Lung cancer is the most frequent cause of cancer death. Improving this dismal outcome requires cooperation among several specialists. The 10th World Conference on Lung Cancer was held in Vancouver, Canada last month. The meeting was organised on behalf of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) and the British Columbia Cancer Agency. This Conference was chaired by Nevin Murray and the scientific sessions took place 10 - 14 August, with > 3000 participating lung cancer experts. The Vancouver programme included > 140 invited speakers throughout the 'meet the professor', plenary and interactive sessions, as well as 300 oral and 500 poster presentations.