Long-term Survival in Stage IVb Thymic Carcinoma With Multidisciplinary Aggressive Treatment.

Thymic carcinoma, a rare aggressive tumor, necessitates multidisciplinary approaches for optimal prognosis. The role of surgical interventions in stage IVb thymic carcinoma, as classified by the TNM and Masaoka-Koga staging systems, remains controversial; although some patients present with resectable disease, others do not. We report a case with supraclavicular metastasis and sternal invasion.

Surgical outcome in patients with lung adenocarcinoma with mucin.

Objective: Mucin-producing adenocarcinoma is a less common variant of lung adenocarcinoma. Adenocarcinoma cells with mucin can spread through the airspace via mucus-mediated extension, leading to their implantation in distant normal lungs. Consequently, post-operative intrapulmonary recurrence frequently occurs.

Clinicopathological study of fractional exhaled nitric oxide dynamics and intratumoral inducible nitric oxide synthase expression in primary lung cancer patients.

Background: Inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) is expressed in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tumor cells and contributes to tumorigenesis. Nitric oxide, an indicator of airway inflammation, is concurrently produced in the airway epithelium. However, the interrelationships and predictive importance of iNOS remain unclear.

Increasing monocytes after lung cancer surgery triggers the outgrowth of distant metastases, causing recurrence.

Patients with lung cancer have a high incidence of tumor recurrence even after curative surgical resection. Some reports indicated that immunosuppressive cells induced by surgical stress could contribute to tumor recurrence after surgery; however, the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. In this study, we found that increased postoperative blood monocytes served as a risk factor for tumor recurrence in 192 patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Extended thoracotomy for main pulmonary artery access: Two lung cancer cases.

This report details two cases of right upper-lobe lung cancer, of patients aged 62 and 56 years, requiring complex bronchoplasty and thoracoscopic surgeries. In both cases, owing to intraoperative complications, extended thoracotomies were performed to gain access to the right main pulmonary artery. The postoperative courses were uneventful, implying that this approach was safe.