YAP regulates HER3 signaling-driven adaptive resistance to RET inhibitors in RET-aberrant cancer.

Purpose: Rearranged during transfection (RET) aberrations represent a targetable oncogene in several tumor types, with RET inhibitors displaying marked efficacy. However, some patients with RET-aberrant cancer are insensitive to RET tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). Recently, drug-tolerant mechanisms have attracted attention as targets for initial therapies to overcome drug resistance.

Pembrolizumab monotherapy for untreated PD-L1-Positive non-small cell lung cancer in the elderly or those with poor performance status: A prospective observational study.

Objectives: We investigated the efficacy and safety of pembrolizumab monotherapy as first-line treatment for poor Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status (PS) and elderly patients with programmed cell death-ligand 1 (PD-L1)-positive advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). We also investigated clinical prognostic factors for the efficacy of pembrolizumab monotherapy, based on patient characteristics.

Materials And Methods: In this prospective observational study, PS-2 and elderly NSCLC patients with PD-L1 tumor proportion score (TPS) ≥1% who received first-line pembrolizumab monotherapy, from October 2019 to March 2021, at 10 institutions in Japan were enrolled.

Wild-type Transthyretin Amyloidosis with Diffuse Alveolar-septal Amyloidosis Diagnosed by a Transbronchial Lung Biopsy.

A 69-year-old man visited our pulmonary medicine department for dyspnea. Chest computed tomography (CT) revealed ground-glass opacity bilaterally in the lungs. Upon performing a transbronchial lung biopsy (TBLB), organizing pneumonia was diagnosed.

Efficacy and safety of immuno-chemotherapy in patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer harboring oncogenic mutations: a multicenter retrospective study.

Purpose: The effect of immuno-chemotherapy on patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) harboring oncogenic mutations remains poorly understood. This study aimed to characterize the efficacy of immuno-chemotherapy and determine the optimal treatment strategy for such patients.

Methods: We conducted this retrospective cohort study on patients with NSCLC harboring oncogenic driver alterations and treated with an immune checkpoint inhibitor combined with chemotherapy at five institutions.

Pneumonia Caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 and Influenza Virus: A Multicenter Comparative Study.

Background: Detailed differences in clinical information between severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pneumonia (CP), which is the main phenotype of SARS-CoV-2 disease, and influenza pneumonia (IP) are still unclear.

Methods: A prospective, multicenter cohort study was conducted by including patients with CP who were hospitalized between January and June 2020 and a retrospective cohort of patients with IP hospitalized from 2009 to 2020. We compared the clinical presentations and studied the prognostic factors of CP and IP.

Abdominal pain as an initial symptom of isolated ACTH deficiency induced by nivolumab in a patient with malignant mesothelioma.

Used for a wide range of cancers, nivolumab has been reported to cause immune-related adverse events, including isolated adrenocorticotropic hormone deficiency (IAD). We report an 81-year-old woman with malignant mesothelioma who presented with abdominal pain after eight courses of nivolumab therapy, leading to the diagnosis of nivolumab-induced IAD. We should consider adrenal insufficiency (AI) when a patient on nivolumab complains of abdominal pain and has no other explanatory findings.

Safety of Once-Daily Single-Inhaler Triple Therapy with Fluticasone Furoate/Umeclidinium/Vilanterol in Japanese Patients with Asthma: A Long-Term (52-Week) Phase III Open-Label Study.

Purpose: The pivotal CAPTAIN study reported a favorable safety profile with once-daily inhaled corticosteroid/long-acting muscarinic antagonist/long-acting β-agonist (ICS/LAMA/LABA) triple combination of fluticasone furoate/umeclidinium/vilanterol (FF/UMEC/VI) in patients with inadequately controlled asthma, some of whom were Japanese. Here, we evaluate the long-term (52 weeks) safety of FF/UMEC/VI in Japanese patients with asthma.

Patients And Methods: This was a Phase III, 52-week, multicenter, non-comparator, non-randomized, open-label study (NCT03184987) in Japanese adults receiving maintenance therapy with ICS/LABA, with or without LAMA.

Cutaneous T-cell-attracting chemokine as a novel biomarker for predicting prognosis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: a prospective observational study.

Background: Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic, progressive fibrotic lung disease that leads to respiratory failure and death. Although there is a greater understanding of the etiology of this disease, accurately predicting the disease course in individual patients is still not possible. This study aimed to evaluate serum cytokines/chemokines as potential biomarkers that can predict outcomes in IPF patients.

Progressive Restrictive Ventilatory Impairment in Idiopathic Diffuse Pulmonary Ossification.

Diffuse pulmonary ossification (DPO) is a rare disease characterized by metaplastic bone formation in the lung. There are few reports with a long-term follow-up of this disease. We herein report a 47-year-old man diagnosed with idiopathic DPO at 30 years of age.

Pulmonary Tumor Thrombotic Microangiopathy Caused by a Parotid Tumor: Early Antemortem Diagnosis and Long-term Survival.

Pulmonary tumor thrombotic microangiopathy (PTTM) is a high-mortality disease that is difficult to diagnose clinically. Our patient was an 80-year-old woman who came to us due to symptoms of increasing dyspnea. A clinical evaluation showed that she had hypoxemia and pulmonary arterial hypertension without any abnormalities in the major pulmonary arteries, bronchi, or alveoli.

Carboplatin plus either docetaxel or paclitaxel for Japanese patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer.

Aim: Assessment of the efficacy of docetaxel plus carboplatin vs. paclitaxel plus carboplatin in Japanese patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Patients And Methods: Chemotherapy-naïve patients were randomly assigned at a ratio of 2 to 1 to receive six cycles of either docetaxel (60 mg/m(2)) plus carboplatin [area under the curve (AUC)=6 mg/ml min] or paclitaxel (200 mg/m(2)) plus carboplatin (same dose), on day 1 every 21 days.

Mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma involving lung and conjunctiva.

A 68-year-old man was found to have tumors of the left lung and left conjunctiva. Thoracoscopic partial lung resection was performed. Histological examination revealed diffuse proliferations of centrocyte-like cells with lymphoepithelial lesions, and a diagnosis of mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma was made.

[Two cases of chronic atelectasis that improved through use of nasal continuous positive pressure].

We observed improvements in two cases of chronic atelectasis through use of nasal continuous positive airway pressure (nCPAP). Case 1 suffered from middle lobe syndrome accompanied by chronic atelectasis resistant to medical treatment. Case 2 suffered from respiratory failure caused by chronic atelectasis and airway infection complications thereof following a total pneumonectomy and post-pneumonectomy syndrome.