Increasing frequency of non-smoking lung cancer: Presentation of patients with early disease to a tertiary institution in the UK.

Background: Never-smokers with lung cancer often present late as there are no established aetiological risk factors. The aim of the study is to define the frequency over time and characterise clinical features of never-smokers presenting sufficiently early to determine if it is possible to identify patients at risk.

Methods: We retrospectively analysed data from a prospectively collected database of patients who underwent surgery.

Prognostic factors for survival after surgical palliation of malignant pleural effusion.

Introduction: To investigate prognostic factors for patient survival after surgical palliation of malignant pleural effusion (MPE).

Method: We reviewed 278 consecutive nonoverseas patients (108 men, median age: 60 years [range 26-89]) undergoing 310 surgical procedures for palliation of MPE over a 72-month period. There were 195 thoracoscopic talc pleurodesis, 39 pleuroperitoneal shunts, 38 pleurodesis by an intercostal drain, 29 pleural biopsies alone, and nine long-term drains.

Thyroid transcription factor 1 immunohistochemistry as an intraoperative diagnostic tool at frozen section for distinction between primary and secondary lung tumors.

Context: Intraoperative distinction between primary and metastatic carcinomas in the lung at frozen section remains problematic.

Objective: To assess the value and practicality of immunohistochemistry for thyroid transcription factor 1 at the time of intraoperative frozen section.

Design: Thirty-three patients presented with either a solitary pulmonary mass or 2 pulmonary masses and a history of carcinoma in a different organ.

Factor XII auto-antibodies present in a patient with a B-cell lymphoma.

A 64-year-old woman was transferred for investigation of a mediastinal mass, biopsy of which showed a diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. She was also found to have an antiphospholipid antibody. The pre-operative coagulation screen showed a prolonged activated partial thromboplastin time, 71.