Impact of preoperative [18F]FDG PET/CT vs. contrast-enhanced CT in the staging and survival of patients with clinical stage I and II non-small cell lung cancer: a 10-year follow-up study.

OBJECTIVES: To elucidate the impact of [18F]FDG positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) vs. CT workup on staging and prognostic evaluation of clinical stage (c) I-II NSCLC. METHODS: We retrospectively identified 659 cI-II NSCLC who underwent CT (267 patients) or preoperative CT followed by PET/CT (392 patients), followed by curative-intended complete resection in our hospital from January 2008 to December 2013. Differences were assessed between preoperative and postoperative stage. Five-year disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) rates were calculated using the Kaplan-Meier approach and compared with log-rank test. Impact of preoperative PET/CT on survival was assessed by Cox regression analysis. RESULTS: The study included 659 patients [mean age, 59.5 years ± 10.8 (standard deviation); 379 men]. The PET/CT group was superior over CT group in DFS [12.6 vs. 6.9 years, HR 0.67 (95% CI 0.53-0.84), p < 0.001] and OS [13.9 vs. 10.5 years, HR 0.64 (95% CI 0.50-0.81), p < 0.001]. In CT group, more patients thought to have cN0 migrated to pN1/2 disease as compared with PET/CT group [26.4% (66/250) vs. 19.2% (67/349), p < 0.001], resulting in more stage cI cases being upstaged to pII-IV [24.7% (49/198) vs. 16.1% (47/292), p = 0.02], yet this was not found in cII NSCLC [27.5% (19/69) vs. 27.0% (27/100), p = 0.94]. Cox regression analysis identified preoperative PET/CT as an independent prognostic factor of OS and DFS (p = 0.002, HR = 0.69, 95% CI 0.54-0.88; p = 0.004, HR = 0.72, 95% CI 0.58-0.90). CONCLUSION: Addition of preoperative [18F]FDG PET/CT was associated with superior DFS and OS in resectable cI-II NSCLC, which may result from accurate staging and stage-appropriate therapy.

Drugs combined with endoscopic therapy versus transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt in management of esophageal and gastric variceal bleeding / 中国内镜杂志

Objective To compare the short term and long term efficacy of drugs combined with endoscopic therapy (ET) and transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) in treatment of esophageal and gastric variceal bleeding (EGVB) in cirrhotic patients. Methods We reviewed 120 cases of patients admitted for acute esophageal and gastric variceal bleeding from January 2010 to December 2014, treated with drugs combined with endoscopy (n = 77) or TIPS (n = 43). The incidence of failure to control bleeding, long term rebleeding, mortality and complications were compared. Results Patients treated with TIPS had a higher probability of remaining free of bleeding or rebleeding than patients receving drugs+ET (59.7％ vs. 81.4％, P < 0.05). The incidence of hepatic encephalopathy in the drugs + ET group was lower than that in the TIPS group (13.2％ vs 27.9％, P < 0.05). There was no significant difference in the control of acute bleeding (96.1％ vs 97.7％, P > 0.05) and mortality (10.4％ vs. 4.7％, P > 0.05) between the two groups. Conclusions Both drugs+ET and TIPS surgery can control EGVB well, TIPS can better prevent the occurrence of rebleeding but will lead to a higher incidence of hepatic encephalopathy.