology as well as the thoracic malignancies programme in the Department of Oncology at the University Hospital of Lausanne, Switzerland.

Prof. Peters has specialized in thoracic tumours, lung cancer, and pleural tumours. Her main fields of interest are new biomarker discovery and validation in preclinical and clinical settings, multimodality strategies for locally advanced NSCLC, as well as cancer immunotherapy. She acts as the local principal investigator (PI) for lung trials opened at Lausanne Cancer Centre, focused on phase I predictive biomarkers and thoracic malignancies immunotherapy, and is a co-PI of several other trials. Additionally, she acts as the scientific coordinator and Foundation Council member of the European Thoracic Oncology Platform.

Prof. Peters has authored numerous peer-reviewed manuscripts and book chapters, serves as deputy editor of the Journal of Thoracic Oncology, associate editor of the Annals of Oncology, and on the editorial board of several other oncology journals. She is active in the educational programmes of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) and the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC), notably working as the current editor of the ESMO Lung Cancer Clinical Practice Guidelines. She is the past-Chair of ESMO Women for Oncology Committee, and she is the youngest ESMO President ever, for a mandate in 2020–21. She was also a member of the IASLC board of directors, and vice president of the Swiss Group for Clinical Cancer Research lung group.

Prof. Solange Peters discloses: Consultation/advisory role fees from AbbVie, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Biocartis, BioInvent, Blueprint Medicines, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Clovis, Daiichi Sankyo, Debiopharm, Eli Lilly, F Hoffmann-La Roche, Foundation Medicine, Illumina, Janssen, Merck Sharp & Dohme, Merck Serono, Merrimack, Mirati, Novartis, Pharma Mar, Pfizer, Regeneron, Sanofi, SeaGen, Takeda and Vaccibody; Speaker fees from AstraZeneca, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, F Hoffmann-La Roche, Illumina, Merck Sharp & Dohme, Novartis, Pfizer, Sanofi and Takeda;  Grant/research support from Amgen, AstraZeneca, Biodesix, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Clovis, F Hoffmann-La Roche, Illumina, Merck Sharp & Dohme, Merck Serono, Novartis and Pfizer (all fees to institution).

Walter Weder, MD, is Professor of Surgery and Director of the Department of Thoracic Surgery at the University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland. He currently works in Thoracic Surgery at Private Clinic Bethanien, Zurich.

He is a member of many national and international medical societies and is the Founding President of the Swiss Society of Thoracic Surgery, and the former President of the European Society of Thoracic Surgery (ESTS). He was a member of the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) Guideline Committee and the Educational Board of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC), and serves on the editorial boards of several international journals.

In 1992, Prof. Weder performed the first lung transplantation in Switzerland and only two years later, in 1994, the first thoracoscopic lung volume reduction procedure worldwide. In 2004, he started a robotic surgery programme for mediastinal disease and lung cancer. Over the years, his research activity has focused on thoracic malignancies, especially malignant mesothelioma and locally advanced lung cancer, as well as emphysema surgery and lung transplantation. 

He is an author of over 500 peer-reviewed scientific publications.

Prof. Walter Weder discloses: Advisory board and speaker fees from AstraZeneca: Teaching grant and speaker fees from Covidien (Medtronic).

Françoise Mornex, MD, PhD, is currently Professor of Oncology at the Université Claude Bernard in Lyon, France, and past-Chair of the Radiation Oncology Department at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Lyon Sud, Hospices Civils de Lyon, France, where she practices radiation and medical oncology.

Prof. Mornex specializes in the field of combined chemoradiation, having taken a leadership role in the development of multimodality treatment for lung tumours, and in the development of novel chemoradiation regimens and innovative radiotherapy techniques. She is a co-author of more than 300 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters, and has supervised 15 PhD theses.

She was a member of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) Board of Directors between 2013–2017. As a board member, Prof. Mornex was co-chair of the Advanced Radiation Therapy (ART) Committee. She is also an active member of the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO), as well as the American and European societies of radiation oncology (ASTRO, ESTRO). She serves or has served as a co-editor for several journals, including the Journal of Thoracic Oncology, Seminars in Radiation Oncologyand the International Journal of Radiation Oncology and she is currently one of the editors of Cancer/Radiothérapie, a publication of the French Society of Oncological Radiotherapy.

Prof. Françoise Mornex discloses: Advisory board fees from AstraZeneca, Boehringer-Ingelheim and Merck Serono.

Albrecht Stenzinger, MD, is Professor of Molecular Tumour Pathology and Head of the Institute of Pathology Heidelberg (IPH) Center for Molecular Pathology (CMP), as well as Section Head for Molecular Diagnostics and Biomarker Development at the IPH, University Hospital Heidelberg in Germany.

He completed his residency and fellowship training in pathology at the Charité University Hospital in Berlin and the University Hospital Heidelberg, both in Germany, and is a board-certified surgical pathologist and senior attending. Prof. Stenzinger received postdoctoral training at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, and Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA. He has a broad expertise in molecular pathology and works in the field of translational research and genetics of lung cancer.

Prof. Albrecht Stenzinger discloses: Advisory board/speaker’s bureau fees/grants from AstraZeneca, AGCT, Bayer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Chugai, Eli Lilly, Illumina, Janssen, Merck Sharp & Dohme, Novartis, Pfizer, Roche, SeaGen, Takeda and Thermo Fisher Scientific.