TOGA's Scientific Committee Meeting Recap - May 2024

This meeting provided a full slate with 9 concepts submitted.
The concepts spanned the interest areas of every working group and we thank those who take their time to contribute to our peer- and consumer-review process in these groups.

In supportive care, one of the concepts submitted was a survey of those living with cancer and the prevalence of menopausal-like symptoms. As we see increased survival in lung cancer, particularly for younger patients, this is a critical and understudied area where better understanding could enhance quality of life. The survey can be accessed until the end of May 2024. 

Other concepts spanned interest areas such as side effects to TKI therapy, enhancing 1^st line immunotherapy treatment in mesothelioma, the potential of SABR in inoperable lung tumours, preventing side effects in treatment of Stage III NSCLC and further examining perioperative immunotherapy in NSCLC.

We welcomed the first dedicated meeting for the translational research working group and review of a concept that would examine the prognostic/predictive impact of co-mutations and variants identified by comprehensive genomic profiling in newly diagnosed patients with oncogene-addicted metastatic NSCLC. It is hoped that these types of analyses will shed light on mechanisms of resistance to current TKI therapies, and enhance the potential for personalised medicine.

Four concepts were subsequently endorsed by the Scientific Committee, aligned with the working groups’ recommendations. The five other concepts may be reworked or considered at another time when there is no study competing for the same population of patients. All concepts were also reviewed by TOGA’s consumer representatives through their roles on the working groups and the Scientific Committee and we thank them, and all our committee members, for giving up their time to provide this feedback.

The submission of a large number of concepts and the critical appraisal that resulted in some concepts requiring further optimisation is aligned with TOGA’s goal to attract more funding to lung cancer from competitive funding applications by ensuring that submissions are already peer-reviewed, high-quality and thus competitive.

If you would like to submit a proposal for peer-review and endorsement, you can read more about the process here.  The next deadline for submitting concepts is 19 July; however, if you have a proposal due for competitive funding before that date and would like TOGA peer-review and endorsement, please contact info@thoraciconcology.org.au and include the date of your submission.