The local control effect of esophagectomy with three-field lymph node dissection (3FLD) is reaching its limit pending technical advancement. Minimally invasive esophagectomy (MIE) by thoracotomy is slowly gaining acceptance due to advantages in short-term outcomes. Although the evidence is slowly increasing, MIE is still controversial. Also, the results of treatment by surgery alone are limiting, and multimodality therapy, which includes surgical and non-surgical treatment options including chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and endoscopic treatment, has become the mainstream therapy. Esophagectomy after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) is the standard treatment for clinical stages II/III (except for T4) esophageal cancer, whereas chemoradiotherapy (CRT) is regarded as the standard treatment for patients who wish to preserve their esophagus, those who refuse surgery, and those with inoperable disease. CRT is also usually selected for clinical stage IV esophageal cancer. On the other hand, with the spread of CRT, salvage esophagectomy has traditionally been recognized as a feasible option; however, many clinicians oppose the use of surgery due to the associated unfavorable morbidity and mortality profile. In the future, the improvement of each treatment result and the establishment of individual strategies are important although esophageal cancer has many treatment options.

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Purpose: solitary fibrous tumors (SFT) represent a heterogeneous group of primary pleural neoplasms with a low incidence rate and of which the biological origin, which consists of mesenchymal cells, is uncertain.

Methods: The authors present herewith a retrospective analysis of 22 patients with SFTs who were diagnosed and surgically treated between the years 2000–2015. The preoperative tumors were successfully verified morphologically by transthoracic core needle biopsy under CT control in 27.3% of patients. Surgical approaches were either posterolateral thoracotomy or videothoracoscopy. The follow-up median was 45 months (range 1–188 months).

Results: Twenty tumors were surgically removed radically, two tumors were found to be unresectable due to the considerable tumor size. From histological point of view 81.8% of tumors were SFT with low malignant potential, 18.2% of tumors with high malignant potential. Despite the radical extirpation of the SFT, it relapsed in two patients.

Conclusion: The gold standard of SFT treatment is radical surgical removal; however, patients at risk of recurrence require additional follow-ups. The results of adjuvant therapy in recurrent and malignant forms of SFTs are the subject of discussion and further study.

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Introduction: The efficacy of platinum-based adjuvant chemotherapy (PBAC) for pathological stage II and stage III squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the lung was analyzed retrospectively.

Materials and Methods: The prognoses of 94 patients with stage II and stage III SCC with or without PBAC (more than three courses of cisplatin-, carboplatin-, and nedaplatin-based adjuvant chemotherapy) were compared.

Results: The mean observation period was 46.1 months. PBAC was not administered for the following reasons: 39 (55.7%) patients had comorbidities, 25 (35.7%) were older than 75 years, 19 (27.1%) patients underwent surgery before the approval of PBAC, and 3 (4.3%) patients could not continue PBAC (≤2 cycles) because of adverse events. PBAC patients (n = 24) were significantly younger than non-PBAC patients (n = 70; 66.3 vs 69.6 years old, respectively; p = 0.043). Disease-free survival (DFS) did not differ between PBAC and non-PBAC patients (55.0% and 67.1%, respectively; p = 0.266). PBAC patients tended to have worse overall survival (OS) than non-PBAC patients (56.1% and 70.2%, respectively; p = 0.138). PBAC was not prognostic for OS (hazard ratio (HR), 2.11; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.82%–5.40%; p = 0.120).

Conclusion: PBAC did not improve the prognoses of patients with pathological stage II or stage III SCC in the single institution experience.

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Purpose: We performed a retrospective analysis to evaluate the usefulness of positron-emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) findings in the classification and management of anterior mediastinal tumors.

Methods: Between 2006 and 2015, 105 patients with anterior mediastinal tumor received PET/CT. ¹⁸F-fluorodeoxyglucose (¹⁸F-FDG)-PET images were obtained 60 minutes after the injection of ¹⁸F-FDG.

Results: The histological classifications were as follows: thymoma (n = 49), thymic carcinoma (TC) (n = 19), malignant lymphoma (ML) (n = 8), teratoma (n = 7), thymic cyst (n = 14), and others (n = 8). Upon visual inspection (SUV max: >2.0), all of the malignant tumors showed ¹⁸F-FDG accumulation (with the exception of one type A thymoma). Two of the 14 thymic cysts and three of the seven teratomas showed slight ¹⁸F-FDG accumulation. The SUV max values of the low-grade thymomas, high-grade thymomas, TCs and MLs were 3.14 ± 0.73, 4.34 ± 1.49, 8.59 ± 3.05, and 10.08 ± 2.53, respectively, with significant differences between the low- and high-grade thymomas, and between TCs and MLs. The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of ¹⁸F-FDG in the detection of low-grade thymomas and thymomas with a maximum diameter of ≤50 mm and an SUV max of ≤3.4 were 85%, 48%, and 60%, respectively.

Conclusion: FDG-PET/CT is an objective and useful modality in the differential diagnosis and management of anterior mediastinal tumors.

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A 45-year-old man had an abnormal shadow in the right lung field on an annual screening chest X-ray. He was diagnosed with Stage IA (cT1bN0M0) lung cancer. Initially, we did not notice an anomalous vein on non-contrast computed tomography. However, we found that the right upper lobe bronchus branched from the lateral wall of the right main bronchial orifice, above the level of the common right upper lobe bronchus. Therefore, the bronchus was thought to be a tracheal bronchus. We carefully reevaluated the patient using three-dimensional computed tomography angiography. This technique showed that the anomalous right superior pulmonary vein drained into the azygos vein along the superior vena cava. These findings confirmed a partial anomalous pulmonary venous connection of the right upper lobe. We performed video-assisted thoracoscopic right upper lobectomy and mediastinal lymph node dissection for definitive treatment for lung cancer and partial anomalous pulmonary venous connection. No hemodynamic problems occurred in the postoperative course.

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A 34-year-old male with frequent recurrence of right pneumothorax was admitted to our hospital. He was a current smoker and outwardly male without genital aplasia. He was diagnosed as tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) at 2 year-old and underwent transcatheter arterial embolization for right renal hemorrhage due to renal tumor 2 years ago. Chest Computed Tomography showed that he had multiple tiny round cystic lesions with thin wall in both lungs. The recurrent pneumothorax was expected to be associated with TSC-Lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM). Video-assisted thoracic surgery was successfully performed. The operative and histological findings revealed that the bullae were classified into two groups; emphysematous bullae and bullae due to LAM. His postoperative course was uneventful. TSC-LAM is extremely rare, but in some cases the clinical recognition might be escaped due to subtle findings of bullae in early LAM, resulting in diagnosis as spontaneous pneumothorax.

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A 37-year-old woman underwent bilateral lung transplantation for lymphangioleiomyomatosis. Dense pleural adhesions due to past pleurodesis for chylothorax were observed and dissected in both thoracic cavities. The patient developed chylothorax after transplant. Chylothorax in the right thoracic cavity was successfully treated by conventional pleurodesis; however, pleural effusion from the left thoracic cavity was not reduced. According to fluoroscopic images obtained by injecting a contrast medium through the chest tube, the remaining pleural space in the left thoracic cavity was small and localized in the lower region adjacent to the mediastinum. We opted to fill this space with fibrin glue; we injected fibrinogen and thrombin solution into the space through the chest tube. We performed fibrin glue treatment three times and pleural effusion was dramatically decreased. We removed the chest tube on day 107 post-transplant. No recurrent chylothorax has been recorded for 10 years after lung transplantation.

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Minimally invasive cardiac surgeries for aortic valve replacement (AVR) are still a technical challenge for surgeons because these procedures are undertaken through small incisions and deep surgical fields. Although AVR via vertical infraaxillary thoracotomy can be a cosmetically superior option, a disadvantage of this approach is the distance between the thoracotomy incision and the ascending aorta. Therefore, we devised a technique to perform all manipulations using the fingertips without the aid of a knot pusher or long-shafted surgical instruments. This was achieved by particular placement of several retracted sutures to the right chest wall. We named placement of these sutures the “Stonehenge technique.” In conclusion, AVR via vertical infraaxillary thoracotomy with our Stonehenge technique can be safely and simply performed with superior cosmetic advantages.

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