Objectives: Thoracoscopy under local anaesthesia is widely performed to diagnose malignancies and infectious diseases. However, few reports have described the use of this procedure for diagnosing and treating intrathoracic infections. This study aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of thoracoscopy under local anaesthesia for the management of intrathoracic infections.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: There have been several reports demonstrating the safety of flexible bronchoscopy (FB) in the elderly, but none have focused specifically on lung cancer, which is a frequent biopsy procedure.
Methods: In this study, we retrospectively evaluated the safety of FB and subsequent treatment in elderly patients with suspected primary lung cancer. Elderly patients were defined as 75 years of age or older.
Respir Med Case Rep
December 2023
Pulmonary cryptococcal infections are fungal infections that often occur in immunocompromised patients and present with a variety of radiographic patterns ranging from nodular to infiltrative shadows. In the present case, we experienced a rare case of organizing pneumonia due to cryptococcal infection in a 71-year-old woman with rheumatoid arthritis. Transbronchial lung biopsy showing fibrotic changes in the alveolar walls, small granulation lesions and cryptococcal organisms with positive Grocott staining.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), including pegfilgrastim, increases the peripheral blood leukocyte count and is widely used in clinical practice in combination with cytotoxic chemotherapy. The most frequent side effects of G-CSF are pain and fever; aortitis, in contrast, is a rare and serious side effect.
Case Presentation: A 73-year-old man with small-cell lung cancer was treated with a full dose of a combination of carboplatin/etoposide/durvalumab and pegfilgrastim.
Searching for driver gene alteration is a prerequisite for chemotherapy of non-small cell lung cancer. Due to its high sensitivity and concordance rate, the Amoy Dx Pan Lung Cancer PCR panel has been approved and is widely used in Japan. In this report, we describe a case in which a positive result for Kristen rat sarcoma virus (KRAS) exon2 p.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOsimertinib, a third-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitor, is the first-line treatment for metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with sensitizing epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations. It is known to cause drug-induced cardiotoxicity, including QT prolongation syndrome, heart failure, and ventricular arrhythmias, which can lead to sudden death. Once severe arrhythmias occur, it is difficult to continue osimertinib treatment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Flexible bronchoscopy (FB) is a common method used for diagnostic sampling of the thorax. Although the safety and efficacy of FB in the general population are well-established, data on the elderly population are limited. This study aimed to determine the safety and efficacy of FB in elderly people aged ≥80 years.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis report describes the case of a 79-year-old Japanese man diagnosed with orbital extranodal marginal zone lymphoma (EMZL) and stage IIIA lung cancer. The patient received concurrent chemoradiation for lung cancer with carboplatin/paclitaxel treatment, resulting in regression of both the lymphoma and lung cancer. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of concurrent orbital EMZL and lung cancer.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has restricted many medical practices. We aimed to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the number of bronchoscopies, outpatients, and hospital admissions. We retrospectively analyzed the number of outpatients, admissions, and bronchoscopies performed between March 2020 and May 2022.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe present a case report of a 92-year-old patient with thoracic empyema, who was successfully treated via CT-guided insertion of a pigtail catheter. The advanced age of the patient often poses challenges in managing pyothorax due to limited physical activity and cognitive decline stemming from decreased activities of daily living. In instances where thoracic drainage is not feasible, the course of treatment is protracted and the prognosis is poor.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe transformation to SCLC is a known mechanism of resistance against molecularly targeted therapies. This study reports a patient with untreated lung adenocarcinoma, characterized by a G12C mutation, which transformed into SCLC before treatment. Both the adenocarcinoma and SCLC components were responsive to sotorasib.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The incidence of nontuberculous mycobacterial lung disease (NTM-LD) peaks in middle- and old age groups, coinciding with senescence; thus, chronic infectious diseases can accelerate frailty and worsen mental health in the elderly. In this study, we aimed to compare the prevalence of physical and psychiatric frailty between patients with NTM-LD and bronchiectasis (BE).
Methods: The Kihon Checklist Questionnaire (KCQ) was used to assess physical and psychiatric frailties and identify those at risk of requiring care among patients with newly diagnosed NTM-LD and BE.
While immunotherapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors has achieved promising effects in advanced lung cancer treatment, it can induce some unique adverse events, known as immunotherapy-related adverse events (irAEs). Immunotherapy-related interstitial pneumonitis is one of the irAEs, and its incidence is reported as 3.5-8.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Pulmonary hyalinizing granuloma (PHG) is a very rare pulmonary disease characterized by multiple fibrosclerotic inflammatory lung nodules. The disease is supposedly caused by an unusual immune response.
Case Presentation: We present a case involving a 53-year-old female with a history of lumpectomy surgery due to invasive ductal carcinoma who was admitted for slowly progressive pulmonary nodules.
Malignant melanoma is a rare and high-grade cancer. It most commonly affects the skin, but it has the potential to involve all areas of the body. Primary pulmonary malignant melanoma is rare, accounting for only 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRecent advancements in cancer immunotherapy using immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have received considerable attention. Although advantageous, ICI therapies cause unique immune-related adverse events (irAEs) in some patients. Moreover, infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis, have been recognized as emerging concerns during immunotherapy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of social isolation and loneliness on the overall survival and death at home in patients with lung cancer.
Methods: This prospective cohort study was conducted in a Japanese tertiary hospital. The enrollment period was from April 2018 to March 2020.
In advanced lung cancer treatment, immunotherapy provides durable responses in some patients. However, other patients experience progressive disease and the resistance mechanisms to immunotherapy have yet been fully elucidated. Small cell transformation of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is commonly recognized as one of the resistance mechanisms to epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-tyrosine kinase inhibitors in EGFR-mutant NSCLC treatment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Social determinants of health (SDHs) are social factors that affect human health; loneliness and social isolation are core SDH factors. There is a possibility that SDHs are related to passive decision-making. However, few studies have evaluated SDHs, especially social isolation and loneliness, among lung cancer patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground/aim: Previous reviews of Social determinants of health in lung cancer patients have not examined essential factors such as social isolation and loneliness. This study aimed to explore the factors affecting social isolation and loneliness among lung cancer patients.
Patients And Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted.
Background: Osimertinib, the third-generation epidermal growth factor receptor-tyrosine kinase inhibitor (EGFR-TKI), has become the standard treatment in cases where rebiopsy reveals T790M mutation after the first-line EGFR-TKI treatment. However, the prognosis of patients after rebiopsy, the most important outcome for cancer patients, has not been described sufficiently. This systematic review aimed to clarify whether rebiopsy contributes to improved prognosis in the first- or second-generation EGFR-TKI refractory patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Socioeconomic factors with an influence on human health are known as social determinants of health (SDH). There are some SDH studies in patients with lung cancer, but important exposures such as social isolation and loneliness have not been adequately investigated. This study will assess the influence of SDH, particularly social isolation and loneliness, on patients with advanced lung cancer in Japan.
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