scholarly journals Advances in lung cancer diagnosis and treatment - a review

2022 ◽  
Vol 108 (01) ◽  
pp. 17-29
Author(s):  
Hrönn Harðardóttir ◽  
◽  
Steinn Jónsson ◽  
Örvar Gunnarsson ◽  
Bylgja Hilmarsdóttir ◽  
...  

Lung cancer is the second and third most common cancer in Iceland for females and males, respectively. Although the incidence is declining, lung cancer still has the highest mortality of all cancers in Iceland. Symptoms of lung cancer can be specific and localized to the lungs, but more commonly they are unspecific and result in significant diagnostic delay. Therefore, majority of lung cancer patients are diagnosed with non-localized disease. In recent years, major developments have been made in the diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer. Positive emission scanning (PET) and both transbroncial (EBUS) or transesophageal ultrasound (EUS) biopsy techniques have resulted in improved mediastinal staging of the disease and minimal invasive video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) has lowered postoperative complications and shortened hospital stay. Technical developments in radiotherapy have benefitted those patients who are not candidates for curative surgery. Finally, and most importantly, recent advances in targeted chemotherapeutics and development of immunomodulating agents have made individual tailoring of treatment possible. Recent screening-trials with low-dose computed tomography show promising results in lowering mortality. This evidence-based review focuses on the most important developments in the diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer, and includes Icelandic studies in the field.

Lung Cancer ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 156 ◽  
pp. S48-S49
Author(s):  
Sarah Booth ◽  
Patrick Grove ◽  
Stephanie Davies ◽  
Shahul Leyakathali khan

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria White ◽  
Rebecca J Bergin ◽  
Robert J Thomas ◽  
Kathryn Whitfield ◽  
David Weller

Abstract Background Most lung cancer is diagnosed at an advanced stage, resulting in poor survival. This study examined diagnostic pathways for patients with operable lung cancer to identify factors contributing to early diagnosis. Methods Surgically treated lung cancer patients (aged ≥40, within 6 months of diagnosis), approached via the population-based Cancer Registry, with their primary care physicians (PCPs) and specialists completed cross-sectional surveys assessing symptoms, diagnostic route (symptomatic or ‘investigation’ of other problem), tests, key event dates and treatment. Time intervals to diagnosis and treatment were determined, and quantile regression examined differences between the two diagnostic routes. Cox proportional hazard regression analyses examined associations between survival and diagnostic route adjusting for stage, sex and age. Results One hundred and ninety-two patients (36% response rate), 107 PCPs and 55 specialists participated. Fifty-eight per cent of patients had a symptomatic diagnostic route reporting an average of 1.6 symptoms, most commonly cough, fatigue or haemoptysis. Symptomatic patients had longer median primary care interval than ‘investigation’ patients (12 versus 9 days, P < 0.05) and were more likely to report their PCP first-ordered imaging tests. Secondary care interval was shorter for symptomatic (median = 43 days) than investigation (median = 62 days, P < 0.05) patients. However, 56% of all patients waited longer than national recommendations (6 weeks). While survival estimates were better for investigation than symptomatic patients, these differences were not significant. Conclusion Many operable lung cancer patients are diagnosed incidentally, highlighting the difficulty of symptom-based approaches to diagnosing early stage disease. Longer than recommended secondary care interval suggests the need for improvements in care pathways.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. 75
Author(s):  
Sakina Badiallah Abulqassemi Kashkoei ◽  
Jessie Johnson ◽  
Janet Rankin ◽  
Robert Johnson

Objective: The aims of this research were to learn about the lived experiences of patients with lung cancer who smoke tobacco and to provide nurses with more insights into complexities of people’s relationship with their smoking.Methods: Descriptive phenomenology was used to explore the lived experiences of smokers with lung cancer. An in-depth unstructured conversational style interview was used as a method for data collection. The study was conducted in the inpatient, outpatient, and day care units at the National Center for Cancer Care and Research (NCCCR) in Qatar. Purposive sampling was used to recruit five lung cancer patients who smoke. Colaizzi’s (1978) method was used to analyze data.Results: Participants described three related themes: (a) fate, (b) a socially acceptable addiction, and (c) self-blame and guilt.Conclusions: The findings of this study are of interest to nurses and physicians who work with lung cancer patients. The findings provide insight into experiences of patients who continue to smoke after their lung cancer diagnosis. Nurses within the smoking cessation clinic will also benefit from patients’ descriptions of what they consider useful and supportive in regards to an empathetic, coaching response to their relationships with tobacco. Future study is needed to elucidate nurses' perception on lung cancer patients who continue to smoke.


2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongjuan Zhang ◽  
Jing Cao ◽  
Lin Li ◽  
Yanbin Liu ◽  
Hong Zhao ◽  
...  

Abstract Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths and has an overall 5-year survival rate lower than 15%. Large-scale clinical trials have demonstrated a significant relative reduction in mortality in high-risk individuals with low-dose computed tomography screening. However, biomarkers capable of identifying the most at-risk population and detecting lung cancer before it becomes clinically apparent are urgently needed in the clinic. Here, we report the identification of urine biomarkers capable of detecting lung cancer. Using the well-characterized inducible Kras (G12D) mouse model of lung cancer, we identified alterations in the urine proteome in tumor-bearing mice compared with sibling controls. Marked differences at the proteomic level were also detected between the urine of patients and that of healthy population controls. Importantly, we identified 7 proteins commonly found to be significantly up-regulated in both tumor-bearing mice and patients. In an independent cohort, we showed that 2 of the 7 proteins were up-regulated in urine samples from lung cancer patients but not in those from controls. The kinetics of these proteins correlated with the disease state in the mouse model. These tumor biomarkers could potentially aid in the early detection of lung cancer.


2012 ◽  
Vol 30 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1610-1610
Author(s):  
Ping Yang ◽  
Kathleen J. Yost ◽  
Matthew M. Clark ◽  
Mariza de Andrade ◽  
Katherine M. Piderman ◽  
...  

1610 Background: Low dose computed tomography (LDCT) scans have reduced lung cancer deaths by 20.3% in high risk populations, although there is an unknown balance between the benefits and harms of LDCT scans as a screening tool. Our purpose was to compare health-related QOL issues among lung cancer patients who were initially detected by LDCT scans; 4 comparison groups included: lung cancer diagnosed by a screening chest X-ray, as an incidental finding from procedures taken for other medical reasons, or based on symptoms indicative for lung cancer and routinely diagnosed, and individuals who were LDCT screened but found no lung cancer (controls who participated in Mayo’s lung cancer CT screening trial). Methods: A total of 1,658 lung cancer patients (cared at Mayo Clinic) in the 4 groups (37, 151, 389, and 1081 respectively) and 488 controls were compared on following patient-reported outcomes (collected via validated tools): overall QOL, four symptoms (cough, pain, dyspnea, fatigue), mental/ physical/ emotional/ social/ spiritual QOL, and other concerns (e.g., family/ friends/ financial/ legal). A clinically significant deficit was defined as at least 10-points in difference (or <50 points) on a 0-100 scale. The rates of deficits were compared via Fisher’s exact tests and average QOL values via Kruskal-Wallis tests. Results: Overall QOL and individual symptoms were significantly worse (p<0.05) in all lung cancer groups than in controls, except for pain. LDCT-screened patients reported the greatest deficit among the 4 lung cancer groups in physical (41%), emotional (24%), social (38%), and spiritual QOL (24%); whereas chest X-ray detected patients had the least deficit in overall QOL (22%) and pain (32%). All 4 lung cancer groups experienced much worse fatigue (52-64%) than the controls (32%). Conclusions: Our preliminary results suggest that LDCT-screening detected lung cancer patients reported a different QOL profile from other lung cancer patients and non-lung cancer controls. The clinical course, smoking behavior, and QOL related health issues associated with LDCT screening for lung cancer warrant thorough investigation.


PeerJ ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. e11528
Author(s):  
Wen-Jun Zhu ◽  
Bo-Jiang Chen ◽  
Ying-Ying Zhu ◽  
Ling Sun ◽  
Yu-Chen Zhang ◽  
...  

Background MicroRNA-30a (miRNA-30a) levels have been shown to increase in the plasma of lung cancer patients. Herein, we evaluated the miRNA-30a levels in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) of lung cancer patients as a potential biomarker for lung cancer diagnosis. Methods BALF miRNA-30a expression of 174 subjects was quantified using quantitative real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and compared between lung cancer patients and control patients with benign lung diseases. Moreover, its diagnostic value was evaluated by performing receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. Results The relative BALF miRNA-30a expression was significantly higher in the lung cancer patients than in the controls (0.74 ±  0.55 versus 0.07 ±  0.48, respectively, p < 0.001) as well as in lung cancer patients with stage I–IIA disease than in those with stage IIB–IV disease (0.98 ±  0.64 versus 0.66 ±  0.54, respectively, p < 0.05). Additionally, miRNA-30a distinguished benign lung diseases from lung cancers, with an area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.822. ROC analysis also revealed an AUC of 0.875 for the Youden index-based optimal cut-off points for stage I–IIA adenocarcinoma. Thus, increased miRNA-30a levels in BALF may be a useful biomarker for non-small-cell lung cancer diagnosis.


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