As a member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN)—an alliance of the world’s leading cancer centers — we are at the forefront of outcomes research. Our multidisciplinary group is investigating lung cancer through basic, translational, and clinical research. A wide variety of clinical and research projects are led by our thoracic surgical oncologists, medical oncologists, and radiation oncologists, as well as basic scientists, population scientists, pulmonologists, and radiologists.
Thoracic Cancer
Duke Cancer Institute’s thoracic cancer disease group is recognized for its innovative, aggressive, and personalized approach to detecting and treating lung cancer, the leading cause of death from cancer in the U.S. Our lung cancer program guides treatment decisions for the newly diagnosed or those seeking a second opinion.
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Contacts
Nolan Miller
Administrative Director
nolan.miller@duke.edu 919-684-1671Debra Shoemaker
Assistant Research Practice Manager
debra.shoemaker@duke.edu 919-681-4768Visit DukeHealth.org for more information about thoracic cancer.
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Medical Oncology
Yeshu Conn
Nurse Practitioner
Tara Herrmann
Physician Assistant
Jennifer Tenhover
Nurse Practitioner
Surgical Oncology
S. Scott Balderson
Physician Assistant
Hilary Crittenden
Nurse Practitioner
Robert Ferguson
Nurse Practitioner
Jenny Hinderer
Physician Assistant
Kasey Johnson
Nurse Practitioner
Erin M. Kunz
Physician Assistant
Roshni P. Mapp
Physician Assistant
Michelle Metzler
Physician Assistant
Radiation Oncology
Interventional Pulmonary
Lung Cancer Screening
Hilary Crittenden
Nurse Practitioner
Our thoracic oncology surgeons are national leaders in minimally invasive surgical procedures. We perform more than 1,600 minimally invasive surgeries every year on all types and stages of lung cancer. As a result, patients experience less post-operative pain and recover faster.
Our radiation oncologists have access to specialized techniques, such as stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) for early-stage lung cancer and radiation treatment planning aided by four-dimensional computed tomography (4D CT).
Our board-certified lung imaging specialists undergo advanced training in the early detection of lung cancer.
Research Results
An important research strategy is the study of how individual genes affect oncogenesis and tumor progress. In the laboratory, some investigators are studying mouse models to determine the role of stem cells in the development of cancer in humans and in the development of resistance to treatment.
Clinically, researchers hope to discover how to use unique genetic mutations to personalize treatment and are looking at subgroups of patients to see how they respond to treatment.
Several studies are also ongoing utilizing a large tissue bank and database of patients treated for lung cancer at Duke University since 1995.
For example, some researchers are studying epidemiological factors related to lung cancer — why certain patient groups respond to treatment better than others.
In addition, other researchers are examining the role of age, gender, minimally invasive surgery, and other patient-specific factors in outcomes, including quality of life.
Lung cancer clinical research at Duke has focused on biomarker discovery and development —the use of molecular signatures to improve the assessment of prognosis and the development of specific new therapies.
The formation of the program has allowed for the optimal collaboration of the best basic science underway on the Duke campus with ongoing clinical and translational lung cancer research programs.
Our medical oncologists have developed several drugs that have received FDA approval. These drugs help improve patient outcomes.
Clinical Trials Results
Early Detection of Lung Cancer based on small RNA signatures
BGBC016 STK11 NSCLC (Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer)
BioNTech BNT142-01 (Solid Tumor Cancers with CLDN6 Protein)
TOP 2201 (Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer)
A082101 Sarcomatoid Mesothelioma Stage 1-3
S2302 Stage IV or Recurrent Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
ALKOVE-1 (Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer)
CRSP-ONC-005 (Solid Tumors)
OncoCHAT (Advanced Solid Cancer)
A081801 (Lung Cancer)
A082002 Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
TOP 2101 - Metastatic Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
Events Results
Related News Results
MaryAnn Black Symposium Centers Health Equity in 2nd Annual Community Event
In January 2024, Duke University launched a celebration of its centennial — a historic opportunity to recognize Duke’s extraordinary past, communicate the impact of the present, and look toward Duke's potential impact going forward. Duke Cancer Institute, which recently celebrated its 50th anniversary as a National Cancer Institute-Designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, is proud to have hosted one of the Duke Centennial Celebration's signature events — the 2nd annual MaryAnn Black Distinguished Health Equity Symposium in honor of the late MaryAnn Black.
Pendergast Awarded Grant to Study Therapy Resistance in Aggressive Lung Cancer Subtype
Ann Marie Pendergast, PhD, the Anthony R. Means Cancer Biology Distinguished Professor (Department of Pharmacology & Cancer Biology), has received a two-year $150,000 Lung Cancer Research Foundation (LCRF) grant to continue her laboratory work “uncovering novel vulnerabilities to treat small cell lung cancer therapy resistance.”The LCRF grant was one of two national awards bestowed by the nonprofit to recipients whose projects focus on combating therapeutic resistance. (National awards were also announced in the categories of prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and cure; early detection & pre-neoplasia; and minority career development).Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the U.S. — accounting for 20% of all cancer deaths each year. While only 10% to 15% of all lung cancers are small cell lung cancer (SCLC), it’s the most aggressive subtype. Chemotherapy drug resistance easily develops and quickly leads to cancer spread.“The overall 5-year survival rate for SCLC patients is only about 7% and has remained unchanged for over 30 years. Therefore, there is an urgent need to define the molecular mechanisms driving metastatic SCLC in order to identify novel and effective treatment strategies against this deadly cancer,” explained Pendergast, who’s been a member of Duke Cancer Institute since 1992.The Pendergast Lab focuses on the role of tyrosine kinase-regulated signaling networks in tumor progression to metastasis. Early research led to seminal discoveries defining the critical pathways employed by the BCR-ABL tyrosine kinase enzyme to induce leukemia. An ABL001 inhibitor (Asciminib), was FDA-approved in Nov. 2021 to treat patients with chronic myeloid leukemia who have an activated variant of the ABL kinase.More recent work from the Pendergast Lab has shown that ABL kinases are activated in a subset of highly metastatic solid tumors, including lung tumors. She and her team believe that inhibition of ABL kinases might be exploited to treat these tumors even after metastatic dissemination and that their effectiveness might be enhanced by the use of combination therapies, including targeted therapies or standard chemotherapies.Using diverse human SCLC cell lines and mouse models, Pendergast and her team have found that targeting ABL tyrosine kinases causes a profound decrease in SCLC growth and viability across multiple SCLC subtypes.They also identified metabolic and replication stress-induced pathways with the synergistic potential to induce the death of metastatic and therapy-resistant SCLC cells in the presence of ABL kinase allosteric inhibitors such as Asciminib.The LCRF grant will support research, using human SCLC cell lines and mouse models, by Pendergast and her team evaluating how combination therapies targeting these pathways in the presence of ABL allosteric inhibitors, including Asciminib, can be exploited for effective treatment of metastatic and therapy-resistant SCLC tumors.This work will be performed by Pendergast Lab members Jing Jin Gu, PhD, senior research scientist, and graduate student Roberto Barbier, both of whom generated the data in support of this research, in collaboration with lung cancer researcher Trudy Oliver, PhD, a professor of in the Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, and Lee Zou, PhD, professor and chair of the Department of Pharmacology & Cancer Biology.The Lung Cancer Research Foundation awards its grants for “projects that show promise to make a sustained and lasting impact on the field of lung cancer research and lung cancer outcomes.”“We are committed to supporting science that seeks solutions to lung cancer’s most challenging issues,” said Katerina Politi, PhD, Chair of LCRF’s Scientific Advisory Board and a cancer biologist and professor at Yale School of Medicine. “Breakthroughs can only happen if the most promising ideas of these talented investigators are funded.”The LCRF grants are made possible, in part, by support from Bristol Myers Squibb and donations from LCRF’s many generous supporters.
An Extraordinary Woman in Cardiothoracic Surgery
Duke Cancer Institute member Betty Tong, MD, MHS, MSME, BME, has won the inaugural “Extraordinary Women in Cardiothoracic Surgery Award” established by the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) and Women in Thoracic Surgery (WTS).The award celebrates those who have achieved excellence and innovation in clinical practice and who demonstrate integrity, leadership, mentorship, creativity, and advocacy on behalf of the specialty, patient population, or fellow surgeons and trainees.Tong, an active member of both WTS (where she serves as co-chair of membership) and the Association of Women Surgeons, is an associate professor in the tenure track of the Department of Surgery, Division of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery, Section of General Thoracic Surgery.She's an accomplished clinical surgeon with a strong focus on complex thoracic oncology and minimally invasive thoracic surgery and has clinical expertise in lung and esophageal cancer surgery as well as mesothelioma.In addition to her own busy clinical practice at Duke, Tong operates one day each week at the Durham VA Medical Center with the residents on the General Thoracic Surgery service there.Tong has served on the Duke Institutional Review Board (IRB) for more than a decade and has more than 120 peer-reviewed publications to her name; about 40 of which were published in the last two years.“This tremendous honor recognizes the outstanding achievements of women thoracic surgeons in our specialty,” said Edward Chen, MD, FACS, FAHA, division chief, Cardiothoracic Surgery, in the Duke Department of Surgery. “We are truly blessed and privileged to have Dr. Tong on our faculty at Duke.”Tong was presented with the award at a celebratory breakfast held during the Jan. 21-23 Society of Thoracic Surgeons’ Annual Meeting in San Diego. Leah M. Backhus, MD, MPH (Stanford University) and Jennifer L. Ellis, MD, MBA (NYU Langone Health) also received the award.
Searching For & Finding Cancers' Achilles Heels: The Eighth Annual DCI Scientific Retreat Was One for the Books
The Duke Cancer Institute 8th Annual Scientific Retreat, held on December 3, 2021, attracted a broad array of faculty, trainees (students, residents, fellows, postdocs, etc.) and staff.For a second year, the retreat was entirely virtual and there were no poster presentations owing to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.“Hopefully, this will be the last time that we have to do it this way,” said executive director of DCI, Michael Kastan, MD, PhD, welcoming participants over Zoom.That it was virtual didn't stop a series of lively discussions from moving full-steam ahead on a full Friday afternoon on topics such as DCI cancer health equity and engagement strategies, viral lymphomas, bone loss as a CLL co-morbidity, ways around immune system evasion, cardio-protective cancer therapy, new approaches for treating head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, clues as to how cystic lesions progress to pancreatic cancer, unlocking immune dysfunction in glioblastoma, cholesterol-control drugs and cancer, and the PARP revolution.“We have a very full agenda today with great science from Duke trainees and faculty and are also celebrating several different anniversaries. First, it's my 10th anniversary as director of the Duke Cancer Institute and I have to say it's been a real privilege of my life to be in this role and to be able to work with such extraordinary people here. And I couldn't be more proud of everything that all the staff and all the faculty have done during the time that I've been here," said Kastan. "We're also celebrating the 50th anniversary of the National Cancer Act, which was signed in 1971, and put us down the path to NCI-designated cancer centers. The Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center (now DCI) was one of the original eight."Kastan also noted that DCI's own 50th was on the horizon."This year we begin celebrating our 50th anniversary. We've made a tremendous impact on cancer research and patient care in the U.S. and around the world.”
Li Awarded Grant for Cholesterol-Control-Drug-Repurposing Research
The North Carolina non-profit Lung Cancer Initiative has awarded Duke Cancer Institute member Chuan-Yuan Li, DSc, a professor in the Duke University School of Medicine Departments of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology and Dermatology, the Vicky Amidon Innovation in Lung Cancer Research Award.The $50,000 grant will support Li's ongoing investigations into whether specific FDA-approved cholesterol control drugs may be repurposed in the treatment of LKB1/STK11-mutated advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) to help these patients overcome immunotherapy drug resistance.The importance of cholesterol in transforming normal cells into cancer cells, the role of cholesterol in cancer spread, and the utility of cholesterol control in cancer control, are topics of current study and debate in a number of cancer types and by a number of cancer researchers.Based on work published last year (Liu et al, Nature, 2020), Li suspects that PCSK9 — a protein that regulates the amount of cholesterol in the bloodstream and that’s found in high amounts in LKB1/STK11- mutated advanced NSCLC tumors — is driving the immune evasion of this type of lung cancer and that the protein may play a key role in these patients' known resistance to immune checkpoint inhibitor drugs, a type of immunotherapy that’s shown great promise in many but not most patients with advanced lung cancer. (Numerous factors, including drug resistance, have limited their efficacy)“Our hypothesis is that using certain FDA-approved cholesterol control drugs — specifically evolocumab (Repatha) or alirocumab (Praluent), which are designed to inhibit the functioning of PCSK9 proteins — may also work in advanced LKB1/STK11-mutated tumors,” Li explained. “Inhibiting the functioning of PCSK9 may help these particular non-small cell lung cancer patients — which represent 25 to 30% of all cases of advanced NSCLC — overcome their resistance to immune checkpoint inhibitor drugs and thus receive a greater benefit from these drugs.”Li noted that the cholesterol control drugs evolocumab and alirocumab have shown minimal toxicity in human cardiology patients, which makes him hopeful about the potential side effects of these drugs if used in cancer patients. (Statins, a popular, but different kind of cholesterol control drug, limit the liver’s production of cholesterol by blocking a protein that the body needs to produce cholesterol — HMG-CoA-Reductase — and help the body reabsorb existing cholesterol. Statins are not part of Li’s LCI-funded research project.)In addition to lab studies to further understand the role PCSK9 in LKB1/STK11-mutant lung cancer, Li hopes to collaborate with DCI immunotherapy researchers Scott Antonia, MD, PhD (director of the DCI Center for Cancer Immunotherapy), Neal Ready, MD, PhD and James Isaacs, MD, to evaluate evolocumab through phase I and II clinical trials.Lung cancer claims more lives in North Carolina and the US, annually, than any other cancer and more than breast, colon, and prostate cancers combined. According to LCI, an estimated 8,830 individuals in North Carolina were diagnosed with lung cancer in 2021.Since 2008, LCI has funded more than $2.8 million in lung cancer research through programs like theResearch Fellows Program, the Health Disparities in Lung Cancer Grant (in partnership with the V Foundation for Cancer Research), an annual Career Development Grant, and research innovation grants. Duke Cancer Institute has been a direct recipient of about $875,000 of these grants.Li’s grant award from LCI — the Vicky Amidon Innovation in Lung Cancer Research Award— is named in memory of Vicky Amidon a beloved wife, mother, and friend who lost her battle with lung cancer at the age of 46 and whose memory is furthered through her family’s advocacy and support for the advancement of lung cancer research and awareness. The award, first given in 2019, recognizes and supports researchers who are developing innovative lung cancer projects that will improve the lives of those at risk of or living with lung cancer.
Stitch in Time: A Lung Cancer Survivor Story
On October 12, just before her 66th birthday, Henrietta Carr surprised her care team with a cancer ribbon-themed wall hanging she’d embroidered. “When I was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer, I moved from Greensboro to Durham so I could get treatment at Duke; I just wanted to come to Duke because I think they’re better,” says Carr. “I was feeling hopeless and as I was being treated by Dr. Crawford and Susan Blackwell, I started feeling hopeful of a future. They would share in my happiness, as the cancer would shrink. I am so grateful to my cancer team and wanted to show this gratitude.” Carr, a mother of two adult children, began embroidering cancer-ribbon-themed wall hangings to support individuals with cancer — friends, friends of friends, family, and friends of family — after she retired from nearly 30 years of service as a clerk and IT specialist for the Social Security Administration. This was well before she was diagnosed with cancer. “I did about 30 individual pieces and sent them out across the United States,” says Carr, who continued to embroider after her cancer diagnosis. It took about 25 hours to create the 36 by 56 (inches) piece she made for her cancer care team. To be diagnosed with cancer after bringing so much joy to other individuals with cancer was an unfair turn of events, Carr agrees. “But it is, what it is,” she says. It’s been nearly two years since Carr’s diagnosis. She’d gone to the Emergency Department at a hospital in Greensboro feeling a little fatigued and hoarse and came out of the ED with a diagnosis of pneumonia, which she was subsequently treated for. However, within a few weeks, she’d lost her voice and was hurting in her chest. Her second trip to the same ED resulted in a diagnosis, by an oncologist there, of lung cancer and pneumonia. “It was in both lungs and in between my lungs,” says Carr, noting that she wasn’t coughing or experiencing any breathing problems at the time. “I was kind of surprised. Because they kept saying it was (only) pneumonia.” Not Too Late In April 2020, she began radiation treatments to her right lung under the care of DCI radiation oncologist Christopher Kelsey, MD. She would also receive various combinations of chemotherapy and immunotherapy. There were promising clinical trial results at the time that indicated that chemotherapy and immunotherapy taken in combination might be more effective than either alone, Crawford explained. In December 2020, she underwent radiation to her left lung. Since then, she has been on immunotherapy (Keytruda, pembrolizumab) alone. Carr's specific diagnosis was lung adenocarcinoma, the most common primary lung cancer in America. This particular type of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has a strong association with previous smoking. Carr smoked cigarettes. As soon as she learned she had lung cancer, she tried to quit. With the aid of DCI physician assistant and trained tobacco cessation specialist Kelly M. Young, PA-C, she “cut way back.” “Quitting smoking can be extremely difficult and at times patients may not even know where to start,” said Young. “I value being able to help patient accomplish their goal of quitting smoking by offering medications and counseling based on the most current research.” People who currently smoke or have ever smoked make up more than 80% of lung cancer diagnoses. Quitting smoking can reduce your chance of developing lung cancer. Even after developing cancer, Young explained, quitting smoking can make cancer treatment more effective and prevent recurrence of cancer or new cancers from developing. By the end of this year, more than 235,000 new cases of lung cancer will have been diagnosed in the U.S. While the number of annual lung cancer deaths is decreasing, it remains the leading cause of cancer death in the U.S. (not including skin cancer). Lung cancer will take the lives of roughly 132,000 people in the U.S. this year — including about 5,000 in North Carolina — estimates the American Cancer Society. A Path to Home More than 75% of lung cancers are diagnosed in people over the age of 65. Carr, 66, has been on treatment for more than a year and a half and is still going strong. She’s even cheery. She says she feels “much, much, better,” though she admits she doesn’t have a lot of energy. In September 2021, Carr and her sister Sharlene were able to settle into a new house back in their hometown where they have extended family — in an area down towards Wilmington, not far from the Duplin Winery. Her treatments have now been extended to once every 6 weeks. She drives an hour-and-a-half to her immunotherapy infusion appointments and clinic visits at Duke Cancer Center in Durham, her sister by her side, and at the end of the day they drive right back home. “It’s going good. I feel pretty good,” said Carr, who describes herself as a homebody who avoids crowds. “We are just enjoying our house. And staying away from the Delta COVID.” Susan Blackwell, MHS, PA-C, and Jeffrey Crawford, MD, have been caring for patients with lung cancer at the Duke Cancer clinic for more than 30 years and are more excited than ever about the many treatment options now available. They work especially closely with primary clinical nurse, Mallory Tassone, BSN, RN, thoracic oncology fellow, Hilary Dietz, MD (who's training in medical oncology), and radiation oncologist Christopher Kelsey, MD, in a team approach for the benefit of their patients. Susan noted, “Ms. Carr is a wonderful person, always thinking of the needs of others. She is a true lung cancer survivor, living well and living longer.”
Closing the Cancer Disparities Gap in the Age of COVID
In continuing efforts to expand Duke Cancer Institute’s community outreach and engagement matrix of research, programs, and strategic partnerships to reduce the cancer burden and close the cancer disparities gap in its catchment area, DCI senior leadership is excited to welcome a new leader to the COE team. On Feb. 1 this year, cancer epidemiologist Tomi Akinyemiju, PhD, MS, was named DCI’s new associate director of Community Outreach and Engagement. (how to say her name) “She's a rising star in the world of cancer epidemiology and cancer disparities,” said deputy director of DCI Steven Patierno, PhD, who provides senior oversight to DCI’s community outreach and engagement efforts and helped recruit her to Duke two years ago. “She’s still in the early stages of her career but is already funded with an R01 from the National Cancer Institute. She’s also doing extraordinary work on breast cancer disparities in women of African ancestry. It’s very exciting research at the intersection of social determinants of health and the biology of cancer.” Akinyemiju joined Duke and DCI in Feb. 2019 as an associate research professor in the Department of Global Health and as an associate professor in the Department of Population Health Sciences where she also serves as vice-chair for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. She has a secondary appointment in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology. “Duke is a very well-known brand, a well-known institution with really cutting-edge smart people doing outstanding research,” she said. “I was really excited to come here, to be in North Carolina and be in an environment that values innovation, excellence and collaboration.” Previously, Akinyemiju was Assistant Dean for Inclusive Excellence and an associate professor of epidemiology with the Markey Cancer Center at the University of Kentucky. Akinyemiju’s current research to improve public health is focused on studying the social and biological mechanisms driving disparities in cancer risk, tumor aggressiveness and survival. “Access to care is a very consistent theme in my work,” she said. “In Kentucky, there is the Appalachian region, with underserved and low-income white populations. Similarly, in North Carolina, we have pockets where there is a lack of access to care as well as low-income underserved minority populations.” Akinyemiju is midway through a five-year $2 million NIH/National Cancer Institute-funded R01 study to assess the relative importance of race-specific barriers to healthcare access in Black and White ovarian cancer patients across nine states in the US, including Kentucky and North Carolina, and evaluating the impact of healthcare access on quality of cancer treatment, quality of life, and ovarian cancer survival. She expects that these new insights will help identify and prioritize ways to reduce disparities and improve care for these patients. Akinyemiju was born in Michigan, but grew up in Nigeria. She came back to her birthplace in 2004 for her undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate education, but her latest research project, also NIH/NCI-funded, brings her back to where she grew up. Nigeria, which is seeing a rapid increase in breast cancer cases in addition to other non-communicable diseases, including obesity-related diabetes, has the highest breast cancer mortality rates on the African continent. Triple-negative breast cancer, an aggressive, fast-growing hard-to-treat subtype with a poor prognosis, is the most prevalent breast cancer sub-type at nearly 45% of breast cancer cases. Akinyemiju is exploring how rising rates of metabolic dysregulation brought on by changing lifestyle and dietary patterns may impact breast cancer risk in Nigeria. To do this she’s collecting biospecimens in women with and without the triple negative breast cancer subtype in order to study the biological mechanisms of different subtypes that could predispose one person over another to be at higher-risk. She also plans to extend this study to the U.S. to examine biological data in African American breast cancer cases where the triple negative breast cancer prevalence is 20%. One outcome could be the discovery of an epigenetic (heritable DNA changes) link to triple negative breast cancer in those of West African heritage, including Americans with enslaved ancestors of West African descent. “In this study, we are interlinking genomic data with social determinants of health,” Akinyemiju explained. “We need more research to figure out what the risk factors and biological mechanisms are and what we can target to treat. We’re having to build this data from scratch, but once we build it, the implications for important scientific discoveries are endless.”
D'Amico Named AATS Medical Director
Thomas A. D’Amico, MD, Gary Hock Endowed Professor of Surgery, chief of General Thoracic Surgery, and director of the Thoracic Oncology program at Duke Cancer Institute, has been appointed to a two-year term as medical director of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS). The AATS Medical Director is responsible for assisting the association in its efforts in content planning, faculty selection, and faculty development. The person in this role is also the physician champion during the ACCME (Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education) re-accreditation process and interviews. According to an announcement published in the AATS Update (December 2020 issue), D'Amico was chosen for this role "based on his leadership, expertise, and continued support of the association." "AATS is honored to have Dr. D’Amico serve as it’s medical director for the next two years," read the announcement. D’Amico earned his MD from the College of Physicians & Surgeons of Columbia University after completing undergraduate studies at Harvard University. He received training in general surgery and thoracic surgery at Duke University Medical Center. D’Amico joined Duke as a faculty member in 1996 following completion of a fellowship in thoracic surgical oncology at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. As director of the Thoracic Oncology Program of the Duke Cancer Institute, D’Amico supervises the clinical and research programs in lung cancer and esophageal cancer. As a member of the Duke Quality and Safety Committee and the Perioperative Executive Committee, he is involved in improving safety and quality in patient care. In addition to AATS, he holds leadership positions with the Society of Thoracic Surgeons and the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer. He is also active in the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), as a member of NCCN Board of Directors and Guidelines Steering Committee, the chair of the Quality and Outcomes Committee, as well as a member of the Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer and Small Cell Lung Cancer Guidelines Committees, and co-chair of the Esophageal Cancer Guidelines Committee. D’Amico is also an associate editor of the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery and serves on the editorial board of the Annals of Surgery.