Evaluation of pulmonary nodules in Asian population

The nomograms for predicting overall and cancer-specific survival in elderly patients with early-stage lung cancer: A population-based study using SEER database

Purpose

Lung cancer is the leading cause of death from cancer and the number of operable elderly lung cancer patients is increasing, with advanced age being associated with a poorer prognosis. However, there is no easy and comprehensive prognostic assessment method for these patients.

Methods

Clinicopathological data of patients aged 65 years or older with TNM stage I-II lung cancer from 2004 to 2018 were downloaded from the SEER database. Patients from 2004 to 2015 were randomized into a training group (n = 16,457) and a validation group (n = 7,048). Data from 2016 to 2018 (n = 6,231) were used for external validation. Two nomogram prognostic models were created after independent prognostic factors connected to both overall survival (OS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS) in the training set by using univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression analysis. In turn, overall survival (OS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS) were predicted for patients at 1, 3, and 5 years. Based on the concordance index (C-index), calibration curves, area under the receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve (AUC), the time-dependent area under the ROC curve, the validity, accuracy, discrimination, predictive ability, and clinical utility of the models were evaluated. Decision curve analysis (DCA) was used to assess the clinical value of the models.

Results

A total of 29,736 patients were included. Univariate and multivariate analyses suggested that age, race, gender, marriage, disease grade, AJCC stage, T-stage, surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and tumor size were independent risk factors for patient prognosis. These 11 variables were included in nomogram to predict OS and CSS of patients. C-indexes of OS for the training, validation and external validation sets were 0.730 (95% CI, 0.709-0.751), 0.734 (95% CI, 0.722-0.746), and 0.750 (95% CI, 0.734-0.766), respectively. The AUC results for the training and validation sets indicated good accuracy for this nomogram. The calibration curves demonstrated a high degree of concordance between actual and anticipated values, and the DCA demonstrated that the nomograms had better clinical application than the traditional TNM staging approach.

Conclusion

This study identified risk factors for survival in operable elderly lung cancer patients and established a new column line graph for predicting OS and CSS in these patients. The model has good clinical application and can be a good clinical decision-making tool for physicians and patients.

Prevalence and clinical characteristics of malignant lung nodules in tuberculosis endemic area in a single tertiary centre

BACKGROUND

Lung nodule management remains a challenge to clinicians, especially in endemic tuberculosis areas. Different guidelines are available with various recommendations; however, the suitability of these guidelines for the Asian population is still unclear. Our study described the prevalence of malignant lung nodules among nodules measuring 2-30 mm, the demographic and characteristics of lung nodules between benign and malignant groups, and the clinician's clinical practice in managing lung nodules.

METHOD

Retrospective review of lung nodules from the computed tomography archiving and communication system (PACS) database and clinical data from January 2019 to January 2022. The data was analysed by using chi square, mann whitney test and simple logistic regression.

RESULTS

There were 288 nodules measuring 2-30 mm identified; 49 nodules underwent biopsy. Twenty-seven (55%) biopsied nodules were malignant, (prevalence of 9.4%). Among the malignant lung nodules, 74% were adenocarcinoma (n = 20). The commonest benign nodules were granuloma n = 12 (55%). In nodules > 8 mm, the median age of malignant and benign was 72 ± 12 years and 66 ± 16 years, respectively (p = 0.024). There was a significant association of benign nodules (> 8 mm) in subjects with previous or concurrent tuberculosis (p = 0.008). Benign nodules are also associated with nodule size ≤ 8 mm, without spiculation (p < 0.001) and absence of emphysema (p = 0.007). The nodule size and the presence of spiculation are factors to make the clinicians proceed with tissue biopsy. Spiculated nodules and increased nodule size had 11 and 13 times higher chances of undergoing biopsy respectively (p < 0.001).) Previous history of tuberculosis had a 0.874 reduced risk of progression to malignant lung nodules (p = 0.013). These findings implied that these three factors are important risk factors for malignant lung nodules. There was no mortality association between benign and malignant. Using Brock's probability of malignancy, nodules ≤ 8 mm had a low probability of malignancy.

CONCLUSION

The prevalence of malignant lung nodules in our centre was comparatively lower than non-Asian countries. Older age, the presence of emphysema, and spiculation are associated with malignancy. Clinical judgment is of utmost importance in managing these patients. Fleishner guideline is still being used as a reference by our clinician.

Curative lobectomy without a preoperative tissue diagnosis in a tuberculosis endemic country: A case report and discussion

Curative surgery for a localized tumour at the early and pre-symptomatic stage is the main aim of lung nodule assessment. As part of the process, pre-operative tissue diagnosis is a key step in making appropriate clinical decisions and avoiding unnecessary invasive surgical intervention which is associated with high morbidity. In this case report, we describe a patient who had a curative lobectomy for a growing nodule without a preoperative tissue diagnosis although the initial discussion deemed it mandatory, and we dissected the arguments supporting it in the setting of a tuberculosis endemic country.

Lung Cancer and Granuloma Identification Using a Deep Learning Model to Extract 3-Dimensional Radiomics Features in CT Imaging

BACKGROUND

We aimed to evaluate a deep learning (DL) model combining perinodular and intranodular radiomics features and clinical features for preoperative differentiation of solitary granuloma nodules (GNs) from solid lung cancer nodules in patients with spiculation, lobulation, or pleural indentation on CT.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

We retrospectively recruited 915 patients with solitary solid pulmonary nodules and suspicious signs of malignancy. Data including clinical characteristics and subjective CT findings were obtained. A 3-dimensional U-Net-based DL model was used for tumor segmentation and extraction of 3-dimensional radiomics features. We used the Maximum Relevance and Minimum Redundancy (mRMR) algorithm and the eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) algorithm to select the intranodular, perinodular, and gross nodular radiomics features. We propose a medical image DL (IDL) model, a clinical image DL (CIDL) model, a radiomics DL (RDL) model, and a clinical image radiomics DL (CIRDL) model to preoperatively differentiate GNs from solid lung cancer. Five-fold cross-validation was used to select and evaluate the models. The prediction performance of the models was evaluated using receiver operating characteristic and calibration curves.

RESULTS

The CIRDL model achieved the best performance in differentiating between GNs and solid lung cancer (area under the curve [AUC] = 0.9069), which was significantly higher compared with the IDL (AUC = 0.8322), CIDL (AUC = 0.8652), intra-RDL (AUC = 0.8583), peri-RDL (AUC = 0.8259), and gross-RDL (AUC = 0.8705) models.

CONCLUSION

The proposed CIRDL model is a noninvasive diagnostic tool to differentiate between granuloma nodules and solid lung cancer nodules and reduce the need for invasive diagnostic and surgical procedures.

Stereotactic Image Guided Lung Radiation Therapy for Clinical Early Stage Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: A Long-Term Report From a Multi-Institutional Database of Patients Treated With or Without a Pathologic Diagnosis

PURPOSE

Early stage lung cancer is treated with stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) in patients who are unable or unwilling to undergo surgical resection. Some patients' comorbidities are so severe that they are unable to even undergo a biopsy. A clinical diagnosis without biopsy before SBRT has been used, but there are limited data on its efficacy.

METHODS AND MATERIALS

Data on patients treated with SBRT for non-small cell lung cancer, with and without tissue confirmation, were collected from multiple institutions across Europe, Canada, and the United States. Patients with a minimum of 2 years of comprehensive follow up were selected for analysis. Treatment and patient characteristics were compared. Overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS), cause-specific survival (CSS), and rates of local recurrence (LR), regional recurrence (RR), and distant metastasis (DM) were calculated and analyzed.

RESULTS

A total of 701 patients were identified, of which 67% had tissue confirmation of their tumors. The 3- and 5-year outcomes for OS, CSS, and DFS were 83.8%, 93.1%, 69%, and 60.6%, 86.7%, 45.5%, respectively. The rates for LR, RR, and DM at 3 and 5 years were 6.4%, 9.3%, 14.3%, and 10.5%, 14.3%, 19.7%, respectively. There were no statistically significant differences in survival outcomes or recurrences between the biopsy and no-biopsy cohorts.

CONCLUSIONS

SBRT for clinically diagnosed lung cancers is efficacious in appropriately selected patients, with similar outcomes as those with a pathologic diagnosis. Thorough clinical and radiographic evaluations in a multidisciplinary setting are critical to the management of these patients.

Electromagnetic navigation bronchoscopy: the initial experience in Hong Kong

Background

Pulmonary nodules (PNs) are increasingly detected by thoracic computed tomography (CT). Traditional diagnostic modalities have their drawbacks. Electromagnetic navigation bronchoscopy (ENB) is gaining popularity in diagnosing small PNs. This study describes the diagnostic yield and complication rate of ENB in diagnosing PNs in which other diagnostic methods are considered to have low yield.

Methods

This is a retrospective study of the diagnostic yield and complication rate of ENB performed in the United Christian Hospital, Hong Kong, from April 2015 to June 2016. If a histological diagnosis was deemed necessary and flexible bronchoscopy (FB) was the preferred modality, patients were offered ENB if they have failed a conventional FB with fluoroscopy and radial endobronchoscopic ultrasonography (R-EBUS), or were perceived to have low yield because of the size or position of the PN.

Results

During the study period, 99 patients received ENB. An overall of 87 patients had non-resolved CT lesions and had specific pathologies identified (87.9%). The total number of malignant PNs was 67 (67.7%) in the entire cohort and tuberculosis (TB) accounted for 14 PNs (14.1%). The overall accuracy by ENB was 71.7%, sensitivity 67.8%, specificity 100% and negative predictive value 30%. Complications occurred in 3 patients: 1 pneumothorax (1.0%), 1 post-transbronchial biopsy (TBBx) bleeding (1.0%), 1 respiratory failure (1.0%). No patient died as a result of ENB or its complications.

Conclusions

For PNs not accessible by conventional FB/R-EBUS, ENB provides good diagnostic yield with low complication rate. It is a useful armamentarium to respiratory physicians and thoracic surgeons.

[Establishment and Verification of A Novel Predictive Model of Malignancy for Non-solid Pulmonary Nodules]

背景与目的

数学预测模型是判断肺小结节恶性概率的有效工具。伴随肺癌流行病学趋势的改变，以非实性肺小结节为影像学表现的早期肺癌检出率逐年升高，准确鉴别并及时治疗干预可有效改善预后。本研究旨在专门针对非实性肺小结节构建新型恶性概率预测模型，为有创诊疗提供客观依据，并尽量避免不必要的侵袭性操作及其可能造成的严重后果。

方法

回顾性分析自2013年1月-2018年4月，单中心经穿刺活检或手术切除获得明确病理诊断的362例非实性肺小结节病例资料，包括临床基本资料、血清肿瘤标记物和影像学特征等。病例分两组，应用建模组数据做单因素分析和二分类Logistic回归，判定独立危险因素，建立预测模型；应用验证组数据验证模型预测价值并与其他模型比较。

结果

362例非实性肺小结节病例中，313例（86.5%）确诊为非典型腺瘤样增生（atypical adenomatous hyperplasia, AAH）/原位腺癌（adenocarcinoma in situ, AIS）、微浸润腺癌（minimally invasive adenocarcinoma, MIA）或浸润性腺癌，49例诊断为良性病变。年龄、血清肿瘤标记物癌胚抗原（carcino-embryonic antigen, CEA）和Cyfra21-1、肿瘤实性成分比值（consolidation tumor ratio, CTR）、分叶征和钙化被确定为独立危险因素。模型受试者工作曲线下面积为0.894。预测灵敏度为87.6%，特异度为69.7%，阳性预测94.8%，阴性预测值为46.9%。经验证模型预测价值显著优于VA、Brock和GMUFH模型。

结论

本研究建立的新型非实性肺小结节恶性概率预测模型具备较高的诊断灵敏度和阳性预测值。经初步验证，其预测价值优于传统模型。未来经大样本验证后，可用作高危非实性肺小结节活检或手术切除前的初筛方法，具备临床应用价值。

Prognostic indicators of pulmonary metastasis in patients with renal cell carcinoma who have undergone radical nephrectomy

The aim of the present study was to validate prognostic indicators of pulmonary metastasis in patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC) that have undergone nephrectomy treatment. The data from 356 patients who underwent nephrectomy were investigated and subsequently divided into 2 groups, according to the pulmonary metastasis status. The risk factors for pulmonary metastasis were examined in all patients. In the subgroup analysis, the risk factors were additionally verified in patients with pulmonary nodules using univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. The status of pulmonary nodules and pulmonary metastasis were confirmed through preoperative chest radiography by two radiologists. Pulmonary metastasis was observed in 33 (9.3%) patients with a median follow-up time of 54.4 months (interquartile range, 38.8-71.8). Patients with pulmonary nodules indicated significantly increased rates of pulmonary metastasis, compared with patients without pulmonary nodules (24.2 vs. 6.1%; P<0.001). In multivariate analysis, the presence of pulmonary nodules [hazard ratio (HR)=3.15; P=0.0262], albumin (HR=0.42; P=0.0490) and pTstage (HR=3.63; P=0.0475) were indicated to be independent prognostic markers for pulmonary metastasis. In subgroup analysis, pTstage was the only independent prognostic indicator for pulmonary metastasis in these patients (HR=9.81; P=0.0033). In patients with RCC, the presence of pulmonary nodules was associated with pulmonary metastasis. Furthermore, pTstage is a negative prognostic indicator in patients with pulmonary nodules. Therefore, a chest radiologic short-term follow-up is required for these patients.

Management of lung nodules in Brazil-assessment of realities, beliefs and attitudes: a study by the Brazilian Society of Thoracic Surgery (SBCT), the Brazilian Thoracic Society (SBPT) and the Brazilian College of Radiology (CBR)

Background

Pulmonary nodules are common; some are inconsequential while others are malignant. Management of solitary pulmonary nodule (SPN) in Brazil appears to be highly variable, potentially leading to suboptimal outcomes. Assessment of the variability and the association with the degree of availability of resources can provide a foundation for development of clinical guidelines for management of SPN specific for the Brazilian setting.

Methods

A web-based survey was developed by thoracic surgeons, pulmonologists and radiologists to evaluate SPN perception and management. This survey was sent to their respective national societies members and answers collected between August and December 2016. That included multiple choice questions regarding age, specialty, SPN management, accessibility to exams and interventional procedures characterizing public (SUS) and supplementary private working settings.

Results

A total of 461 questionnaires were answered. More than half of participants live in cities with over one million people. Specialties were reasonable equilibrated with 43.5% radiologists, 33.5% thoracic surgeons, 20.3% pulmonologists and 2.6% others. Most of the respondents work in both public and private sector (72.7%). Private has a similar reality compared to well-developed nations regarding exams accessibility and interventions. SUS setting has a significant variability access according to the participants. CT is only easily available in 31.9% of cases, PET-CT is easily available in 24.4%, bronchoscopy is easily available for 42.8%, transthoracic needle biopsy is only easily available in 13.9% and video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) biopsy is not available in 19.5%. When there is a probability of malignancy of 50% or higher, 46.5% of participants would be comfortable recommending surgical biopsy. When the probability is higher than 10%, only 36.9% would be comfortable following up radiologically.

Conclusions

Brazil has a very different setting for public and private patients regarding exams accessibility and management options. That might explain why participants have a higher tendency to choose interventional diagnosis and explains why current guidelines may not be applicable to developing countries reality.

Electromagnetic navigation bronchoscopy under intravenous sedation-tips and tricks

Electromagnetic navigation bronchoscopy (ENB) is gaining acceptance and popularity amongst bronchoscopists as one of the tools to diagnose pulmonary nodules (PNs). Although the majority of ENBs in earlier studies were performed under general anaesthesia (GA), later reports suggest that the diagnostic yield of ENB under intravenous sedation (IVS) was comparable, and was time saving. ENB under IVS may potentially improve access of the techniques to practitioners and patients. However, it is technically challenging when compared to its performance under GA. This article reviews the techniques required for ENB under IVS to maximize its diagnostic yield and safety.