The postoperative symptom burden in patients with lung cancer is severe and adversely impairs their quality of life. Symptom management is the cornerstone of medical care. Patient-reported outcome (PRO)-based symptom management is being increasingly recognized as the best "patient-centered care" model in clinical practice. However, the precise implementation of this model in patients undergoing lung cancer surgery is hindered by the lack of a lung cancer surgery-specific scale, implementation standards, clinical application parameters and high-quality researches. The use of a precise and simple PRO scale and an electronic PRO platform may greatly improve the feasibility of implementing this model. Currently, the application of PRO-based symptom management in lung cancer surgery is still being explored and needs to be improved in clinical research and practice.
Survival prognosis in patients with terminal cancer plays an important role in clinical decision-making, policy formulation, and end-stage patient with relatives. To date, foreign researchers have developed multiple survival prediction models based on patient clinical performance, biomarkers and other indicators, along with a large number of studies which have been externally verified, including Palliative Performance Scale (PPS), Palliative Prognostic Score (PaP), Delirium-Palliative Prognostic Score (D-PaP), and Palliative Prognostic Index (PPI), etc. China's research on this topic remains in the primary stage. Therefore, this article reviews the prognostic factors of terminal cancer and survival prediction models as well as applications, in order to provide references for the subsequent construction of survival prediction models for patients with terminal cancer in line with Chinese characteristics.
Patient-reported outcome (PRO) has been paid increasing attention in lung cancer surgery. It has gradually become an important outcome indicator in clinical research of lung cancer surgery and an important tool for symptom management. Commonly used lung cancer-specific PRO measurement tools include: Lung Cancer Symptom Scale, European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer-Core Quality of Life Questionnaire and Lung Cancer module, Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Lung, MD Anderson Symptom Inventory-Lung Cancer module, Postoperative Symptom Scale for Lung Cancer Patients, and Perioperative Symptom Assessment for Lung Surgery. The application of lung cancer-specific scales lacks authoritative implementation norms in the field of lung cancer surgery in terms of scale selection, data collection, and outcome application. This review aimed to analyze the current status of application of PRO scales in lung cancer surgery.
ObjectiveTo investigate the characteristic volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in exhaled breath and their diagnostic value in patients with early stage lung cancer.MethodsSolid-phase micro-extraction combined with gas chromatography mass spectrometry was used to analyze exhaled breath VOCs of 117 patients with early stage lung cancer (54 males and 63 females, with an average age of 61.9±6.8 years) and 130 healthy subjects (79 males and 51 females, with an average age of 63.3±6.6 years. The characteristic VOCs of early stage lung cancer were identified, and a diagnostic model was established.ResultsTen characteristic VOCs of early stage lung cancer were identified, including acetic acid, n-butanol, dimethylsilanol, toluene, 2,3,4-trimethylheptane, 3,4-dimethylbenzoic acid, 5-methyl-3-hexene-2-ketone, n-hexanol, methyl 2-oxoglutarate and 4-methoxyphenol. Gender and the 10 characteristic VOCs were included in the diagnostic model, with a sensitivity of 83.8% and a specificity of 96.2%.ConclusionAnalysis of exhaled breath VOCs is expected to be one of the potential methods used for early stage lung cancer diagnosis.
Objective To analyze the clinicopathological characteristics of thymoma patients and the influencing factors for prognosis. Methods Thymoma patients who received treatment in Sichuan Cancer Hospital from March 2015 to March 2021 were collected. Clinical data of the patients were analyzed using Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression analyses. Results A total of 177 patients were included. There were 89 males and 88 females aged 17-88 (52.3±13.0) years, including 160 surgical patients and 17 non-surgical patients. There were 160 patients survived, 17 died of thymoma, and 5 had recurrence and metastasis. Overall, the 1-year, 3-year and 5-year progression-free survival rates were 94.4%, 88.7%, 88.1%, respectively; the 1-year, 3-year and 5-year overall survival rates were 94.9%, 91.5%, 91.0%, respectively. The Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that World Health Organization classification, clinical symptoms, Masaoka-Koga staging, treatment methods and surgery were statistically associated with progression-free survival; clinical symptoms, age, treatment methods and surgery were statistically associated with overall survival (P<0.05). Patients with younger age (P=0.018), without clinical symptoms (P=0.039), and with surgical treatment (P=0.004) had higher overall survival rates; those patients undergoing surgery had a higher progression-free survival rate (P=0.002). Conclusion Age, clinical symptoms and surgical treatment are independent factors influencing the prognosis of patients with thymoma.
Objective To analyse the consistency of perioperative self-reported pain scores of lung cancer patients with clinical records to provide a basis for optimal pain management. MethodsThe patients with lung cancer who underwent surgical treatment in the Department of Thoracic Surgery, Sichuan Cancer Hospital from November 2017 to January 2020 were selected. They were divided into two groups based on the source of pain data. The self-report group used a questionnaire in which patients self-reported their pain scores, and the pain scores for the clinical record group were extracted from the electronic medical record system. Kappa test was used to compare the concordance of pain scores between the two groups preoperatively, on postoperative 1-6 days and on the day of discharge. McNemar's paired χ2 test was used to compare the differences in pain intensity levels between the two groups. Binary logistic multi-factor regression was used to analyse the factors influencing the concordance of severe pain (7-10 points) between the two groups. Results Totally 354 patients were collected, including 191 males and 163 females, with an average age of 55.64±10.34 years. The median postoperative hospital stay was 6 days. The consistency of pain scores between the two groups was poor (Kappa=–0.035 to 0.262, P<0.05), and the distribution of pain levels at each time point was inconsistent and statistically significant (P<0.001). The percentage of inconsistent severe pain assessment ranged from 0.28% to 35.56%, with the highest percentage of inconsistent severe pain assessment on postoperative day 1 (35.56%). Single-port thoracoscopic surgical access was an influencing factor for inconsistent assessment of severe pain on postoperative day 3 (OR=2.571, P=0.005). Conclusion Self-reported perioperative pain scores of lung cancer patients are poorly aligned with clinical records. Clinical measures are needed to improve the accuracy of patient pain data reporting by choosing the correct assessment method, increasing education, and developing effective quality control measures.
ObjectiveTo investigate the preoperative symptom burden and quality of life of patients undergoing lung cancer surgery.MethodsThis study was a cross-sectional study. We used the MD Anderson Symptom Inventory-lung cancer module (MDASI-LC) and the single-item quality of life scale (UNISCALE) to collect the preoperative patient-reported outcomes of 265 patients with lung cancer from November 2017 to July 2019 in Sichuan Cancer Hospital.ResultsOf 265 patients, 90.9% had preoperative symptoms. The five most common symptoms were coughing (66.8%), dry mouth (53.6%), memory problems (52.8%), disturbed sleep (52.1%) and fatigue (44.2%). The five most common moderate to severe symptoms were disturbed sleep (23.0%), distress (18.5%), memory problems (16.6%), coughing (16.2%) and dry mouth (16.2%). Patients with early-stage lung cancer had less pain, fatigue, shortness of breath, lack of appetite, numbness and coughing, and their symptoms had less impact on work (including housework), relations with other people, walking and enjoyment of life as well as better quality of life before surgery (P<0.05). Patients with adenocarcinoma had milder coughing and a better quality of life before surgery (P<0.05). Symptom score was positively correlated with symptom interference with life score (r=0.66, P<0.01) and negatively correlated with quality of life score (r=-0.41, P<0.01).ConclusionMost patients undergoing lung cancer surgery have a mild symptom burden before surgery. The most common and severe symptoms are coughing, dry mouth, lung cancer and disturbed sleep. Patients with early-stage lung cancer have a milder symptom burden and a better quality of life.
ObjectiveTo investigate the predictive value of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) on pulmonary nodules in people aged less than 50 years.MethodsThe 147 patients with pulmonary nodules and aged less than 50 years who were treated in the Department of Thoracic Surgery of Sichuan Cancer Hospital from August 1, 2019 to January 15, 2020 were divided into a lung cancer group and a lung benign disease group. The lung cancer group included 36 males and 68 females, with the age of 27-49 (43.54±5.73) years. The benign lung disease group included 23 males and 20 females, with the age of 22-49 (42.49±6.83) years. Clinical data and exhaled breath samples were collected prospectively from the two groups. Exhaled breath VOCs were analyzed by gas chromatography mass spectrometry. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to select variables and establish a prediction model. The sensitivity, specificity, and area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of the prediction model were calculated.ResultsThere were statistically significant differences in sex (P=0.034), smoking history (P=0.047), cyclopentane (P=0.002), 3-methyl pentane (P=0.043) and ethylbenzene (P=0.009) between the two groups. The sensitivity, specificity and area under the ROC curve of the prediction model with gender, cyclopentane, 3-methyl pentane, ethylbenzene and N,N-dimethylformamide as variables were 80.8%, 60.5% and 0.781, respectively.ConclusionThe combination of VOCs and clinical characteristics has a certain predictive value for the benign and malignant pulmonary nodules in people aged less than 50 years.
A team with strong cohesion and high execution is an important guarantee for conducting high-quality and sustainable clinical researches. Combined with the previous literature and the author’s view, this paper summarizes the key points of team building, which include a clear research direction, a balanced composition of team members, an outstanding team leader, the competence enhancement of team members, and a member-oriented management philosophy. Clear research direction is the premise of the existence and development of a team. Multi-level, multi-disciplinary membership can avoid potential conflicts of interest caused by homogeneity, and enable research to be refined and strengthened in interdisciplinary collisions. Team leader is the key to team development. The enhancement of team members’ competence is the cornerstone of team development. Adherence to member-oriented principle can form a true team culture. This paper aims to summarize and analyze the key points of clinical research team construction for peer reference.
ObjectiveTo investigate the use of opioid analgesics during the postoperative hospitalization in patients undergoing lung resection and analyse its influencing factors.MethodsThe clinical data of 450 patients undergoing lung resection in Sichuan Cancer Hospital among a multicenter symptom research database (CN-PRO-Lung 1) between November 2017 and January 2020 were analyzed. There were 248 males and 202 females with an average age of 54.7±10.3 years.ResultsA total of 448 (99.6%) patients used opioid analgesics. The average daily morphine equivalent dose during the postoperative hospitalization was 48.9 mg. There were statistical differences in postoperative morphine equivalent dose across patients with different sex, age, highest level of education, Charlson Comorbidity Index score, surgical approach, surgical type, operative time, postoperative hospital stay and grade of postoperative complications (all P<0.05). Multivariate analysis showed that sex, surgical approach and postoperative hospital stay were independent influencing factors for morphine use during the postoperative hospitalization in patients undergoing lung resection (all P<0.05).ConclusionIn clinical practice, attention should be paid to postoperative pain for male patients, as well as to promote the application of minimally invasive surgery, and to shorten the length of postoperative hospital stay, in order to ultimately reduce the use of opioids.