Decode Lung: Navigating New Biomarkers & Liquid Biopsy

James Chih-Hsin Yang, MD, PhD, is currently the Executive Vice President of National Taiwan University Cancer Center Hospital since 2020. He received his MD from National Taiwan University (NTU) in 1986 and PhD degree at the Graduate Institute of Clinical Medicine, NTU. He completed his internal medicine residency at the NTU Hospital and medical oncology training between 1992 and 1995 at the National Cancer Institute at Bethesda, Maryland. He started his research and clinical staff career in NTU Hospital since 1995. He is the distinguished chair professor of Graduate Institute of Oncology at NTU. He is currently the President of Taiwan Association for the Study of Lung Cancer.

Dr Yang is a leader in lung cancer new drug development in the world and contributed to many new drug approval and translational research in lung cancer. He directly contributed to the development and approval of targeted therapies such as gefitinib, afatinib, osimertinib, aumolertinib, alectinib, brigatinib, crizotinib, tepotinib etc and participated development of most other cancer agents for treatment of lung cancer. He is the first to establish treatment for uncommon EGFR mutations and EGFR mutant patients with leptomeningeal metastasis. He has published more than 350 papers in peer-reviewed journals and was the Highly Cited Researcher of Clarivate database from 2019–2023. He served as associate editor of Journal of Thoracic Oncology. He received many domestic and international awards and is the recipient of the IASLC Sr. Paul A. Bunn Scientific Award from the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer in 2022.

Jin Hyoung Kang, MD, PhD, is a distinguished Professor of Oncology at Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, The Catholic University of Korea, with over three decades of clinical and academic leadership. A renowned specialist in lung cancer, head and neck cancer, and melanoma, Dr. Kang currently serves as the President of the Korean Association for Lung Cancer (KALC).

His extensive leadership portfolio includes past presidencies of the Korean Society of Head & Neck Oncology (KSHNO) and the Korean Cancer Study Group (KCSG), where he spearheaded critical clinical research initiatives. Dr. Kang’s academic foundation includes a research fellowship at Cornell University, which complemented his long-standing tenure at The Catholic University of Korea.

In recognition of his monumental contributions to public health and oncology, he was honored with the Prime Minister Award and the Minister of Health and Welfare Award in 2019. He remains an active member of elite international societies, including ASCO, AACR, ESMO, and IASLC.

Professor Aya El Helali is a clinician scientist specializing in precision oncology, with a focus on lung cancer, high-grade glioma, and solid tumors. She has made significant contributions to these areas through her work as a co-chair of the HKU-HKSH Molecular Tumor Board (MTB) and her role as the President of the Hong Kong Neuro-Oncology Society.

Professor El Helali obtained her medical degree with first-class honors and gold medals in Medicine and Surgery from the National University of Ireland Galway. She furthered her education by earning a PhD from Queen’s University Belfast, where she was awarded the Sir Allen McClay Clinical Research Fellowship. Her doctoral research centered on biomarker and drug development, while her postdoctoral fellowship focused on enhancing the adaptive immune system through novel drug combinations.

Her translational research work primarily focuses on understanding the mechanisms of immune-checkpoint inhibitor resistance and toxicity, with a specific emphasis on lung cancer, high-grade glioma, and solid tumors. Through her leadership on the HKU-HKSH MTB, she has been instrumental in promoting personalized medicine for these specific cancer types. In her clinical role, she is dedicated to driving early phase clinical trials and involving herself in international and investigator-initiated clinical trials for high-grade glioma, lung and solid tumors in Hong Kong.