New Thoughts on Surgical Principles of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer / 肿瘤防治研究

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is an important malignancy. Surgery is the earliest treatment and still the main strategy for lung cancer at present. Recently, significant progress has been made in the diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer, covering new theories, knowledge, and methods that urgently require the attention and learning of surgeons. Only by following the new situation and strategies of oncology and making corresponding changes can surgical techniques be perfectly combined with the new developments in oncology, avoiding over-diagnosis/underdiagnosis and over-treatment/undertreatment of lung cancer, and ultimately creating new achievements for patients' long-term cure.

Proposal for risk control of thoracic surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic / 中华胸心血管外科杂志

With the change of COVID-19 prevention and control strategy in China, the number of COVID-19 cases has increased significantly recently, which has also brought new challenges to the perioperative risk control of thoracic surgery. This paper puts forward several suggestions, aiming to standardize the preoperative screening and evaluation during the COVID-19 period, strictly grasp the indications and timing of surgery, optimize the medical management process, individualize surgical decision-making, and minimize the risk of COVID-19 infection to surgery.

The unique role of tube feeding with element enteral nutrition during the whole course of treat-ment of esophageal cancer / 中华消化外科杂志

Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma is one of the malignant tumors with a high incidence in China. The main pathological anatomy is the obstruction of the diseased esophagus. Nutritional disorders and a series of relevant pathophysiological changes are the main factors affec-ting the safe implementation of treatment and the long-term survival of patients. Therefore, timely correction of nutritional disorders is the main component of treatment. The ideal treatment for locally advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma is induction systemic treatment followed by surgery. The outstanding problems in clinical management of esophageal carcinoma are that only short-term attention is paid to postoperative nutrition support, ignoring preoperative nutrition along with the major anticancer treatment, the rehabilitation of patients' swallowing function after surgery, as well as nutrition and weight management. The author reviews the unique role of tube feeding with element enteral nutrition during the whole course of treatment of esophageal cancer, in order to provide reference for its standardized management.

Proposal for risk control of thoracic surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic / 中国胸心血管外科临床杂志

@#With the change of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) prevention and control strategy in China, the number of COVID-19 cases has increased significantly recently, which has also brought new challenges to the perioperative risk control of thoracic surgery. This paper puts forward several suggestions, aiming to standardize the preoperative screening and evaluation during the COVID-19 period, strictly grasp the indications and timing of surgery, optimize the medical management process, individualize surgical decision-making, and minimize the risk of COVID-19 infection to surgery.

The surgical treatment of small cell lung cancer (SCLC) needs re-thinking / 中国胸心血管外科临床杂志

@#TNM system should be used in the staging of small cell lung cancer (SCLC), especially in the limited stages of SCLC. Preoperative staging should be strengthened to avoid invalid operation due to insufficient diagnosis. Retrospective studies showed that the efficacy of surgery (+ chemotherapy) in early SCLC is comparable to the outcome of resection for early stage non-small cell lung cancer, which shakes the concept of "chemotherapy/chemoradiotherapy as the main treatment of SCLC". The best operative procedure of SCLC is lobectomy. Sub-lobectomy and pneumonectomy are inferior to that of lobectomy, but still better than chemotherapy/chemo-radiotherapy in terms to long term survival. All these findings need to be confirmed by large sample prospective randomized studies.

New trends worthy of attention in lung cancer surgery / 中国胸心血管外科临床杂志

@#(1) Surgery is the first method to cure early stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Ground glass nodule (GGO) like lung adenocarcinoma should be regarded as a new clinical issue to avoid over-treatment. The deep meaning of multidisciplinary pathological classification of lung adenocarcinoma should be fully understood to avoid over-diagnosis. The T staging of lung adenocarcinoma mixed with GGO components should be correctly understood to avoid over-staging. We should carefully understand the new data of relationship between sublobectomy and prognosis to avoid excessive resection. Attention should be paid to the research progress of minimal residual disease (MRD) to avoid insufficient treatment. (2) The treatment strategy of resectable stage Ⅲ NSCLC should be surgery with individualized systemic treatment. Locally advanced NSCLC dominated by Ⅲa-N2 NSCLC is a kind of disease with high multi-dimensional heterogeneity. In theory, preoperative treatment is superior to postoperative treatment, and molecular diagnosis should be made along with pretreatment staging, so as to select preoperative treatment. The patients with negative driver gene mutation obtained better pathological complete response/major pathological response (PCR/MPR) from immunotherapy compared to those from chemotherapy, and the better PCR/MPR is expected to be transformed into overall survival (OS). The data of preoperative treatment in patients with positive driver gene mutation are few, whereas the data of postoperative targeted treatment are much better than those of postoperative chemotherapy. (3) The effective systemic treatment strategy has "created" many long-term survivors with stage Ⅳ NSCLC, and has changed the original concept and population of "oligometastasis". Attention should be paid to the individual ineffective lesions in stage Ⅳ patients with long-term survival. It is also necessary to explore how to intervene in the resection of "oligometastasis" of stage Ⅳ NSCLC at an appropriate time and in an appropriate way, which may be one of the main tasks of lung cancer surgery in the future.

Clinical study design of a multicenter, prospective, randomized controlled clinical trial on clinical efficacy of Toripalimab adjuvant therapy on esophageal squamous cell carcinoma patients with post-neoadjuvant positive lymph node staging / 中华消化外科杂志

Neoadjuvant therapy has become the first choice for locally advanced esophageal carcinoma. Patients with post-neoadjuvant positive lymph node staging (ypN+) have poor prognosis, and there is no effective adjuvant therapy. Programmed death protein-1 (PD-1) antibody can obtain better clinical efficacy in the treatment of advanced esophageal cancer. The authors designed a multicenter, prospective, randomized controlled clinical trial of Toripalimab (PD-1 antibody) adjuvant therapy on esophageal squamous cell carcinoma patients with ypN+ after the treatment of neoadjuvant chemotherapy combined with surgical resection, in order to provide clinical practices for the adjuvant treatment of ypN+ patients.

Standardized surgical treatment of thymic tumors / 中华胸心血管外科杂志

Thymic epithelial tumors are the most common tumors in anterior mediastinum. They are used to be considered rare in incidence, with an indolent nature of biological behaviors, which led to the lack of high level evidence obtained from prospective randomized controlled trials to guide the clinical treatment. At present, the experience of diagnosis and treatment of thymic tumors varies greatly in different regions. And there are still many problems remain to be solved. This paper aims to establish a standardized surgical treatment based on the latest researches in surgical indications, resection extent, surgical approach, lymph node dissection and postoperative management of thymic tumors.

Diagnostic Utility of Virtual Bronchoscopic Navigation Assisted Endobronchial Ultrasonography with Guide Sheath for Peripheral Pulmonary Lesions / 中国肺癌杂志

BACKGROUND@#Virtual bronchoscopic navigation (VBN) assisted endobronchial ultrasonography with guide sheath (EBUS-GS) has reduced the difficulty and even avoiding radiation exposure during performing transbronchus lung biopsy (TBLB). To evaluate the feasibility and safety of virtual bronchoscopic navigation assisted endobronchial ultrasonography with guide sheath for peripheral pulmonary lesions.@*METHODS@#We performed a retrospective analysis of the patients with PPLs who received VBN assisted EBUS-GS-TBLB in Peking University Cancer Hospital from January 2016 to December 2017. Their clinicopathologic data and complications were assessed.@*RESULTS@#A total of 121 patients were enrolled in the study. The patients included 65 men and 56 women, with a mean age of (58.8±10.3) years. A total of 121 PPLs were examined, and 108 lesions of which could be detected by EBUS. The overall diagnostic yield of EBUS-GS was 73.5%. The diagnostic yield of malignancy was 82.5%. The combination of transbronchial lung biopsy, brush smear and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid provided the greatest diagnostic yield (χ²=6.084, P=0.014). Factors that significantly affected and predicted diagnostic success were EBUS probe within the lesions (χ²=20.372, P=0.000) and PPLs located in the central two-thirds of the lung (χ²=10.810, P=0.001). 1 patient (0.8%) suffered from intraoperative bleeding which could be managed under endoscopy.@*CONCLUSIONS@#VBN assisted EBUS-GS-TBLB for PPLs was an effective and safe procedure.

A retrospective comparative study of continuous pumping for home enteral nutrition after esophagectomy / 中华外科杂志

Objective@#To discuss the effect and safety of continuous pumping for home enteral nutrition after esophagectomy.@*Methods@#The current study retrospectively analyzed the esophageal cancer patients who underwent transthoracic esophagectomy between January 2017 and November 2017 at First Department of Thoracic Surgery, Peking University Cancer Hospital and Institute. There were totally 108 cases, including 88 males and 20 females, with an average age of 62 years. The patients were divided into pump feeding group (n=56) and traditional tube feeding group (n=52). The postoperative short-term safety, weight maintenance, enteral nutrition tolerance and nutritional support complete rate of the 2 groups were compared by χ2 test, Fisher exact test and t test, respectively.@*Results@#Compared with traditional tube feeding group, the patient safety in pumping feeding group was significantly better, with complications within 2 months after discharge were 11/52 and 4/56 respectively (χ2=2.393, P=0.035); the weight maintenance was significantly better, the weight loss within 4 weeks after discharge were 3.90 kg and 0.13 kg, respectively (t=7.720, P=0.000); the general enteral complications were significantly lower (26/52 vs. 5/56, χ2=22.225, P=0.000), the nutritional support complete rate was significantly higher (23/52 vs. 55/56, χ2=39.167, P=0.000).@*Conclusions@#Continuous pump feeding enteral nutrition support after discharge postoperatively could help improve patient safety after discharge, which is better for weight maintenance of the patients. Pump feeding could also enhance tolerability of tube feeding and ensure the effective accomplishment of nutritional support.

Minimally Invasive Surgery in Thymic Malignances / 中国肺癌杂志

Surgery is the most important therapy for thymic malignances. The last decade has seen increasing adoption of minimally invasive surgery (MIS) for thymectomy. MIS for early stage thymoma patients has been shown to yield similar oncological results while being helpful in minimize surgical trauma, improving postoperative recovery, and reduce incisional pain. Meanwhile, With the advance in surgical techniques, the patients with locally advanced thymic tumors, preoperative induction therapies or recurrent diseases, may also benefit from MIS in selected cases.

Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital Experts Consensus on the Management of Ground-Glass Nodules Suspected as Lung Adenocarcinoma (Version 1) / 中国肺癌杂志

Background and objective As computed tomography (CT) screening for lung cancer becomes more common in China, so too does detection of pulmonary ground-glass nodules (GGNs). Although anumber of national or international guidelines about pulmonary GGNs have been published,most of these guidelines are produced by respiratory, oncology or radiology physicians, who might not fully understand the progress of modern minimal invasive thoracic surgery, and these current guidelines may overlook or underestimate the value of thoracic surgery in the management of pulmonary GGNs. In addition, the management for pre-invasive adenocarcinoma is still controversial. Based onthe available literature and experience from Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital, we composed this consensus about diagnosis and treatment of pulmonary GGNs. For lesions which are considered as adenocarcinoma in situ, chest thin layer CT scan follow-up is recommended and resection can only be adopt in some specific cases and excision should not exceed single segment resection. For lesions which are considered as minimal invasive adenocarcinoma, limited pulmonary resection or lobectomy is recommended. For lesions which are considered as early stage invasive adenocarcinoma, pulmonary resection is recommend and optimal surgical methods depend on whether ground glass component exist, location, volume and number of the lesions and physical status of patients. Principle of management of multiple pulmonary nodules is that primary lesions should be handled with priority, with secondary lesions taking into account.
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Exploration of Postoperative Follow-up Strategies for Early Staged NSCLC Patients on the Basis of Follow-up Result of 416 Stage I NSCLC Patients after Lobectomy / 中国肺癌杂志

BACKGROUND@#Currently, there is no consensus on the follow-up strategy (follow-up time interval and content) of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in the world, and the relevant clinical evidence is also very limited. In this study, we aimed to summarize the recurrence/metastasis sites and timings of stage I NSCLC patients based on their follow-up data, aiming to provide a basis of follow-up time interval and content for this group of patients.@*METHODS@#We retrospectively analyzed the 416 stage I NSCLC patients that underwent continuous anatomic lobectomy between Jan. 2000 to Oct. 2013 in our prospective lung cancer database. According to the recurrence/metastasis sites and timings, the long term follow-up time interval and content were explored.@*RESULTS@#The 5-yr disease free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) in the whole group were 82.4% and 85.4%, respectively. There were 76 cases (18.3%) had recurrence/metastasis during follow-up, among which the most frequent site was pulmonary metastasis (21 cases, 5.0%), followed by brain metastasis (20 cases, 4.8%), bone metastasis (12 cases, 2.9%), and mediastinal lymph node metastasis (12 cases, 2.9%). Among the factors that could influence recurrence/metastasis, patients with pT2a suffered from a higher recurrence/metastasis rate compared to patients with pT1 (P=0.006), with 5-yr DFS being 73.8% and 87.3%, respectively (P=0.002), and the 5-yr OS being 77.7% and 90.3%, respectively (P=0.011).@*CONCLUSIONS@#The commonest recurrence/metastasis sites of stage I NSCLC after anatomic lobectomy are lung, brain and mediastinal lymph nodes, the risk of recurrence/metastasis within 2 years were equal to that between 3 years and 5 years. The follow-up frequencies and content within 2 years could be adjusted according to T stages.

Analysis of Prolonged Hospitalizations (Longer than 7 days): 115 Lung Cancer Patients after Video Assistant Thoracic Surgery (VATS) / 中国肺癌杂志

BACKGROUND@#Thoracoscopic surgery has gradually become the major procedure for lung cancer surgery in our department. Its characteristics are minimal trauma and quick recovery, which make approximately 90% of patients discharge from the hospital after surgery. However, the postoperative complications still happen now and then. We analyzed the patients who had been hospitalized for longer than 7 days after thoracoscopic lung cancer surgery, aiming to summarize the types and risk factors of complications, and improve postoperative safety of patients.@*METHODS@#The data were come from the prospective database of Thoracic Surgery Unit One in Peking Cancer Hospital, and patients that underwent thoracoscopic pulmonary surgery between Jan. 2010 and Dec. 2014 with length of stay more than 7 days were included in the study. The classifications of the complications were investigated and graded as mild or severe complications according to modified Claviengrading, the relationship between clinical factors and degrees of complications was also analyzed.@*RESULTS@#The hospitalization of 115 cases were longer than 7 days after surgery, accounting for 10.3% (115/1,112) of the whole patients that underwent surgery during the same period. Eighty-one cases had mild complications, accounting for 7.3% (81/1,112) of the whole cases that underwent surgery during the same period and 70.4% (81/115) of the cases with prolonged length of stay; the proportions of severe complications in both groups were 3.1% (34/1,112) and 29.6% (34/115), respectively; and the proportions of complications that caused perioperative deaths were 0.18% (2/1112) and 1.7% (2/115), respectively. Among all the postoperative complications, the most common was air leakage for more than 5 days after surgery, with a total of 20 cases (1.8% and 17.4%). The other common complications were: atelectasis (19 cases, 1.7% and 16.5%), pulmonary infection (18 cases, 1.6% and 15.7%), etc. The less common complications was bronchopleural fistula (4 cases, 0.36% and 3.5%) with very high risk, and 2 cases died perioperatively due to the combination of acute respiratory distresssyndrome (ARDS). In the clinical factors, only preoperative low pulmonary function (FEV1%<70%) was the potential risk factor for postoperative severe complications (45.8% vs 23.6%, P=0.038). There was no significant difference either regarding the 5 year disease free survival or the 5 year overall survival between mild complication group and severe complication group, with 5 year DFS being 52.2% and 51.9%, respectively (P=0.894) , and 5 year overall survival being 64.0% and 53.5%, respectively (P=0.673).@*CONCLUSIONS@#Continuous postoperative air leakage, atelectasis and pulmonary infections were the major causes for prolonged hospitalization after thoracoscopic surgery for lung cancer, and bronchopleural fistula was the most perilous complications. Patients with low preoperative pulmonary function were more likely to have severe postoperative complication, however, this would not influence the long term survival of the patients.

Perioperative chemotherapy improves long-term survival of esophageal cancer patients: a systemic literatures review / 中华胃肠外科杂志

The concept that peri-operative treatment could improve long-term survival of esophageal cancer patients has been universally accepted, including radiation alone, chemotherapy alone, and chemoradiation. The most controversial therapy is perioperative chemotherapy. Here we review the published literatures for reference. The result shows that perioperative chemotherapy is effective for esophageal cancer patients, especially for the so-called chemo-sensitive patients, and the preferred delivering time is before surgery. According to the current data, it is still unclear whether the efficacy of neoadjuvant chemotherapy is inferior to that of neoadjuvant chemoradiation.

Research Advance of E-cadherin, P21 and COX-2 : prognostic role in Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma / 中华胸心血管外科杂志

Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma(ESCC) is a common malignancy in china,and TNM staging is the standard staging system for ESCC.However,in clinical practice,patients' prognosis is not always consistent with the staging.This phenomenon may be attributed from the fact that the current limitation and imperfect of the TNM staging system,and besides,another possible reason might be that some prognostic factors for ESCC other than TNM descriptors may exist.Among all the prognostic factors for ESCC,molecular biomarkers received widely concern.We searched the literatures and identified 12 molecular biomarkers that received the most concern and validated them in our single surgeon team.The results showed that only P21,COX-2 and E-cadherin were significant prognostic factors for ESCC in this series.Therefore,in the current study,we reviewed the literature regarding the prognostic significance of the above mentioned three biomarkers for clinical reference.

Definition, classification and prediction of complications related to esophageal resection / 中华胃肠外科杂志

Esophagectomy is the major treatment for a variety of esophagus diseases. However, despite its wide applications, it is also one of the highest-risk procedures. Thus, reduction of mortality and complication after esophagectomy has drawn much attention, and the definition, classification and prediction of complication following esophagectomy is of vital importance. Unfortunately, there is no unified definition and specific prediction system for complications of esophagectomy until now. We review the advances in complication research in order to offer references to reduce mortality, prevent or treat complications of this high-risk operation.

Postoperative 30-day mortality may underestimate the risk of esophagectomy / 中华胃肠外科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To summarize the mortality of esophagectomy in our series and compare the different mortalities based on 30-day deaths and 90-day deaths postoperatively.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A total of 954 patients undergoing esophagectomy by single-surgeon-team between January 2000 and December 2012 from our prospective database were enrolled. The mortalities based on 30-day and 90-day deaths postoperatively were compared, and the causes of deaths within 30 days and 90 days were analyzed.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Among all these 954 patients, a total of 20 postoperative deaths(2.1%) were observed: 11 within 30 days(1.1%) and 9 between 30 and 90 days after surgery(1.0%). The reasons for deaths within 30 days were as follows: 3 for respiratory failure related to anastomotic leakage,1 for bleeding after stenting due to anastomotic fistula, 1 for sepsis, 3 for respiratory failure from presenting preoperative respiratory morbidities, 2 for cardiac arrest caused by preoperative heart disorder, and 1 for multiple organ failure caused by early adjuvant chemotoxicity. The reasons for deaths between 30 and 90 days were as follows: 1 for respiratory failure related to anastomotic leakage, 1 for cardiac arrest from preoperative heart disorder, 1 for cerebrovascular accident, 1 for liver failure from liver cirrhosis presenting preoperatively, 1 for renal failure after operation, 1 for tumor progression and 2 for unknown reasons.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Since postoperative mortality calculated based on 30 days deaths postoperatively may underestimate the risk of esophagectomy, mortality calculated based on 90 days may be a better option.</p>

Research progress of identifying predictive biomarkers for induction therapy in esophageal cancer / 中华胃肠外科杂志

Surgery is still the major treatment for esophageal cancer. It remains controversial, whether induction radiochemotherapy before resection can improve long-term survival for esophageal cancer patients. Researches have found that preoperative treatment only increases survival rates for patients who respond to induction therapy, but not for non-responders. Therefore, to identify the predictive biomarkers for induction therapy draw much attention. Although still far from satisfactory results, some have been obtained. Here, we summarize the potential biomarker candidates for reference.

Esophageal reconstruction--using gastric tube instead of whole stomach / 中华胃肠外科杂志

Stomach is the first choice for esophageal reconstruction following esophagectomy. In the earlier days, however, whole stomach pulling-up was the major surgery, which had some shortcomings. Recently, gastric tube has gained wide acceptance for esophageal reconstruction. This paper summarized the anatomical and physiological advantage of stomach, the disadvantage of whole stomach, and benefits of gastric tube for esophageal reconstruction.