V W Rusch

..To plan revisions of this system, the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer Staging Committee developed an international database. Initial analyses focus on patients managed surgically...

..We sought to determine whether the current N descriptors should be maintained or revised for the next edition of the international lung cancer staging system...

..To improve our management of very early AC, much more information is needed about the molecular abnormalities of AC and their relationship to clinical outcomes...

..A method of grouping lymph node stations together into "zones" is also proposed for the purposes of future survival analyses...

..This review includes discussion of anatomical considerations, initial assessment, multimodality treatment, and surgical approaches for these cancers...

..Nael Martini was one of the leading academic general thoracic surgeons of the late 20th century. His most notable contributions related to the surgical and multimodality treatment of lung cancer...

..We performed a phase II trial of high-dose hemithoracic radiation after complete resection to determine feasibility and to estimate rates of local recurrence and survival...

..We investigated the prevalence of OMs in resectable NSCLC and their relationship with survival...

..To establish a historical benchmark against which new therapies can be assessed, we reviewed our 24-year experience with patients undergoing thoracotomy for lung cancers of the superior sulcus...

..The factors influencing outcome after resection of malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) are controversial. This analysis of a prospective surgical database identifies important prognostic factors...

..The potential role of extrapleural pneumonectomy in MPM is best considered in this context...

....

..However, right pneumonectomy is associated with a significantly increased risk and should be performed only in selected patients...

..We reviewed our experience with multimodality treatment for Masaoka stage IVA thymomas for feasibility and outcomes...

..Our objective was to identify the incidence and risk factors for the development of postoperative lung injury...

....

....

..This study assesses EGFR signaling in these tumors...

..We wanted to determine if endoscopic biopsy can accurately establish evidence of local pathologic complete response (pCR) in patients undergoing CRT...

....

..Such a staged approach may reduce the morbidity of upfront radiation. The use of an interim positron emission tomography scan may also identify early treatment failure...

..Involvement of the vertebral body or brachial plexus, areas once considered unresectable, is amenable to advanced techniques of spinal reconstruction and may lead to long-term survival in selected patients...

..Survival is significantly influenced by patient age, complete resection, pathologic stage, and pneumonectomy. These results can help guide standard clinical practice and emphasize the need for novel induction regimens...

..The aim of this study was to determine whether adequate staging revealed different prognostic factors or improved survival compared with patients with <15 nodes examined after R0 resection for GEJ cancer...

..Symptomatic pneumocephalus may result from a cerebrospinal fluid leak communicating with extradural air. However, it is a rare event after thoracic surgical procedures, and its management and physiology are not widely recognized...

..Whether EGFR and KRAS mutations also have an impact on survival in patients who undergo lung resection for curative intent in the absence of targeted therapy has not been established...

..CONCLUSIONS: Technical complications have a large negative impact on survival after esophagogastrectomy for cancer. Strategies to optimize surgical technique and minimize complications should improve outcomes in this cancer operation...

..Our results imply that residual disease cannot be eradicated with external RT with or without brachytherapy and that a more extensive surgery followed by external RT might be required to improve local control and overall survival...

..65 (95% confidence interval 0.57-0.73). Therefore, this scoring system provides valuable information in discriminating patients with different risk of disease-recurrence in a highly homogeneous population of patients with stage I cancer...

..The favorable survival of stage III/IV BAC indicates that the current staging system does not fully describe this disease in patients undergoing resection because of its distinct tumor behavior...

....

..Determining this distinction with certainty, however, is challenging. We reviewed our experience with surgical resection of presumed SPLC to analyze outcomes and identify factors associated with prolonged survival...

..Using Worldwide Esophageal Cancer Collaboration data, we sought to (1) characterize the relationship between survival and extent of lymphadenectomy, and (2) from this, define optimum lymphadenectomy...

..Esophageal small-cell carcinoma (SCC) is rare, highly malignant and the optimal treatment approach has not been defined...

..We sought to determine whether early prophylaxis with an L -type calcium channel blocker reduces the incidence and morbidity associated with atrial fibrillation/flutter and supraventricular tachyarrhythmia after major thoracic operations...

....

..Fluorescence bronchoscopy appears to be a sensitive tool for surveillance of the tracheobronchial tree for early neoplasias...

..On the basis of improved outcomes in other subsets of stage III NSCLC, this trial tested the feasibility of induction chemoradiotherapy for SS NSCLC...

..The purpose of this study was to compare preoperative EUS staging with postoperative pathologic staging and to assess the ability of EUS to predict survival after resection for GEJ adenocarcinoma...

..Investigators have reported an association between EGFR mutations and the amount and duration of cigarette smoking, with the highest incidence of mutations seen in never smokers...

....

..In this review, we summarize the novel preclinical agents for identification and treatment of tumor bearing LNs and discuss their potential for clinical translation...

..We hypothesized that SCCRO expression would correlate with invasive tumor phenotypes and worse survival in BAC...

..Here, we report on seven patients in whom epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and Kirsten-rat sarcoma 2 viral oncogene homolog (KRAS) tumor mutation status was used to determine clonal relationships among multiple lung lesions...

....

....

..As higher levels of IGF-1R protein expression may be associated with relative sensitivity to anti-IGF-1R antibody treatment, we investigated IGF-1R expression in thymic malignancies...

..To determine whether the length of esophageal resection or the operative approach influences outcome for patients with adenocarcinoma of the gastroesophageal junction (GEJ)...

....

..Such stress response is beneficial for oncolytic viral therapy. We hypothesized that a combination of RT and NV1066, an oncolytic herpes virus, might exert an additive or synergistic effect in the treatment of MPM...

..However, a well-balanced comparison of the two procedures is lacking in the literature...

..We reviewed our recent experience with the surgical management of thymic tumors and compared the outcomes and patterns of relapse between patients with thymic carcinoma and those with thymoma...

..In this study, we analyze the impact of the pretreatment PET SUVmax in patients with locally advanced esophageal adenocarcinoma who undergo preoperative chemoradiotherapy...

..In this study, we evaluated prognostic factors among patients with squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the esophagus who have undergone a similar treatment regimen...

....

..We performed a multi-institutional study to increase statistical power to detect significant differences in outcome between extrapleural pneumonectomy and pleurectomy/decortication...

..A subset of lung adenocarcinomas appears preferentially sensitive to epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). EGFR-activating mutations and never smoking are associated with response to TKIs...

..Therefore, we evaluated constitutive and induced DNA damage, and repair capacity, in patients with multiple NSCLCs (cases) and compared the results to those obtained in patients with a single NSCLC (controls)...

..The American Joint Committee on Cancer staging system groups N1 and N2 disease together as stage III. The goal of this study was to define the prognostic value of specific nodal stations...

..Such an approach should be considered in future studies for validation in other datasets...

..We designed this clinical trial to test the feasibility of induction chemotherapy followed by EPP and RT in locally advanced MPM with the ultimate aim of improving survival...

..To report results of a phase II trial of high-dose-rate intra-operative radiation therapy (HDR-IORT) for malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM)...

..There is little experience with telerobotic assistance for video-assisted thoracic surgical lobectomy. We developed a technique for robotic assistance during video-assisted thoracic surgical lobectomy and report our initial results...

..We reviewed our experience of 10 patients treated surgically, either primarily or as a component of multimodality therapy, to assess feasibility and results...

..Because mediastinal nodal metastasis is known to be associated with poor prognosis, we hypothesized that standard uptake value on fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography might independently predict survival...

..EPP in the pediatric population has not been reported in the literature. We report our experience of using EPP in children to treat a variety of malignancies that involve the pleural surface...

..The present study aims to confirm and validate this link between SCCRO and VEGF-A expression in an ex vivo human tumor cohort...

..Aside from one 9-patient study, there are no data comparing FDG-PET imaging with surgical staging of NSCLC after induction therapy...

..The management of major hemorrhage complicating mediastinoscopy is not well described. We reviewed our experience to determine the frequency, optimal management strategy, and outcome of these injuries...

..The feasibility and potential benefit of combining surgery and chemotherapy in this setting are unclear. Therefore, we performed a prospective trial to test this therapeutic approach...

..The objective was to define the incidence of atrial fibrillation after video-assisted thoracic surgery lobectomy and determine whether video-assisted thoracic surgery reduces atrial fibrillation rate compared with thoracotomy...

..Advances in spinal surgery, the application of magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, and improvements in neoadjuvant therapy require a reassessment of the potential for complete resection...

..However, none of these methods has been formally evaluated. The purpose of this study was to establish prognostic pathologic variables after CRT...

..Our institution recently published results showing that extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP) followed by hemithoracic radiation yielded excellent local control. This paper reports our technique for high-dose hemithoracic radiation after EPP...

..Small studies suggest that fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography may improve staging. We analyzed our experience to determine more definitively the potential utility of fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography...

..CONCLUSION: Virally-directed fluorescent imaging (VFI) is a real-time novel molecular imaging technology that has the potential to enhance the intraoperative detection of endoluminal or endocavitary tumor nodules...

..Much more investigation is required to confirm or refute these apparent differences, which can affect clinical treatment...

..These results strongly suggest that PDX has significant potential in the treatment of human pleural mesothelioma, particularly when coadministered with probenecid or combined with platinum compounds...

....

..5-deficient oncolytic virus, NV1066. This provides a cellular basis for combination therapy with cisplatin and NV1066 to treat MPM and achieve synergistic efficacy, while minimizing dosage and toxicity...

....

..Stapled and precision electrocautery wedge resections remain the most common techniques for parenchymal resection...

..9; p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Patients older than 80 years have increased mortality risk after esophagectomy, independent of comorbidity. Octogenarian status should be a consideration in the management of these patients...

....

..This survey was performed to determine the patterns of surgical care provided patients with non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC)...

....

..We sought to derive and validate a clinical prediction rule to risk-stratify patients for postoperative AF...

..Pneumonectomy plus chest wall resection should be performed only in highly selected patients...

..Little prospective, multiinstitutional data exist regarding the morbidity and mortality after major pulmonary resections for lung cancer or whether a mediastinal lymph node dissection increases morbidity and mortality...

....

..We sought to determine the cost-effectiveness of different treatment strategies for patients with pulmonary metastases from soft tissue sarcoma...