Journal of thoracic oncology : official publication of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer
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Observational Study
EBUS-TBNA in elderly patients with lung cancer: safety and performance outcomes.
Endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA) enables minimally invasive lymph node sampling during bronchoscopy under conscious sedation. The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the safety profile of EBUS-TBNA in an elderly population. The secondary aim was to assess the efficacy of EBUS-TBNA for nodal staging and pathological diagnosis in elderly patients with primary lung cancer. ⋯ EBUS is a safe and well-tolerated procedure in elderly patients, which facilitates accurate pathological diagnosis and minimally invasive staging in patients with lung cancer.
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Small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) is the most aggressive subtype of lung cancer, with no early detection strategy or targeted therapy currently available. We hypothesized that difference gel electrophoresis (DIGE) may identify membrane-associated proteins (MAPs) specific to SCLC, advance our understanding of SCLC biology, and discover new biomarkers of SCLC. ⋯ DIGE analysis of a membrane-associated subproteome discovered overexpression of dihydropyrimidinase-related protein 2, guanine nucleotide-binding protein alpha-q, RUVB1, and stathmin 1 in SCLC. Results were verified by WB and/or IHC in primary tumors, suggesting that investigating their functional relevance in SCLC progression is warranted. Association with survival requires further validation in larger clinical data sets.
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Clinical Trial Observational Study
Postoperative pain and subsequent PTSD-related symptoms in patients undergoing lung resection for suspected cancer.
Because lung cancer resection is at the crossroad between cancer and high-risk surgery, we hypothesized that the patients undergoing lung resection for cancer are exposed to develop a post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) syndrome-related symptoms. ⋯ The prevalence of PTSD-related symptoms after lung cancer resection is high, showing that lung cancer patients undergoing surgical resection are at high risk of postprocedure burden. The presence of preoperative symptoms of anxiety and acute procedural pain during the early postoperative period are strong predictors for developing PTSD-related symptoms after lung cancer surgery.
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Anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) rearrangements occur in 1% to 7% of non-small-cell lung cancers (NSCLCs). Crizotinib, an ALK inhibitor, has been demonstrated to provide dramatic clinical benefits in ALK-positive advanced-stage NSCLC. Fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) has been established in clinical trials as the standard procedure method for detecting ALK rearrangements. Although the detection of ALK by immunohistochemistry (IHC) has been proposed for the screening of patients, large-scale studies are warranted to validate such a hierarchical approach. ⋯ This study highlights the feasibility of systematic NSCLC testing by both FISH and IHC in routine practice. Many preanalytical factors may account for the apparent discrepancies between both methods, suggesting that hierarchical screening may underscore ALK-positive cases. This significant level of discrepancy supports the need of combined testing to optimize the detection of ALK-inhibitor-eligible patients given that some patients with discordant testing were found to respond to crizotinib.
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A recent meta-analysis suggested that patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose primary tumors have a higher standardized uptake value (SUV) derived from F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (PET) have a worse prognosis in comparison with those with tumors with lower values. However, previous analyses have had methodological weaknesses. Furthermore, the prognostic significance over the full range of SUV values in patients treated nonsurgically remains unclear. The aim of this retrospective study was to investigate the relationship between survival and maximum SUV (SUV(max)) analyzed as a continuous variable, in patients with NSCLC, staged using PET/computed tomography (CT) and treated with radiotherapy with or without chemotherapy. ⋯ In this cohort of patients, increasing SUV(max) derived from F-fluorodeoxyglucose-PET/CT was associated with increasing tumor, node, metastasis (TNM) stage. We found no evidence of an association of increasing SUV(max) with a shorter survival. Previous reports of an association between prognosis and SUV(max) may partly be the result of methodological differences between this study and previous reports and an association between stage and SUV(max).