The Power of Progress in Lung Cancer
November 10, 2025Dr. Roy Herbst shares the progress that has been made in lung cancer care and research at Smilow Cancer Hospital and Yale Cancer Center.
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- 00:06The progress that we've made
- 00:08in cancer research over the
- 00:09last fifty years has been
- 00:10tremendous.
- 00:12Thirty, forty years ago, lung
- 00:14cancer was really considered incurable.
- 00:16Most patients presented with disease
- 00:18that couldn't really be treated
- 00:19with surgery,
- 00:20radiation, or chemotherapy.
- 00:22Medical oncology began here pretty
- 00:24much at Yale.
- 00:27And now in twenty twenty
- 00:29five,
- 00:30we're curing patients with this
- 00:31disease.
- 00:33We have targeted therapy, immunotherapy,
- 00:37something called cell therapy where
- 00:38we actually can alter cells
- 00:40to make them more interactive
- 00:41and more effective at killing
- 00:43tumors. We do molecular profiling,
- 00:45the best imaging tests so
- 00:47that we can develop the
- 00:48most specific therapies for our
- 00:50patients. We're screening them for
- 00:52cancer. We're looking for early
- 00:53onset cancer. We're finding the
- 00:55cancers earlier before they spread,
- 00:57and that really is having
- 00:58an even bigger effect on
- 01:00lung cancer. It's curing the
- 01:02disease. We have phenomenal science,
- 01:04we have phenomenal people trying
- 01:05to find new therapies for
- 01:06this disease.
- 01:07With all the faculty, staff,
- 01:09nurses,
- 01:10everyone that that works in
- 01:11this hospital is committed to
- 01:13taking care of patients with
- 01:14cancer. You feel that. It's
- 01:15palpable as you walk through
- 01:16the halls.
- 01:18And that really has been,
- 01:19cultivated here at Yale. But
- 01:21I think what we're seeing
- 01:22now in the future is
- 01:23that we are making a
- 01:24difference. But what it takes
- 01:25is it takes time, energy,
- 01:27dedication, and focus. It's such
- 01:29a team effort,
- 01:31to really build the research,
- 01:33the clinical care, the education
- 01:35to make Yale Cancer Center,
- 01:36Smile Cancer Hospital, one of
- 01:38the leaders of lung cancer
- 01:39care worldwide.