Dr. Cerfolio on the Importance of Specialized Care in Lung Cancer

Robert J. Cerfolio, MD, director of the Lung Cancer Center, chief of clinical thoracic surgery, NYU Langone’s Perlmutter Cancer Center, discusses the importance of specialized care in lung cancer and sheds light on the current outlook of the disease.

Specialized care should not be understated, says Cerfolio. At NYU Langone’s Perlmutter Cancer Center, specialists include surgeons, pathologists, thoracic radiologists, interventional radiologists—all of whom work together and are trained specifically in thoracic oncology to ensure the best possible outcomes for patients, says Cerfolio.

Although physicians have improved the overall outlook of the disease with the development of immunotherapy and targeted agents that are specific to certain actionable mutations, lung cancer can still be a fatal systemic disease. Despite the fact that these therapies allow for greater specificity, a proportion of patients are still succumbing to the disease, says Cerfolio.