Journal and News Scan

Optimal therapy (surgery vs multimodality therapy) for clinical T2N0 esophageal cancer is controversial.  This STS Database review assessed accuracy of clinical staging compared to pathologic staging in nearly 500 patients who underwent initial resection.  T2N0 was confirmed in 27%, 26% were downstaged, and 47% were upstaged.  The most common cause for upstaging was nodal involvement without change in T status.  In another group of clinical T2N0 patients who underwent induction therapy, upstaging was evident in the resection specimen in 38%. 

This study sought to investigate the immediate safety and feasibility of complete percutaneous access/closure of arteriotomy for device deployment compared to the surgical approach for transfemoral transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). The percutaneous approach is a feasible access/closure method with a potential of lowering access site infection and bleeding, and shortening hospital stay, while maintaining similar rates of major vascular complications compared to the surgical approach.

 3D printers are slowly entering everyday life and they are increasingly being used in medicine. Doctors at Washington's Children's National Medical Center say the life-size tri-dimensional prints of their patients' hearts helps them in planning and executing surgeries. Magnetic resonance imaging, computer tomography and ultrasound already give pretty good images of patients' internal organs, but doctors at the Children's National Medical Center say nothing beats holding a life-size model of a heart in your hand prior to the surgery. They can study it, plan the procedure and even practice the access to the damaged area. Pediatric cardiologist Laura Olivieri says many of their young patients were born with hearts that did not form as they should have, but surgeons can correct that. "Seeing the heart defect in three dimensions can really help the interventionist or the surgeon plan the best procedure," she said. The hospital acquired the $250,000 printer about 18 months ago and the team is still expanding and finding new areas to print. The procedure always starts with taking a set of three-dimensional images with magnetic resonance imager, computer tomography scanner and ultrasound machine. Highly trained pediatric cardiologists manipulate those images and separate the organ from the noise in the picture. In order to save time in printing they sometimes also cut away parts of the image irrelevant to the planned procedure.

The USPST updated its review on lung cancer screening utilizing RTCs and cohort studies.  One trial reported that screening resulted in important reductions in cancer and all-cause mortality.  Three trials reported no benefit but were underpowered.  They conclude that screening offers benefit but is associated with potential harm that must be taken into consideration.