Drew Moghanaki, Professor, Chief of Thoracic Oncology at David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, shared Banu Atalar’s, Professor of Radiation Oncology at Anadolu Medical Center Hospital, post on X, adding:
“Very well stated.
Unfortunately, I’m continuing to meet thoracic oncologists who have become blinded by their enthusiasm for nCIO and are not actually thinking about the consequences of poor patient selection. And when radiation oncologists question recommendations for a surgical management plan, they are cast as biased.
It is my opinion that the discord among specialists taking care of stage III NSCLC has reached unprecedented levels in the history of lung cancer care. This is simply not acceptable, and our patients expect more of us while we keep touting that we provide ‘MDT care’.
We need more people to speak up and ask the difficult questions needed to optimize patient selection and match the best treatment for each and every patient with stage III NSCLC. We also need more adults in the room to make it clear that it’s okay to question our recommendations. ”
Quoting Banu Atalar:
“Neoadjuvant chemoimmunotherapy in stage III lung cancer: new standard or still evolving?
Radiation oncologists vs everyone… are we always the ones raising objections at every meeting? Or just asking the right questions?”
In another post, Drew Moghanaki, also shared:
“These statistics presented at ASCO25 deserve more attention than they have gotten.
They clarify the need to have more honest conversations about the percentage of pts with stage III NSCLC who actually reach the operating room after nCIO. It is not 80%, as the phase III RCTs required operability confirmation before nCIO.
It is closer to 50%, which, in my opinion, reflects unbridled enthusiasm for nCIO. As the next slide shows, we need to discuss the consequences this creates for the patients we are trying to help.”
Title: Real-world surgical and treatment patterns after neoadjuvant checkpoint inhibition in US patients with stage II/III non-small cell lung cancer.
Author: Jay Lee.
You can also read: Stage III NSCLC Management 2026: Powerful Advances Transforming Multimodal Care.
