The future of thoracic oncology

A fight on several fronts is what characterizes the efforts to treat thoracic malignancies. It is a battle against a num -ber of difficulties owing to the rarity of some diseases, such as thymic cancer and chest wall tumors, which hin -ders the conduction of strong evidence-based trials; the aggressiveness and high incidence of lung cancer, the deadliest cancer in the world; the high complexity of sur -geries and chemotherapy; and more. Recent clinical re-search and development of new equipment in the last de -cade point to a horizon in rapid change.The development of new diagnostic and therapeutic technologies has been sizable, but they will only consoli-date if associated with constant organizing efforts to cre-ate guidelines and unify conducts. Initiatives, such as the International Thymic Malignancy Oncology Group, cre-ated in 2010 with the purpose of overcoming difficulties to establish guidelines for the treatment of thymoma, are examples of how to create opportunities to develop trials for relatively rare cancers whose conducts to date are based largely on retrospective studies.