World Lung Cancer Day: Pasi A. Jänne, MD, PhD, Reflects on Progress, Hope, and Remaining Challenges

Pasi A. Jänne, MD, PhD, senior vice president for Translational Medicine and a thoracic medical oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, shares what World Lung Cancer Day, marked on August 1 annually, means to him as a clinician and researcher.

“It’s certainly a reminder about the importance of lung cancer as a disease,” Dr. Jänne said. “When I started my career, lung cancer was the number 1 cause of cancer-related death for both men and women in the United States, and that is still true today, despite the advances.”

Lung cancer accounts for around 20% of all cancer deaths, accounting for more deaths annually than colon, breast, and prostate cancers combined, according to the American Cancer Society, which estimates that 226,650 Americans will be diagnosed with lung cancer this year and that nearly 125,000 will die of lung cancer in 2025.

Although new cases of lung cancer are decreasing, and the number of deaths from lung cancer are also decreasing, it remains critical to continue efforts to improve lung cancer prevention, early detection, and treatment.

“We’re doing better in the field, and patients are living longer in general, but it is still the number 1 cause of cancer death,” Dr. Jänne said. “World Lung Cancer Day highlights not only the progress that we’ve made, but also highlights the progress that still needs to be made moving forward for this to be more of a chronic disease.”

Dr. Jänne shared what he hopes to see on the horizon for lung cancer treatment and research.

“Hopefully, even for patients with advanced lung cancer, we can offer potentially curative therapies at some juncture where that is not possible today,” he concluded.