The Effect of a Multidisciplinary Integrated Approach on Outcomes in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(COPD) is a common and debilitating condition, often accompanied by other co-morbidities. The Hadassah Medical Center'smulti-disciplinary approach in treating COPD patients in a one-stop shopfor COPD patients is the first of its kind in Israel. It includes pulmonary physicians, a nurse coordinator, dietitian, psychotherapist, physiotherapist, and a smoking cessation program.

A novel, stepwise approach combining conventional and endobronchial ultrasound needle aspiration for mediastinal lymph node sampling.

Background And Objectives: Since the introduction of endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA), most pulmonary centers use this technique exclusively for mediastinal lymph node (LN) sampling. Conventional "blind" TBNA (cTBNA), however, is cheaper, more accessible, provides more tissue, and requires less training. We evaluated whether sampling of mediastinal LN using EBUS-TBNA or cTBNA according to a predefined set of criteria provides acceptable diagnostic yield.

Tumor-associated neutrophils (TAN) develop pro-tumorigenic properties during tumor progression.

The role and characteristics of tumor-associated neutrophils (TAN) in cancer are poorly defined. We have recently shown that TAN can have anti-tumorigenic (N1) or pro-tumorigenic (N2) functions. An interesting unanswered question is how the phenotype of TAN is influenced by the ongoing evolvement of tumor microenvironment.