Report of a vagal paraganglioma at the cervicothoracic junction.

Background: Vagus nerve paragangliomas are rare tumors, comprising 0.03% of head and neck neoplasms. These tumors are usually located cephalad to the hyoid bone, and there is only one previously reported case that arose from the lower third of the neck.

Effects of Smoking, Obesity, and Pulmonary Function on Home Oxygen Use after Curative Lung Cancer Surgery.

Lung cancer surgical morbidity has been decreasing, increasing attention to quality-of-life measures. A chronic sequela of lung cancer surgery is the use of postoperative oxygen at home after discharge. Prospective studies are needed to identify risk predictors for home oxygen (HO) use after curative lung cancer surgery.

Comparative Effectiveness of Robotic-Assisted Surgery for Resectable Lung Cancer in Older Patients.

Background: Robotic-assisted surgery (RAS) is a novel surgical approach increasingly used for patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, data comparing the effectiveness and costs of RAS vs open thoracotomy and video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) for NSCLC are limited.

Methods: Patients > 65 years old with stage I to IIIA NSCLC treated with RAS, VATS, or open thoracotomy were identified from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results-Medicare database and matched according to age, sex, stage, and extent of resection.

Oxygen Use After Lung Cancer Surgery.

Background: There are no published reports on predictors of oxygen (O) use after lung cancer surgery. The prospect of O use after lung cancer surgery may affect a patient's therapy choice.

Methods: The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)-Medicare data set was queried to identify patients diagnosed with primary lung cancer (stage I/II) who underwent surgical resection from 1994 to 2010.

Personal and hospital factors associated with limited surgical resection for lung cancer, in-hospital mortality and complications in New York State.

Background And Objectives: Early stage lung cancer is generally treated with surgical resection. The objective of the study was to identify patient and hospital characteristics associated with the type of lung cancer surgical approach utilized in New York State (NYS), and to assess in-hospital adverse events.

Methods: A total of 33 960 lung cancer patients who underwent limited resection (LR) or lobectomy (L) were selected from the NYS Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System database (1995-2012).

Thoracoscopic lobectomy: report on safety, discharge independence, pain, and chemotherapy tolerance.

Objective: Controversies regarding the safety, morbidity, and mortality of thoracoscopic lobectomy have prevented the widespread acceptance of the procedure. This series analyzed the safety, pain, analgesic use, and discharge disposition in patients who underwent thoracoscopic lobectomy and segmentectomy at a single institution.

Methods: We collected data from 153 consecutive patients who underwent thoracoscopic (video-assisted thoracic surgery) lobectomy and assessed the perioperative outcomes, postoperative pain, and chemotherapy course.

Is occult lymph node disease in colorectal cancer patients clinically significant? A review of the relevant literature.

The clinical significance of micrometastasis of colorectal cancer (CRC) to regional lymph nodes remains controversial. In this review, we analyze publications that have evaluated the clinical significance of occult lymph node metastasis in CRC. An extensive literature search identified 19 publications that evaluated the clinical significance of micrometastatic CRC by various methods, including immunohistochemistry (IHC; n = 13) and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR, n = 6).

Evaluation of efficacy of an ultrasonic scalpel for pulmonary vascular ligation in an animal model.

Objective: Dissection to accommodate bulky stapling devices may cause injury to pulmonary arteries in thoracoscopic lobectomies. The Harmonic Ace (Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc; Cincinnati, Ohio), a small ultrasonic scalpel used in systemic vessels, was tested on pulmonary vessels in pigs.

Methods: Nine pigs were assigned 1- or 6-week survival.

Complete surgical resection of a 40-cm leiomyosarcoma of the large bowel mesentery.

Introduction: Leiomyosarcoma of the large bowel mesentery is a rare entity and characteristically behaves in an aggressive fashion. Surgical resection is the mainstay of treatment and offers both symptomatic and therapeutic benefit.

Case: We describe the case of a 55-year-old woman who presented with weight loss, increasing abdominal girth and a large solid inhomogenous mass within the abdomen and pelvis demonstrated on a computed tomography (CT) scan.

Optimal markers for real-time quantitative reverse transcription PCR detection of circulating tumor cells from melanoma, breast, colon, esophageal, head and neck, and lung cancers.

Background: The detection of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) may prove useful for screening, prognostication, and monitoring of response to therapy. However, given the large background of circulating cells, it is probably necessary to detect 1 cancer cell in >10(6) leukocytes. Although reverse transcription (RT)-PCR is potentially sensitive and specific enough to achieve this goal, success will require the use of appropriate mRNA markers.