The mission of the Thoracic Surgery Branch is to establish novel paradigms for surgical care of patients with thoracic malignancies, to improve outcomes for patients with these cancers through bench research and innovative clinical trials, and to train future leaders in thoracic surgical oncology and translational cancer research. As Chief of the Branch, I am responsible for ensuring thoracic surgical support for all patients on NIH protocols. In addition to these clinical and administrative responsibilities, I direct a laboratory research program focusing on epigenetic mechanisms of gene expression in thoracic malignancies. During the past decade, these laboratory efforts have elucidated fundamental mechanisms of cancer epigenetics, and have provided the preclinical rationale for a series of protocols evaluating DNA demethylating agents and histone deacetylase inhibitors alone or in conjunction with other novel compounds as a means to simultaneously induce apoptosis and enhance immunogenicity of thoracic malignancies; these studies have also led to the development of personalized adjuvant vaccine regimens to induce anti-tumor immunity in cancer patients at high risk of recurrence. These translational efforts, which have been driven by analysis of molecular endpoints in tumor biopsies and peripheral blood, highlight the significance of epigenetic alterations in thoracic cancers, and the relevance of targeting the epigenome for treatment of these neoplasms.