Latest Clinical & Research News
Specialty: Pulmonary & Thoracic Surgery
The landmark National Lung Screening Trial found that in high-risk individuals, low-dose CT (LDCT) screening reduced lung cancer mortality by 20 percent relative to chest X-ray. Nine years after those results were published, lung cancer remains by far the leading cause of cancer-related death. And yet, screening for this dangerous disease is lagging.
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For years, general thoracic surgery was largely associated with open procedures such as thoracotomy, sternotomy and laparotomy. Minimally invasive techniques have steadily gained traction since the early 1990s, particularly for smaller procedures like wedge resection and pleural biopsy.
Stage II non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) represents less than 10 percent of the approximately 234,000 cases of lung cancer diagnosed each year in the United States. Due to its relatively low incidence, not many papers have been published on stage II NSCLC. Furthermore, few clinicians have extensive experience treating it.
The Lung Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital hosts the largest, and one of only two, lung transplant programs in New England. Through its use of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), the center is improving the outlook for patients with end-stage lung disease who otherwise would be considered too sick for transplant.
About 24.7 million Americans live with asthma, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Patients with severe asthma comprise 10 to 15 percent of this figure, said pulmonologist Elliot Israel, MD, co-director of the Severe Asthma Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. And yet, he added, caring for this segment of asthma patients accounts for over half the cost of asthma care.
As part of its care package for patients with advanced emphysema, the Lung Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital offers a minimally invasive procedure to place one-way endobronchial valves into the airways of a diseased lobe. The valves offer the symptom relief of lung reduction without the risks of surgery.
Edwin Silverman, MD, PhD, is a pioneer in studying how genetics impact COPD risk. His team, which includes leading researchers such as Craig Hersh, MD, MPH; Dawn DeMeo, MD, MPH; Michael Cho, MD, MPH; Peter Castaldi, MD; and Xiaobo Zhou, PhD, generated findings that could have profound implications for the future of COPD treatment.
The first-time patient at the Center for LAM Research and Clinical Care at Brigham and Women’s Hospital was typical: A female in her 30s, she had experienced dyspnea on exertion, unusual chest discomfort and fatigue for years. The otherwise healthy former athlete had seen multiple physicians, who ruled out cardiac issues and prescribed asthma meds, but symptoms persisted. When a CT scan was ordered for a suspected pulmonary embolus, none was found. But the scan revealed the real problem: Lung destruction that is characteristic of lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM). Read More
Motor disorders of the esophagus present a rare but serious challenge. But experience with Per-Oral Endoscopic Myotomy in the comprehensive esophageal practice at the Lung Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital is showing benefits for its initial use in achalasia and for other motor disorders.
Jon O. Wee, MD, the section chief for esophageal surgery and co-director of minimally invasive thoracic surgery in the Division of Thoracic Surgery, was an early adopter of POEM and one of the first in New England to perform the procedure. He has performed more than 60 POEM procedures at Brigham and Women’s since 2013.
How can clinicians in the office setting identify non-smoking patients who are at risk of lung cancer – and therefore may be candidates for low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) imaging?
That question has been a focus of Michael Jaklitsch, MD, a thoracic surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center. Jaklitsch is a long-time leader of initiatives and research in lung cancer screening and surveillance and co-creator of an online risk calculator. Read More
