The current landscape of testing for NSCLC is complex, with many new biomarkers emerging rapidly, more points during which testing is possible, and precision drug treatments available on the basis of findings from biomarker testing. While promising for patients, the result of this rapidly changing landscape is confusion from interdisciplinary care teams as to what testing is necessary and when, who in multidisciplinary care teams should be ordering new tests and when, and what workflows are necessary for labs. Host David Ritter, MA is joined by Dr. Ying-Chun Lo and Dr. Mamatha Chivuluka to discuss what things pathologists and lab professionals need to know about emerging biomarkers for NSCLC.

In this conversation, the panel reflects on how NSCLC biomarker testing has evolved over the past decade, highlighting the shift from limited, sequential testing to guideline-recommended broad molecular profiling. Drs. Lo and Chivuluka explore the clinical relevance of emerging biomarkers such as HER2, TROP2, and HER3, and discuss how new targeted therapies are influencing testing strategies in real-world practice. They also examine practical considerations for laboratories, including platform selection across IHC, PCR, and NGS, approaches to tissue stewardship in small lung biopsies, and the growing leadership role of pathologists in multidisciplinary teams to ensure timely, guideline-concordant, and equitable access to biomarker testing for patients with NSCLC.

Host David Ritter, MA is joined by Lotte Mulder, PhD and Kamran Mirza, MD, PhD, FASCP to discuss their new book, Mia the Marvelous Lab Explorer. The adventure follows Mia, a superhero and scientist, who uses laboratory science to explain why a friend has fallen ill with leukemia. The book targets children ages 5 to 9 years and balances striking entertaining and engaging tone with explaining scientific concepts accurately to a younger audience. Their conversation of the book expands into strategies for fostering engagement in laboratory science across age groups, how children’s literature can highlight the role of the lab to parents as well as younger readers, and how the format of a children's book fits into the undeclared student to laboratory professional pipeline ASCP is working to create.

Additionally, there is currently a fundraiser underway to donate 1,000 copies of the book to pediatricians' offices, libraries, and schools under the hashtag #MissionMarvelous. If you would like to contribute to the fundraiser, you can do so here: miathemarvelous.com. The fundraiser runs through February 16, 2026.

Interim CEO of ASCP and host Dr. Ali Brown sits down with Dr. Eric Konnick and Michelle Campbell, MLS(ASCP) to discuss lessons learned from the latest efforts to place laboratory developed tests under FDA oversight. For listeners unfamiliar with LDTs, they begin by establishing what LDTs are and what their value to the lab and patient safety are before debunking common misunderstandings cited by patient advocacy groups regarding their accuracy, validity, and the transparency with which they’re developed. They go on to define what FDA oversight would mean for laboratories in terms of cost, time, and labor, contextualizing these added costs in ongoing workforce shortages in the lab.

They close their conversation by spotlighting which efforts ASCP and similar organizations made to advocate for the lab were most successful, and describe alternative strategies for updating laboratory regulations, such as modernizing CLIA.