Newswise — NYU Langone Health has become one of 23 institutions selected to comprise the American Association for Thoracic Surgery’s Thoracic Surgery Oncology Group (TSOG).  A North American thoracic surgery clinical trials network, TSOG aims to improve the understanding of thoracic oncologic diseases and enhance the care of patients.

“Over the last few years, Perlmutter Cancer Center has recruited some of the top surgical, medical, pulmonary, and radiation oncologists in the country,” says Harvey I. Pass, MD, division director of general thoracic surgery and surgical chief of thoracic oncology at NYU Langone’s Perlmutter Cancer Center. “Combined with our recent designation as a comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute, selection as a member of the TSOG highlights Perlmutter Cancer Center’s position as a major lung cancer center in the United States.”

Established in 2017, the TSOG actively recruits patients to relevant thoracic surgeon–led oncologic clinical trials. The focus is on phase 1/2 studies, window-of-opportunity trials with correlative analyses, intraoperative imaging studies, relevant registry studies, and multidisciplinary study designs.

Among the founding cancer centers of the TSOG are Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Duke University, Mayo Clinic, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal, University of Pittsburgh, University of Toronto, and Washington University in St. Louis.

To be considered for the TSOG, institutions must be high-volume centers for thoracic oncologic procedures with an emphasis on lung, esophageal, and other thoracic malignancies and show evidence of site-specific financial sustainability and existing infrastructure for completion of clinical trials with active participation of thoracic surgeons with expertise in oncologic clinical trials and a history of robust accrual.

Selection to join the TSOG is the latest accolade Perlmutter Cancer Center’s Thoracic Surgery program has received this year. Its Cardiothoracic Surgery Associates recently earned a distinguished three-out-of-three-star rating from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons for its care of patients with lung cancer who undergo lobectomy.

Membership in TSOG will allow enhanced collaborations in the translational and clinical trial component of Perlmutter Cancer Center’s research portfolio, which has been nurtured by Kwok-Kin Wong, MD, PhD, the Anne Murnick Cogan and David H. Cogan Professor of Oncology in the Department of Medicine and director of the Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology.

“Joining the TSOG is another way to strengthen Perlmutter Cancer Center’s lung cancer program by participating in cutting-edge trials with the leading thoracic surgery programs in the country,” Dr. Pass says