The two-day conference, organized by ONTIC in partnership with Ohio State University and the National Cancer Institute, ran from 5–6 December 2025 under the patronage of the ministries of health and higher education. It brought together 42 scientists from Egypt and abroad for 30 sessions and advanced clinical workshops covering the full spectrum of lung cancer care.
ONTIC president and head of the oncology department at the National Cancer Institute at Cairo University, Ola Khorshid, told Ahram Online that the conference carries a clear call to act against the rising burden of lung cancer in low- and middle-income countries. She said the recommendations focused on expanding molecular testing capacity and promoting fair access to innovative treatments.
Khorshid emphasised that new generations of smart therapies have changed patients’ lives, noting that more than 80 percent of those with advanced lung cancer can now achieve a treatment response due to immune and targeted therapies. She added that early detection can lead to a complete cure when diagnosis is accurate, and treatment begins promptly—a core aim of national health initiatives.
She explained that diagnosis has become easier through the growing use of blood-based tests rather than traditional tissue biopsies. The number of identifiable genetic mutations has increased from three to more than 12, allowing doctors to select more precise targeted therapies.
Khorshid noted that Egypt is seeing a steady rise in lung cancer cases, attributing this mainly to the widespread use of tobacco in all its forms.
She said Egypt has previously achieved major public health victories, including eliminating schistosomiasis, which reduced bladder cancer, and eliminating hepatitis C, which will lower liver cancer rates, and called for a strong national initiative to reduce smoking and apply all elements of global cancer control, from prevention and early detection to accurate diagnosis and integrated treatment.
David Carbone, director of the James Thoracic Center for Chest Diseases at Ohio State University, said immune therapy has transformed the care of advanced lung cancer and extended survival, though acquired resistance remains a key challenge.
Christian Rolfo, director of the Division of Medical Oncology at Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, said immune and targeted therapies are now the standard of care. The main challenge, he said, is applying these standards in daily practice in countries with limited resources. He stressed the need for practical local guidelines that deliver the best outcomes at the lowest cost.
Rolfo also highlighted the importance of liquid biopsy, a non-invasive blood-based technique now essential for selecting targeted treatments and monitoring disease progression.
Fred Hirsch, professor of haematology and medical oncology, urged doctors to search for rare mutations. He said second-generation sequencing should become mandatory because some mutations appear in as few as 2 percent of cases but represent the only effective treatment pathway for those patients.
Former minister of scientific research and professor of oncology at the National Cancer Institute, Nadia Zakhary, reminded the audience that prevention and early detection remain the highest priorities. She said early-stage prevention can achieve cure rates of up to 90 percent and recommended national awareness and screening programmes for high-risk groups, especially smokers.
Oncologist Dr Nadia Mokhtar explained that Egypt is currently facing challenges in making innovative therapies available at fair prices, which she said requires strong applied research to assess the effectiveness of new drugs on Egyptian patients and integrate them into the national health coverage system.
At the end of the conference, scientists agreed that the fight against lung cancer has shifted from general chemotherapy to molecular and personalised medicine, a model that decodes the genetic structure of each tumour and targets it with precision.
Better results, they concluded, will depend on strong molecular diagnostics, the use of artificial intelligence, unified treatment protocols, and fair access to innovative therapies.
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