Thorac Cancer
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Cancer immunotherapy is under development as a promising alternative strategy for treating advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, the development of novel biomarkers to optimize the use of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) is still ongoing. Gut microbiota are known to regulate a host's immunity and are associated with the response to ICIs in melanoma. Therefore, we analyzed the association between ICI treatment efficacy and bowel movement condition in patients with NSCLC. ⋯ Stool abnormality might be a predictive biomarker for the clinical benefit of ICI treatment in patients with NSCLC. Further investigations are warranted to validate our findings.
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The increasing need for pulmonary resection by video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) has presented a greater opportunity to detect small-sized pulmonary nodules by computed tomography (CT). In cases where it is difficult to identify tumor localization intraoperatively, it is necessary to place the VATS marker near the pulmonary nodules before surgery. ⋯ Multiple pulmonary nodules were successfully marked and securely excised simultaneously by VATS. This technique enables secure, minimally invasive resection of multiple small-sized pulmonary nodules without causing distress to the patient.