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The 61st Annual Meeting of the Japanese Lung Cancer Society will be held from November 12 to 14, 2020 at Hotel Granvia Okayama, ANA Crowne Plaza Okayama, Okayama Convention Center, Okayama City Museum, and Okayama Prefectural Medical Association Hall. It is a great honor to be in charge of this traditional academic meeting, and we will be in charge of the Lung Cancer Group at Okayama University.

Lung cancer is a representative of cancer that is very hard to be cured, and has been the leading cause of Japanese cancer death since 1996. Although the increase has been halted in recent years, it is a representative of refractory cancer. There is no change. I think that the efforts of the surgeon have been very important for the treatment aimed at a cure. However, there are limits to aiming for the cure by surgical resection alone. Even 30 years before I began to be involved in the treatment of malignant tumors, leukemia, malignant lymphoma, etc. had promised some cure even with chemotherapy alone. In limited-stage small cell lung cancer, it was possible to cure at a certain frequency by combining radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Despite the development of many anti-neoplastic agents such as cisplatin in advanced non-small cell cancer, it is inevitable to say that treatment goal is symptom relief and prolongation of life. The miserable situations have lasted long.

Since molecular targeting drugs appeared in the 2000s and have excellent antitumor effects for a relatively long period of time, non-small cell lung cancer is expected to become a chronic disease such as hypertension and diabetes, leading to current genomic medicine. Furthermore, with the advent of immune checkpoint inhibitors, the phrase “treatment of advanced lung cancer with the ultimate goal of a cure” is also not “a dream story”.

However, it is true that more than 70,000 patients per a year are still dying. There are many research topics besides drug therapy, such as mechanism of carcinogenesis of lung cancer, prevention of exposure to carcinogens such as smoking, asbestos, air pollution, chemoprevention, early detection by low-dose CT screening, pathological diagnosis using AI, genome diagnosis, secondary carcinogenesis, early palliative care, programs for patients and families, and team medical care. To discuss in Okayama with many surgeons, radiologists, physicians, medical staff, patients, and family members, pharmaceutical companies in order to advance lung cancer basic / clinical research, clinical practice, nursing, and social issues surrounding lung cancer in one or two steps. Looking forward to seeing you in Okayama.