ERS Congress 2025: highlights from the Thoracic Oncology Assembly
Heuvelmans MA., Bakiri K., Dionelli E., Dionysopoulou G., Geerse OP., van Geffen WH., Gutiérrez JG., Ilia I., Rahman NM., Hardavella G.
The latest advancements across lung cancer screening and subsequent clinical management have reshaped current clinical practice, as demonstrated at the 2025 European Respiratory Society (ERS) Congress in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Several initiatives worldwide have adopted international recommendations and introduced low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) for lung cancer screening. In addition to that, the EU4Health SOLACE Project, with the ERS as a key stakeholder, aims to establish a unified standardised screening protocol while integrating artificial intelligence (AI) tools into image interpretation. Validated biological and radiomic biomarkers may further enhance lung nodule risk stratification and lung cancer prognosis. In terms of clinical management, a multi-modality approach incorporating novel systemic and surgical treatments has gained ground. Peri-operative physiological assessment is evolving, especially given the high burden of comorbidities among patients with lung cancer. Finally, new insights from image-guided diagnostics and phenotyping have changed the landscape in the diagnosis and management of mesothelioma. In this highlights article, early career members and experts of the ERS Assembly 11 present some of the highlights in the field of thoracic oncology from the 2025 ERS Congress.