WCLC 2026: Katherine Kuhns Details AI, Wearables & Perioperative Care Roles

At the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) 2026 World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC 2026), thoracic oncology leaders gathered to address shifting treatment paradigms, artificial intelligence (AI) integration, and expanding nursing responsibilities across the surgical continuum.

Co-chairing the Nursing and Allied Health and International Thoracic Oncology Nursing Forum (I2NF) Workshop, Katherine Kuhns, MSN, CRNP, Thoracic Surgical Nurse Practitioner at Penn Medicine in Philadelphia, highlighted critical frontline takeaways for surgical oncology nurses.

In an interview with Oncology Nursing News, Kuhns outlined how novel perioperative immunotherapy regimens, closed-system generative AI platforms, and remote patient monitoring devices are redefining nursing care from pre-surgical evaluation through long-term survivorship.

Key Takeaways for Surgical Oncology Nursing Practice

• Expanding Surgical Candidacy via Immunotherapy: Neoadjuvant and perioperative immunotherapy enable resection in patients with advanced-stage lung cancer who were previously ineligible for surgery, introducing complex intraoperative inflammation and tissue fragility.
• Closed-System AI Patient Education: Dedicated, evidence-bounded AI platforms provide verified disease information without risk of algorithmic hallucinations or erroneous web information.
• Translation and Literacy Support: AI translation tools mitigate communication barriers for non-English speaking and low-literacy patient populations in underserved communities.
• Molecular and Minimal Residual Disease Surveillance: Surgical nurses must expand proficiency in emerging molecular markers, liquid biopsies, and circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) monitoring to track postoperative residual disease.
• Remote Monitoring via Wearables: Continuous smart thermometers, bio-sensory stethoscopes, and pulse oximeters enable early detection of toxicities, such as pneumonitis and infection, outside the clinic setting.

Navigating Perioperative Immunotherapy and Surgical Complexity

The integration of neoadjuvant and perioperative immunotherapy into non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) care has fundamentally altered surgical oncology. Kuhns, who has over two decades of experience in thoracic surgical nursing, emphasized that systemic breakthroughs now allow surgeons to resect more advanced malignancies.

"The landscape of thoracic surgery has really changed with the advent of immunotherapy," Kuhns stated. "We're actually operating on patients with the more advanced cancers now because of immunotherapy and all the great breakthroughs that they're coming through with their chemotherapeutic agents."

However, neoadjuvant immune checkpoint inhibition introduces distinct intraoperative and postoperative challenges that require vigilant nursing management.

"It is challenging for the surgeon at times because these patients get immunotherapy," Kuhns explained. "They do have some side effects and it's apparent when you go and operate on them—bleeding, pneumonitis, all these side effects from immunotherapy."

Closed-System AI and Bridging Health Inequities

Addressing patient education in an era of accessible AI was a prominent theme during the I2NF workshop. Kuhns highlighted a presentation by Morten Quist, a physiotherapist from Denmark, who created a closed, vetted AI interface built exclusively on clinical trials and established standards of care.

"He went and pulled all this information out of ChatGPT and all the clinical trials and all the standards of care ... had it go through medical oncologists and pulmonologists, and then they developed this whole website that patients can go on and look up their information without going down the rabbit holes," Kuhns noted. "It's not open-ended. It's based on the clinical trials and what the standards of care are for thoracic patients."

Beyond educational tools, AI translation capabilities assist clinical teams in addressing local health disparities. Working at Penn Medicine in West Philadelphia, Kuhns noted that AI aids in communicating with diverse, medically underserved patient cohorts.

Molecular Surveillance and Wearable Remote Monitoring

As thoracic oncology advances toward precision monitoring, surgical nurses must remain informed on emerging diagnostic modalities, including liquid biopsies and ctDNA minimal residual disease (MRD) assays.

"I think we need to be a little bit more in tune with everything that's going on in medical oncology with all the different molecular markers," Kuhns said. "Liquid biopsies, we're going to have to stay on top of ... Are patients going to have to get CT scans every 6 months or are we just going to be able to draw a blood sample?"

Additionally, Kuhns presented a talk during WCLC on wearable devices in thoracic oncology, including pulse oximeters, smart thermometers, and bio-sensory stethoscopes that monitor breath sounds remotely.

"They now have thermometers that you can wear that predict when a patient's going to get a fever and get sick just because they can identify real subtle changes," Kuhns explained. "Clinics are going to be getting more and more crowded. We can focus on the patients that really need to be seen and not exactly the ones that don't need to be seen but just need to be monitored."

Kuhns concluded that while AI and wearables streamline patient monitoring, human assessment remains paramount. "AI maybe that just dings us, but doesn't replace good old-fashioned healthcare assessments," she emphasized.

Reference

1. International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC). Session 92: Nursing & Allied Health / I2NF Workshop. Presented at: IASLC 2026 World Conference on Lung Cancer; September 2026; San Diego, CA. https://cattendee.abstractsonline.com/meeting/21487/Session/92