Thoracic Surgery Outcomes Research Network, Inc

I’d like to invite you to the Stronger Together Health Fair this Saturday!!! Our amazing ALCSI (@AmLungCSI) & GEDI (@gedihq) teams are hosting this event at Roxbury Community College from 10-1pm!! Everyone is welcome!! There will be lunch, free massages, and line dancing too!!

At #ITSOS2026, Dr. Linda Martin (@LindaMThoracic) presented the impressive surgical outcomes of #MDTBridge. In this landmark phase II trial, pts w/ resectable or borderline resectable stage IIB-IIIB NSCLC received 2 cycles of chemo + durvalumab and were then reassessed at MDT. 92% of pts went on to get either surgery or chemoRT. Overall resection rate was 74.6%. In borderline resectable group that went on to get surgery, R0 resection rate was 96.8%.

Really impressed by this session at #ITSOS2026: “Disparities in Access and Treatment for Personalized Cancer Care.” Every presentation was thought-provoking & each gave me something practical to take home and act on. Such an amazing line up!!! Speakers: Alex Potter, Harvard Medical School (@alexandra_p_24) Amie Miller, Sarasota Memorial Health) Fatima Wilder, MGB (@FWilder9) Alexis Chidi, MSK (@AlexisChidi) Patrick Seastedt, Roswell Park (@SeastedtMD) Discussants Loretta Erhunmwunsee, City of Hope (@LorettaEMD) John Waters, UT Southwestern) Moderated by Neel Chudgar, Montefiore (@nchudgar) and Jane Yanagawa, UCLA

Dr. Pat Seastedt (@SeastedtMD) gave a thought-provoking talk at #ITSOS2026 on where AI could change thoracic care: risk-based screening eligibility; NLP to find eligible patients missed by structured EHR data; AI-assisted CT interpretation, which may reduce missed referrals; more consistent preoperative risk assessment; and potentially measurable surgical quality through video analysis and process auditing. His caution was clear: AI can make care more consistent without making it more equitable. We need to measure who benefits at every step, validate subgroup performance locally before and after deployment, and have thoracic surgeons help lead implementation.

Today, Dr. Alexis Chidi (@AlexisChidi) gave an outstanding talk at #ITSOS2026 on the impact of thoracic surgery deserts on patient outcomes. She reviewed evidence that resection rates for early-stage #lungcancer fall as access to thoracic surgeons decreases, leading to poorer outcomes for these patients. She also discussed research from MGH resident @SaraSakowitz showing that esophagectomy outcomes were better when patients traveled farther to high-volume centers rather than undergoing surgery at local low-volume hospitals. She closed with practical strategies for using collaborative oncology care and hub-and-spoke models to close gaps in access to thoracic surgical care.

Dr. Fatima Wilder (@fwilder9) gave an outstanding presentation on unmet social needs in thoracic surgery at #ITSOS2026. She presented compelling data showing that nearly one third of thoracic surgery patients, in BOTH high- and low-resource settings, have unmet social needs that contribute to poor outcomes. She also shared a powerful message from patients who were interviewed through her work with EMBEDLC: “physicians should ask their patients directly about social needs, rather than focusing on clinical care alone.”

Today at #ITSOS2026, Alex Potter (@alexandra_p_24) presented the first results of the INSPIRE study!! Among 518 Black women, the lung cancer detection rate was 1.2%. Among women who smoked for >20 years but were ineligible under USPSTF criteria, it was 1.6%—compared with 1.0% in NLST. These findings support evaluating smoking duration in screening eligibility (#PotterCriteria). This has been a years-long effort, and we’re not done yet. We are now screening Black men and women at risk for lung cancer, with a goal of reaching more than 2,000 people. We look forward to sharing that update by 2029!! #AATS #Lungcancerscreening #ALCSI

Today, at #ITSOS2026, MGH Surgery Resident Alex Zhu ( @Alexzhu_) gave a great presentation on a real-world analysis of adjuvant chemo vs adjuvant chemo & immunotherapy for stage II–III NSCLC. Immunotherapy was associated with improved overall survival in stage III disease, but not stage II. #AATS @AATSHQ #LungCancer

ALCSI’s Deepti Srinivasan (@DeeptiSrini) gave a terrific presentation at the World Conference on Lung Cancer (#WCLC26). She presented the first national estimate of lung cancer incidence among people who have never smoked in the United States, finding that nearly 30,000 people who have never smoked are diagnosed with lung cancer each year. Our team also found that 17% of women, 77% of U.S Asian women, and 58% of patients under the age of 40 had never smoked. This work highlights the urgent need to develop strategies for early detection in people who have never smoked.

What an inspiring weekend with the @AmLungCSI team at our #2026ALCSISummit!! This year, we welcomed attendees representing more than 110 institutions and organizations across 22 U.S. states and territories and 5 countries—including high school and college students, physicians, researchers, patient advocates, public health leaders, and industry professionals. We had the privilege of learning from the most extraordinary leaders and an awe-inspiring group of patient advocates. We were especially honored to welcome keynote speakers Dr. Jessica Donington (@jdoningtonmd) and Dr. Anthony Fauci (@Dr_AnthonyFauci), who challenged us to think boldly about leadership, innovation, and tackling our nation’s greatest public health challenges. One of my most memorable moments of the summit was hearing from the incredible students who presented groundbreaking ideas to advance lung cancer screening through the ALCSI Innovation Challenge. Their creativity, passion, and dedication left me feeling incredibly hopeful for the future of medicine and public health. To everyone who traveled from near and far to be with us—thank you for making this weekend so special. I leave this weekend with a heart full of gratitude for your belief in our mission, your generosity, and your support. None of what we do would be possible without you.

I was recently interviewed for this New York Times story by Paula Span on the lifesaving impact of lung cancer screening. Thank you to Paula for shining a light on this important issue, and to Mr. Dennis Schmidt for sharing your powerful story. Early detection saves lives, and I hope this piece inspires continued efforts to expand awareness of and access to lung cancer screening! nytimes.com/2026/07/11/well/…

Alex Potter (@alexandra_p_24), Quiana Guo & our team just published in Chest an analysis of 3 large cohort studies showing that the 2021 USPSTF lung cancer screening criteria miss many many patients diagnosed with early- or late-stage lung cancer. For example, they found that among nearly 15,000 patients with lung cancer, only 41% to 59% of patients with late-stage lung cancer would have met the 2021 USPSTF recommendation for lung cancer screening. Far too many high-risk individuals remain ineligible for screening under current guidelines. Read it here: authors.elsevier.com/a/1nRN0…