Dear Participants,

We are looking forward to welcoming you to the 2^nd Cologne Conference on Lung Cancer, taking place from June 26 – 27, 2019 in the Maritim Hotel.

The pace at which new therapies for lung cancer are being developed is breathtaking. Novel strategies include newer generations of inhibitors targeting mutant kinases as well as more refined modes of applications of immunotherapy.  However, with each new success we also face our limits (in particular, because of acquired resistance), and cure still remains out of reach for most of our patients. Furthermore, physicians are increasingly being overwhelmed with the complexity of the boundaries of the various treatment strategies. We feel strongly that improvements of efficacy will be achieved only through a more precise understanding of the mechanisms underlying malignant transformation, clonal evolution and the interaction of tumor cells with their microenvironment. Furthermore, transfering this knowledge into clinical routine will require a continuous and intense dialogue of basic scientists, physician scientists and clinicians.

We are expecting a highly interactive meeting sparked by the panel of internationally renown speakers, who will discuss their latest research developments. Thank you to all the guest speakers for their active participation and engagement.

We are looking forward to welcoming you and wish all participants who have to travel to Cologne a pleasant journey.

Sincerely yours

Charles Swanton (London, UK)
Roman Thomas (Cologne, DE)
Reinhard Büttner (Cologne, DE)
Jürgen Wolf (Cologne, DE)