Dr. Gerard Silvestri, Medical University of South Carolina, discusses the benefits and drawbacks of lung cancer screenings.
Surgery, specifically a lobectomy or possibly pneumonectomy, has been the longtime historical standard of care for fit patients with early-stage, operable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
Here is a brief and basic summary of the concept of why we're concerned not only about the cancer we can see but the potential cancer we can't.
Our multidisciplinary thoracic oncology tumor board is dynamic and a highlight of the week, facilitated in equal parts by the fact that our group genuinely enjoys each other’s company and that it is the source of some engaging debate about the potential best way to manage several complex scenarios in lung cancer.
One of the most common questions. we receive is why people are told that surgery isn't an appropriate option for metastatic disease. If you can see the areas where there is active cancer, why can't you just take it out?
Here's the podcast from a webinar I did last month with Dr. Weiss on the subject of whether patients with very limited small cell lung cancer (SCLC) should perhaps undergo surgery as a first intervention. Historically, surgery isn't considered as a typical treatment for patients with SCLC, even if it's very early stage, but some results from retrospective experiences suggest that the patients who undergo surgery in this setting do very well.
When oncologists and surgeons talk about staging, we often distinguish between clinical and pathologic staging. Many in the health care field don’t understand or know the difference. Even more, why do we “stage” a cancer (NOT the patient!) at all? These are important questions, because they tell those of us involved in the treatment and care of such patients what is the extent of the disease, what the prognosis might be, and what the treatment plan should entail. That way, the caregivers are all “on the same page".
We all know now that lung cancer, and in particular NSCLC, sits atop the list of cancer killers in the United States and western world. We also have been having extensive discussions on this site about all these great new treatment modalities: better staging (i.e. PET), better surgeries (i.e. VATS), radiosurgery (i.e. gamma knife), better radiation (i.e. IMRT), and better chemotherapy or targeted agents.
I'm very happy to present an audio interview with Dr. Eric Vallières, an excellent thoracic surgeon and Surgical Director of the Lung Cancer Program at Swedish Cancer Institute. Within the lung cancer community, he actually happens to be among the most well known thoracic surgeons in the country and even world, and he has a major expertise in the integration of chemotherapy and other systemic therapies for early stage lung cancer.
Malignant mesothelioma is a relatively rare but particularly deadly malignancy that arises from the lining of the pleural (chest) cavity or peritoneal (abdominal) cavity. About 70% of cases of mesothelioma are directly related to asbestos exposure, usually with about 30 or 40 years between exposure and diagnosis. While there are only about 2200 cases per year in the USA, this number is expected to increase over the next decade, as workers exposed to asbestos earlier in their lives eventually begin to manifest symptoms of the malignancy.
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