Dr. Antonoff completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania and earned her medical degree at the University of Minnesota, where she also completed internship and residency in General Surgery. Dr. Antonoff completed a fellowship in Cardiothoracic Surgery at Washington University in St Louis. She joined MD Anderson in 2014, where she’s currently an Associate Professor of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery and Program Director for Education. She is the Deputy Head of Education for Surgery.

Dr. Antonoff’s research interests include pulmonary metastatic disease, early detection of lung cancer, and local consolidative therapy for stage IV lung cancer. She is the surgical lead for several trials evaluating the role of local consolidative therapy for metastatic non-small cell lung cancer. She holds several leadership roles in the STS, including chair of the STS Council on Member Engagement and its leadership Institute. She serves as the Vice President and President-Elect of the WTS. She further holds leadership roles within the AATS, the STSA, the AWS, IASLC, ESTS, and the TSDA, and Senior Editorial Board positions for Annals of Thoracic Surgery, Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Innovations, CTSNet, and Journal of Thoracic Disease.

Dr. Bahig specializes in the treatment of lung and head and neck cancers, with an interest in the development of pragmatic clinical trials evaluating new technological approaches to personalize radiation therapy treatments. She works on the development of algorithms using artificial intelligence to predict response and side effects of lung and head & neck radiation therapy. She is the principal investigator of the RESCUE trial, evaluating the role of adjuvant radiotherapy in stage III NSCLC in the neoadjuvant era.

Simon Barsoum is a Montreal-based disability management and workers’ compensation specialist, with a healthcare background in physiotherapy, as well as a dedicated patient advocate and lung cancer survivor.

In 2022, at the age of 42, Simon was diagnosed with a rare form of ROS1-positive non-small cell lung cancer. This unexpected diagnosis profoundly reshaped his personal and professional journey and moved him to be a passionate voice for patient-centred care. He actively volunteers as a patient partner in his local healthcare network and on a national cancer committee, where he advocates for integrating the patient perspective into clinical practice, research, and policy. He also regularly participates in cancer fundraising opportunities. Drawing on both his clinical background and lived experience, he brings a unique and deeply informed perspective to discussions on cancer care and survivorship.

Simon is also a husband and father of two young children, and his experience has strengthened his commitment to ensuring that patients and families are meaningfully included in healthcare decision-making.

At ELIXR 2026, Simon will share his journey to highlight the human side of diagnosis and treatment, and to underscore the importance of empathy, communication, and collaboration in improving outcomes for young people living with lung cancer.

Dr. Quincy Chu has been a medical oncologist at the Cross Cancer Institute since April 2005. He completed his medical oncology training in Canada, followed by a Phase I/clinical research fellowship in novel anti-cancer drug development at the Institute for Drug Development. During his fellowship, he was involved in the development of numerous novel anti-cancer agents and received additional training in innovative clinical trial design and clinical pharmacology.

Dr. Chu is currently a professor in the Department of Oncology at the University of Alberta. His clinical and translational research focuses on novel drug development, including targeted therapies and immuno-oncology agents in thoracic oncology. At the Cross Cancer Institute, he serves as co-lead of the Phase I Unit and lead of the Thoracic Research Unit.

Dr. José Francisco Corona-Cruz is a thoracic surgical oncologist and Head of the Thoracic Surgical Oncology Service at the Instituto Nacional de Cancerología (INCan), Mexico’s largest comprehensive cancer center.

He also serves as Coordinator of the Thoracic Oncology Functional Unit, leading a multidisciplinary program focused on the comprehensive management of thoracic malignancies. He is Professor and Director of the UNAM-accredited postgraduate program in Thoracic Surgical Oncology, the only formal training program of its kind in Mexico, aimed at developing highly specialized surgeons aligned with international standards.

Dr. Corona-Cruz is an active member of international organizations including IASLC and ASCO, contributing to global initiatives in thoracic oncology education and collaboration. His academic work focuses on the multimodality treatment of thoracic malignancies, minimally invasive and robotic approaches in thoracic surgical oncology, and the implementation of high-quality cancer care models in low-and middle-income countries.

Luis Corrales, MD is a medical oncologist and director of the Centro de Investigación y Manejo del Cáncer (CIMCA) in San José, Costa Rica. He obtained his medical degree at the Universidad de Costa Rica and completed his Medical Oncology residency program at the same university in 2009. He then pursued a Thoracic Oncology Fellowship at Hôpital Notre-Dame from the Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM) in Montreal, Canada.

He currently is a pre-graduate and post-graduate professor at the Universidad de Costa Rica. He is the leading investigator for Costa Rica of several international clinical trials at CIMCA and has served as an advisor for the PanAmerican Health Organization (PAHO). He is a founding member and co-director of Consorcio Latinoamericano para la Investigación del Cáncer de Pulmón (CLICaP) and the Grupo Latino americano de Oncología Digestiva (GLOD), member of the ASCO Latin American Council, and member of different committees of the IASLC, ASCO, and ISLB.

Dr. Alberto Cruz-Bermúdez is a Principal Investigator at the Health Research Institute Puerta de Hierro, where he specializes in the tumor microenvironment of lung cancer. Since establishing this research program in 2016, he has built and currently leads a multidisciplinary team of eight researchers focused on elucidating the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying therapeutic response, with particular emphasis on neoadjuvant immunotherapy.

Dr. Cruz-Bermúdez is an active member of the Spanish Lung Cancer Group (GECP), contributing to the translational research components of multiple clinical trials. Notably, he co-led the translational research program for the landmark NADIM Trials, generating critical biological insights and identifying key biomarkers in the evolving field of perioperative chemo-immunotherapy.

He is also a pioneer in the application of T-cell receptor (TCR) and B-cell receptor (BCR) gene sequencing in early-stage lung cancer. His laboratory employs a high-dimensional, multi-omic approach, including spatial transcriptomics, single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq), and multiplex immunofluorescence, to characterize the spatial organization of the immune response and identify novel therapeutic targets.

Dr. Cruz-Bermúdez’s scientific excellence is reflected in an outstanding publication record, with 21 Q1 publications over the past five years. His work has appeared in leading medical and oncology journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of Clinical Oncology, The Lancet Oncology, Clinical Cancer Research, and the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer.

Nathalie Daaboul, MD. FRCPC is a hematologist-oncologist practicing at the Integrated Cancer Center of the Montérégie, at Hôpital Charles LeMoyne (in South-Shore Montreal, Quebec, Canada). She has a thoracic oncology subspeciality from the University of Ottawa. Her current clinical areas of practice are in lung and upper GI cancers.

She is interested in clinical research, medical education, and patient advocacy at regional / provincial and national levels. Most notably, she leads the RESOT (Quebec's Community of Practice for lung cancer research). She is also an associate professor at the Université de Sherbrooke.

Dr D’Amours is a Medical Oncologist and a Hematologist in Quebec. She obtained her medical degree from Laval University Quebec, where she also completed her residency in Internal Medicine, Medical Oncology and Hematology.

She completed a clinical fellowship at the University of British Columbia, BC Cancer Vancouver, focusing on thoracic malignancies and targeted therapies. Her current practice focuses on thoracic and head and neck cancers. She has interests in real-world analysis and medical education. She has presented at several international conferences and serves on the Royal College of Canada’s Board of Certification in Medical Oncology.

Dr. Narjust Florez is a clinician-researcher committed to improving cancer care for vulnerable populations, particularly young patients and women with lung cancer. Her clinical interests and research focus on utilizing novel approaches for timely lung cancer diagnosis, targeted therapies for early-stage lung cancer, the unique disease characteristics in young adults with lung cancer, survivorship challenges in lung cancer, and the role of intersectionality in shaping patients’ experiences.

Dr. Goss is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Medicine at the University of Ottawa, and Senior Clinician Scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. He previously served as Head and Chair of the Division of Medical Oncology at the University of Ottawa and as Director of Clinical and Translational Research at The Ottawa Hospital Cancer Centre.

A founding member of the Canadian Association of Medical Oncologists, Dr. Goss served as its President from 1999 to 2001. From 2007 to 2019, he chaired the Thoracic Oncology Site Committee of the Canadian Cancer Trials Group and served as a member of both the U.S. Cooperative Group Chairs Committee (Lung) and the Thoracic Malignancy Steering Committee of the U.S. National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health. He is also an active member of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC), where he chaired the Publications Committee from 2014 to 2016.

Dr. Goss has published extensively in the fields of cancer drug development and thoracic oncology, authoring more than 400 publications, including papers in the New England Journal of Medicine, Nature Medicine, Journal of Clinical Oncology, and Lancet Oncology. He has served on numerous editorial boards, including the Journal of Clinical Oncology, as well as several international scientific advisory and conference boards. His research continues to be supported through multiple peer-reviewed grants.

His contributions to patient care have been recognized through “Guardian Angel Awards” from patients, while his academic achievements have earned national and international honours, including the Korean Society for the Study of Lung Cancer Visiting Professor Award, a Certificate of Appreciation from the U.S. National Cancer Institute, the Canadian Lung Cancer Conference Lifetime Achievement Award, and most recently, the Joe Pater Founders Award from the Canadian Cancer Trials Group.

Dr. David H. Harpole Jr. is an internationally recognized thoracic surgeon, researcher, and educator who serves as the George Barth Geller Distinguished Professor of Surgery at Duke University Medical Center. He directs the Duke Surgical Research Fellowship and leads Duke’s Lung Cancer Research Laboratory and Biorepository. After earning his medical degree from University of Virginia in 1984, he completed his surgical training at Duke University and later joined the faculty of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where he established a research laboratory and secured his first NIH grant. Recruited back to Duke in 1996, he built the institution’s General Thoracic Surgery Program and Thoracic Oncology Research Laboratory, rising to become a tenured Professor of Surgery and Pathology.

Over a distinguished career spanning more than three decades, Dr. Harpole has authored more than 250 scientific publications and has become a leading authority in lung cancer, esophageal cancer, and mesothelioma research. He has held numerous national leadership positions, including roles with the American College of Surgeons, the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, the American Board of Thoracic Surgery, and the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer, where he served as President of the 2021 World Conference on Lung Cancer.

A pioneer in minimally invasive lung cancer surgery and translational thoracic oncology, he has led major multi-institutional clinical trials, secured sustained federal research funding, and mentored more than 30 research fellows who now hold academic appointments across North America.

Dr. Steven Lin received his medical training in the MD/PhD program at The University of California Irvine Medical School and Residency Training in Radiation Oncology at The Sydney Kimmel Cancer Institute at Johns Hopkins.

He is currently a tenured Professor and Director of Research in the Department of Thoracic Radiation Oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center. He is a Physician Scientist with his clinical practice directed at thoracic cancers and oversees several clinical trials including the use of proton beam therapy for esophageal cancer and in the combination of immunotherapy with radiotherapy in lung and esophageal cancers.

Dr. Lin’s lab focuses on novel approaches that enhance radiotherapy and immunotherapy combinations in lung cancer that could be translated to innovative clinical trials. Dr. Lin also directs a translational research team that evaluates biomarkers for early detection.

Dr. McGuire is an Advanced Thoracic Fellowship Trained active staff thoracic surgeon at Vancouver General Hospital and the University of British Columbia. Dr. McGuire is a successful researcher with specialty interests in lung cancer, esophageal cancer, minimally invasive surgical technology (keyhole surgery), diseases of the thymus, esophageal function and other surgical diseases of the chest.

Dr. McGuire‘s current research projects focus on lung cancer including biomarkers and thoracic surgical epidemiology.

After graduating from the University of Toronto School of Medicine, Dr. McGuire completed a general surgery residency at Queens University, thoracic surgery residency and advanced thoracic surgery fellowship at the University of Ottawa, and Master of Science in Clinical Epidemiology with the University of London (LSHTM). Since this time, Dr. McGuire returned home to Vancouver, and has been on faculty at the University of British Columbia and Vancouver General Hospital as a Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada board certified academic thoracic surgeon.

Dr. Barbara Melosky is a Professor of Medicine at the University of British Columbia and a Medical Oncologist in Vancouver at BC Cancer. She graduated from medical school at the University of Manitoba and did a residency in internal medicine and an oncology fellowship at the University of British Columbia.

Dr. Melosky specializes in the field of thoracic malignancies.

Dr. Melosky sits on the Executive Lung Site Committee for Canadian Clinical Trials Group (CCTG). She chairs the annual Canadian Lung Cancer Conference attended by over 450 participants, for the last 24 years.

Dr. Melosky is proud to have built the British Columbia Lung Cancer Biobank which is actively used for research for all interested.

She is published extensively and is considered a national and international expert in thoracic malignancies.

Sean P. Pitroda, MD, Professor of Radiation Oncology at the University of Chicago Medicine, is a physician-scientist dedicated to transforming the treatment of metastatic cancer through patient-centered translational research. His work challenges one of oncology's most entrenched assumptions — that metastatic disease is always widespread and incurable — and instead seeks to identify which patients can achieve long-term cure with targeted, localized therapies.

Dr. Pitroda earned his BS in Biomedical Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology before completing his MD at the University of Chicago's Pritzker School of Medicine in 2011. He subsequently completed his residency training in Radiation Oncology at the University of Chicago, where he has remained as a faculty member, researcher, and clinician.

His laboratory focuses on understanding the tumor-intrinsic and host factors that determine clinical outcomes in patients with metastatic disease. Using integrative molecular analyses of clinical metastases, bioinformatics, tumor models, immunologic profiling, and statistical modeling, Dr. Pitroda and his team have made landmark contributions to the field of oligometastasis.

Duncan Preece has an initial background in health sciences with a specialization in clinical oncology at Europe’s top cancer hospital, the Royal Marsden, in London. He subsequently worked for many years for a large European University Hospital, the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV) in Lausanne, Switzerland, chiefly as the head of international medical personnel recruitment and retention. He also worked as a management consultant for EY for several years.

Duncan was diagnosed with stage 4 ALK Positive lung cancer in 2018 and is still on his original TKI. He took up advocacy at ALK Positive Inc (API) in the US and is a current member of the Board of Directors, as well as of several committees. Noting the absence of a similar organization in Canada, he made contact with a number of Canadian patients and instigated the founding of ALK Positive Canada (APC). This organization was incorporated in January 2025 under a federal charter.

Dr. Bertrand Routy MD, PhD is a clinician-scientist and associate professor in the department of hemato-oncology at the CHUM (University of Montreal). Upon his recruitment to the CRCHUM in 2018 after completing his PhD with Pr. Laurence Zitvogel, Dr. Routy quickly established himself as the scientific director of the CHUM Microbiome Centre where he began his work to develop novel microbiome-based therapeutics in oncology.

His work contributed to the discovery of the gut microbiome as a novel prognostic biomarker for immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) in various cancers. He characterized the deleterious impact of antibiotic-related gut dysbiosis on ICI outcomes, which led to pivotal changes in clinical oncology practice.

Dr. Routy is internationally recognized as a leader in the microbiome field with more than 17,700 citations including publications in Science, Nature Medicine and Annals of Oncology, and h-index of 43.

Dr. Valerie W. Rusch is an Attending Thoracic Surgeon, Vice Chair for Clinical Research in the Department of Surgery, and a member of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where she holds the Miner Family Chair in Intrathoracic Cancers.

Following residencies in general surgery and cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Washington, Dr. Rusch served as a Faculty Associate at the MD Anderson Cancer Center before joining the faculty at the University of Washington. She joined Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in 1989 and served as Chief of Thoracic Surgery from 2000 to 2013.

Dr. Rusch has dedicated her career to thoracic surgical oncology and clinical and translational research. She has served as Principal Investigator for multiple National Cancer Institute-sponsored cooperative group clinical trials.

Dr. Stephanie Snow is a staff Medical Oncologist at the QEII hospital in Halifax, Nova Scotia, treating thoracic and GI malignancies. After pursuing undergraduate training at McGill, she completed her training at Dalhousie, where she is now a full professor in the Faculty of Medicine.

Dr. Snow has a strong interest in Medical Education and is Vice Chair of the Royal College Medical Oncology Examination Board. From a research perspective she is involved in clinical research, is Associate Editor of the peer reviewed journal Current Oncology and has been widely published in prominent journals.

Finally, Dr. Snow is active in patient advocacy, serving as the current President of Lung Cancer Canada, and sits on the medical advisory committees of several other patient advocacy groups in colorectal and gastric cancer.

Dr. Gavitt Woodard is a thoracic surgeon at Yale School of Medicine where she specializes in the care of patients with lung cancer. Dr. Woodard has a degree in neurobiology and health care policy from Harvard University and received her medical degree from Stanford School of Medicine.

She completed her General Surgery Residency and Thoracic Surgery Fellowship at University of California San Francisco. Her research interests are in biomarkers of early-stage non-small cell lung cancer, immune cell infiltration in the tumor immune microenvironment, immune cell dysfunction, and semi-solid lung adenocarcinoma.

She has been the recipient of many research awards including those from the Yale SPORE in Lung Cancer, the American Cancer Society, IASLC Young Investigator Award, the Society of Thoracic Surgeons AstraZeneca Lung Cancer Research Award, LUNGevity, and the Braude Foundation.

Dr. Chi-Fu Jeffrey Yang is a thoracic surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital, Director of Research and Infrastructure for the Mass General Brigham Division of Thoracic Surgery, and Founder and Director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Artificial Intelligence and Innovation Research (CAIIRE). Dr. Yang’s research focuses on lung cancer screening, artificial intelligence, and clinical outcomes research.

Dr. Yang currently serves as project leader and multiple-PI of an R01-funded clinical trial (R01HL159170) focused on machine learning algorithms to detect postoperative complications after cardiothoracic surgery. Dr. Yang also serves as project leader and multiple-PI of an R18-funded clinical trial (R18HS029430) evaluating lung cancer screening among high-risk individuals, and as project leader and PI of an R21-funded study (R21CA301039) focused on recalibrating lung cancer risk prediction and screening models in real-world populations. In addition, Dr. Yang serves as study co-chair and PI of a multicenter phase II trial evaluating adjuvant chemotherapy and immunotherapy after resection for early-stage small-cell lung cancer.

Dr. Yang has authored more than 160 full-length research articles, including publications in JAMA, the British Medical Journal, JAMA Oncology, the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the Annals of Surgery, and Chest. Since 2018, Dr. Yang has also led national outreach and advocacy efforts for lung cancer screening as Founder and Director of the American Lung Cancer Screening Initiative (ALCSI). Under his leadership, ALCSI has organized more than 1,000 educational events about lung cancer screening, reaching over 50,000 individuals nationwide. Additionally, Dr. Yang has collaborated with bipartisan members of Congress on national resolutions supporting lung cancer awareness and screening. Dr. Yang’s advocacy efforts have been recognized with multiple honors, including the Harvard Medical School Dean’s Community Service Faculty Award and the Kraft Center Community Health Champion Award.