Lung cancer : journal of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer
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N2 non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is a heterogeneous disease with an extremely wide range of 5-year survival rates. A composite method of sub-classification for N2 is likely to provide a more accurate method to more finely differentiate prognosis of N2 disease. ⋯ By combining the three N2 stratification methods based on "stations", "zones", and "chains" into one composite method, prognosis prediction was more accurate for N2 NSCLC disease. Single nodal chain involvement, which may be either one or two nodal stations metastasis, is associated with best outcome for pN2 patients.
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Comparative Study
Different efficacy of CT screening for lung cancer according to histological type: analysis of Japanese-smoker cases detected using a low-dose CT screen.
The efficacy of CT screening for lung cancers is still a controversial issue, although one of the recently publicized large randomized controlled trials of this methodology, the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST), reported a decrease in the lung cancer-specific mortality for heavy smokers. We here performed case-matched comparative analyses, as a retrospective study, of three lung cancer arms detected by CT screen, X-ray screen, and by individual analysis of the clinicopathological features and outcomes in smokers from a symptomatic-prompted group of patients. We also considered the impacts of various potential biases in this cohort. ⋯ However, by multi-variant analysis a CT scan would not be expected to reduce the risk of lung cancer mortality in patients with large/small cell carcinoma, although would be expected to reduce the risk of lung cancer death by 80% in cases of both adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma. In conclusion, our current findings indicate that CT screening for lung cancer is an effective strategy for smokers and that patients with adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma of all variant histological types may benefit from this test. In this regard, early stage large/small cell carcinomas are insufficiently detected by the existing annual screening system.
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There is a scarce clinical experience about adjuvant helical tomotherapy (HT) in patients affected by malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) even though it appears as a useful technique to treat complex volume as the pleural cavity, and seems to have better dose distribution than the "classic" intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT). ⋯ With limited follow up, HT has comparable toxicity to those observed with traditional IMRT. Higher radiation dose and good coverage results in excellent local control.
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Treatment of technically operable, medically fit locoregionally advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients is a controversial therapeutic challenge. Our group routinely uses a trimodality approach. Recent advances in radiotherapy allow for improved tumor targeting and daily patient positioning. We hypothesized that these technologies would improve pathologic response rates. We analyzed consecutively treated stage IIIA/IIIB NSCLC patients undergoing chemoradiotherapy before major lung resection, with particular attention paid to the impact of advanced technologies. ⋯ In selected patients, definitive dose CRT followed by major lung resection results in promising DFS and OS. The use of advanced radiotherapy techniques (4DCT and IGRT) appears to result in promising pathologic response rates.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Preoperative pulmonary rehabilitation before lung cancer resection: results from two randomized studies.
Complete surgical resection is the most effective curative treatment for lung cancer. However, many patients with lung cancer also have severe COPD which increases their risk of postoperative complications and their likelihood of being considered "inoperable." Preoperative pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) has been proposed as an intervention to decrease surgical morbidity but there is no established protocol and no randomized study has been published to date. We tested two preoperative PR interventions in patients undergoing lung cancer resection and with moderate-severe COPD in a randomized single blinded design. ⋯ The PR arm had shorter length of hospital stay by 3 days (p=0.058), fewer prolonged chest tubes (11% vs. 63%, p=0.03) and fewer days needing a chest tube (8.8 vs. 4.3 days p=0.04) compared to the controlled arm. A ten-session preoperative PR intervention may improve post operative lung reexpansion evidenced by shorter chest tube times and decrease the length of hospital stay, a crude estimator of post operative morbidity and costs. Our results suggest the potential for short term preoperative pulmonary rehabilitation interventions in patients with moderate-severe COPD undergoing curative lung resection. 4 weeks of conventional preoperative PR seems non feasible.