Ex Vivo Comparison of the Elastic Properties of Vascular Substitutes Used for Pulmonary Artery Replacement.

Introduction: Study aims were to evaluate the elastic properties of vascular substitutes frequently used for pulmonary artery (PA) replacement, and then to compare their compliance and stiffness indexes to those of human PA.

Methods: A bench-test pulsatile flow experiment was developed to perfuse human cadaveric vascular substitutes (PA, thoracic aorta, human pericardial conduit), bovine pericardial conduit, and prosthetic vascular substitutes (polytetrafluorethylene and Dacron grafts) at a flow and low pulsed pressure mimicking pulmonary circulation. Intraluminal pressure was measured.

What are the barriers to the completion of a home-based rehabilitation programme for patients awaiting surgery for lung cancer: a prospective observational study.

Objectives: Home-based rehabilitation programmes (H-RPs) could facilitate the implementation of pulmonary rehabilitation prior to resection for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), but their feasibility has not been evaluated. The aim of this study was to identify determinants of non-completion of an H-RP and the factors associated with medical events occurring 30 days after hospital discharge.

Design: A prospective observational study.

Impact of systematic advanced care planning in lung cancer patients: A prospective study.

Background: End-of-life (EOL) communication is crucial, particularly for cancer patients. While advanced care planning is still uncommon, we sought to investigate its impact on care intensity in case of organ failure in lung cancer patients.

Methods: We prospectively included consecutive lung cancer patients hospitalised at the Grenoble University Hospital, France, between January 1, 2014 and March 31, 2016.

[Bronchial carcinoma and tobacco: An update].

Lung cancer remains the most lethal cancer. The most common cause is smoking, which is also preventable, unlike the causes of other types of cancer. A genetic characteristic has emerged over several years, which explains particular profiles of smokers, or highly dependent smokers.

[Precision medicine: A major step forward in specific situations, a myth in refractory cancers?].

In recent years, high-throughput sequencing techniques have been developed for cancerology and many clinical trials are currently structured around biomarkers that can guide specific treatment choices. This approach is characteristic of precision medicine, which is actually a concept initiated several decades ago with, for example, retinoic acid in promyelocytic leukemia. This paper will review the different types of molecular alterations and « -omics » biological analyses, bioinformatics tools, coupled drug/biomarkers already validated, the ethical issues of whole genomic sequencing of an individual as part of an inclusion in a clinical trial and finally the first results of precision medicine trials.