How Will WCLC 2026 Answer Toxicity Management Questions for Lung Cancer?

Ahead of the IASLC 2026 World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC), CancerNetwork^® spoke with Beth Sandy, CRNP, about the topics and themes she hopes will be addressed at the meeting. Specifically, she discussed the questions related to toxicity management she wants to be answered or clarified at the meeting.

Sandy, a nurse practitioner at Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania of Penn Medicine, noted a need for more data on antibody drug conjugates, especially due to the differing toxicity profiles across agents. She said she would like to see findings on management strategies for significant toxicities such as blepharitis, other eye toxicities, and mucositis. Additionally, she highlighted dermatologic toxicities like paronychias as another area of interest.

Of note, WCLC 2026 will feature an interactive nursing and allied health workshop featuring international perspectives on how lung cancer care is delivered, adapted, and experienced across different healthcare systems.¹ Key topics from this session will include how healthcare professionals can better match care approaches, communication strategies, and supportive interventions to individual patient needs.

Transcript:

CancerNetwork: What toxicity management questions do you want answered or clarified by data coming out of WCLC this year? Are there any particular abstracts or presentations that may provide answers?

What I’d love to see out of [WCLC] are a few things. One of them, first off, is the antibody drug conjugates. We’re seeing—and there’s going to be new ones approved this year in lung cancer, which is really exciting—[that] all of the antibody drug conjugates have such different toxicity profiles in lung cancer. A lot of them are ones that we’re maybe not used to managing, things like blepharitis, eye toxicities, and mucositis that have been significant in some of these [patients]. I’d like to see what management strategies have come with that.

The other thing is continuing to look at the dermatologic toxicities and how we’re managing some of those, particularly things outside of just acne or rash on the face. Things like paronychias, which have become a problem with some of our agents. We don’t have a lot of great things to prevent them and treat them. Things like scalp rash and getting things into the hair can be really difficult for patients. [It] would be exciting to see something like that.

Reference

IASLC AHP/Nurses/ITONF forum: person-centered thoracic oncology care across diverse health systems. To be presented at the IASLC 2026 World Conference on Lung Cancer. September 12-15, 2026; Seoul, Republic of Korea. WS12.