Feature Channels: Respiratory Diseases and Disorders

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

To compare the outcomes of patients receiving lungs transplanted after undergoing ex vivo lung perfusion (EVLP) versus those transplanted conventionally at the Toronto General Hospital, Aadil Ali, PhD, and coauthors looked at 14 years of data from the Toronto Lung Transplant Database.

• share
• favorite_border

In 2011, Makoto Suzuki, MD, and a team of associates from across Japan embarked on a long-term study of the safety and efficacy of sublobar resections for ground-glass opacity–dominant (GGO) peripheral lung cancer.

• share
• favorite_border

Among the questions that cancer patients ask following their surgeries are, “Will it come back? Do I need additional treatment?”

• share
• favorite_border

Lung transplantation is routinely performed at night because of the unpredictability of donor organ procurement. Late start-times for complex operations such as lung transplantation have been associated with adverse outcomes.

• share
• favorite_border

The American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS) is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion. A wealth of data has shown that diversity in the physician workforce improves patient care, safety, physician well-being, and innovation; and fair compensation is essential to culturing a diverse workforce.

• share
• favorite_border

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have rumbled through every piece of society, and nowhere more dramatically than in the medical communities.

• share
• favorite_border

Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer-related deaths in North America. Although cigarette smoking remains the main risk factor for lung cancer development, the importance of environmental factors such as pollution and poor air quality is becoming increasingly recognized.

• share
• favorite_border

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) has announced that Claire M. Fraser, PhD, the Dean E. Albert Reece Endowed Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM), and the Founding Director of the Institute for Genome Sciences (IGS), has been elected as a new member of the prestigious academy.

• share
• favorite_border

Secondary bacterial infection of the lung (pneumonia) was extremely common in patients with COVID-19, affecting almost half the patients who required support from mechanical ventilation.

• share
• favorite_border

A new study, published in IOP Publishing’s journal Environmental Research: Health, reveals that Indigenous people in the Amazon Basin are twice as likely to die prematurely from smoke exposure due to wildfires than the broader South American population.

• share
• favorite_border

University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) Dean Mark T. Gladwin, MD, announced today that Bradley A. Maron, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine at Brigham & Women’s Hospital (BWH) and Harvard Medical School (HMS), and Co-Director of the Pulmonary Vascular Disease Center at the VA Boston Healthcare System, has been appointed Co-Director of the UMB’s new Institute for Health Computing (UM-IHC), Director of Scientific Operations for the UM-IHC at UMSOM, as well as Senior Associate Dean for Precision Medicine at the UMSOM, effective May 1, 2023.

• share
• favorite_border

AACC has issued expert guidance on clinical testing for procalcitonin, a blood marker that helps detect serious bacterial infections and sepsis. By giving clinicians and laboratory professionals much-needed clarity on how to best use procalcitonin tests, the new guidelines could improve the treatment of critically ill patients and those with certain lower respiratory infections.

• share
• favorite_border

Physician-scientist Paul Noble, MD, chair of the Department of Medicine at Cedars-Sinai, was named president-elect of the Association of American Physicians (AAP) at the group's annual meeting in Chicago on April 22.

• share
• favorite_border

For millions of Americans that suffer from seasonal allergies (pollen and mold), climate change is exacerbating an earlier, longer, and overall worse allergy season.

• share
• favorite_border

Throughout the American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS) Annual Meeting, taking place May 6-9 in Los Angeles, experts from the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai will be available to discuss advances and innovations in cardiothoracic surgery.

• share
• favorite_border

Get a sneak-peak at what’s coming up at the ATS 2023 later this month with today’s online release of the “American Thoracic Society International Conference Abstracts.”

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Lecturers of the Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, Chulalongkorn University have developed MTB Strip Test Kit for Tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis that’s accurate and easy to use, guaranteed by the 2023 Invention Award from the National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT) — Another hope to reduce the spread of tuberculosis in Thailand.

• share
• favorite_border

One of the most highly-anticipated events at the ATS 2023 International Conference, which kicks off May 19, is the “Breaking News: Clinical Trial Results in Pulmonary Medicine.” Taking place on Monday, May 22, the series of presentations will focus on the latest regarding COPD and asthma treatment.

• share
• favorite_border

Post-COVID interstitial lung disease (ILD) is a relatively unknown disease, making it important to understand the resources and treatment options available for those affected by the disease.

• share
• favorite_border

A new clinical guideline from the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) and European Society for Radiotherapy & Oncology (ESTRO) provides guidance on the use of definitive local therapy—including radiation and surgery—to treat patients with oligometastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The guideline is published in Practical Radiation Oncology.

• share
• favorite_border

A new approach to chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR T) therapy has shown great promise against small cell lung cancer (SCLC) in a preclinical study. The findings cover new ground in our understanding of how CAR T can be employed against solid-tumor cancers, and provide support for further studies in cancer patients.

• share
• favorite_border

The FLASH (FlowTriever All-Comer Registry for Patient Safety and Hemodynamics) study results were published recently in EuroIntervention, the journal of the European Association of Percutaneous Coronary Interventions, with interim results published earlier in 2022 in Catheterization & Cardiovascular Interventions.

• share
• favorite_border

The Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation (PFF) today announced the launch of its annual PFF Walk series, a nationwide effort to raise funds and awareness for pulmonary fibrosis (PF) and interstitial lung disease (ILD). More than 250,000 Americans are living with PF and ILD, progressive diseases that cause inflammation, scarring, or both, that damage the lung’s ability to absorb oxygen from the air.

• share
• favorite_border

In a study conducted at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS), researchers found that the use of peripheral nerve blocks in total knee and total hip arthroplasty were associated with a consistent reduction in risk for postoperative complications in patients with a lower comorbidity burden. In particular, the most consistent reduction in risk of complications and use of hospital resources was in older patients with no comorbidity burden. These findings were presented at the 2023 Spring American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine (ASRA) Annual Meeting and were acknowledged as one of the President’s Choice Abstracts.1

• share
• favorite_border

Findings from a Cleveland Clinic-led study showed for patients with community-acquired pneumonia treated with intravenous (IV) antibiotics, earlier switching to oral antibiotics in clinically stable patients was associated with shorter duration of antibiotics and hospital stay.

• share
• favorite_border

Researcher will discuss the study which involved a sleeping aid known as suvorexant that is already approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for insomnia, hints at the potential of sleep medications to slow or stop the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have demonstrated in a preclinical study a potential new therapeutic approach to treating the most common form of lung cancer. The strategy involves inhibiting the immune-system molecule TREM2 while enhancing natural killer cells (the so-called protectors of the immune system). It was described in the April 20 online issue of Nature Immunology.

• share
• favorite_border

Cardiothoracic surgeons and cardiologists from the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai are available to discuss the latest advances in research, clinical care and surgery throughout the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT) Scientific Sessions 2023, taking place April 19-22 in Denver.

• share
• favorite_border

A new study led by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center discovered that co-occurring mutations in three tumor suppressor genes – KEAP1, SMARCA4 and CDKN2A – are linked with poor clinical outcomes in patients with KRAS G12C-mutant non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with the KRAS G12C inhibitors adagrasib or sotorasib.

• share
• favorite_border

A regimen of pre-surgical immunotherapy and chemotherapy followed by post-surgical immunotherapy significantly improved event-free survival (EFS) and pathologic complete response (pCR) rates compared to chemotherapy alone for patients with operable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to Phase III trial results presented today by researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2023.

• share
• favorite_border

Historically oppressed communities are faced with compounded health, economic and social injustices – with climate change making them worse.

• share
• favorite_border

Investigators from Cedars-Sinai Cancer are collaborating on a streamlined clinical trial design in a study called Pragmatica-Lung.

• share
• favorite_border

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Research Highlights showcases the latest breakthroughs in cancer care, research and prevention. These advances are made possible through seamless collaboration between MD Anderson’s world-leading clinicians and scientists, bringing discoveries from the lab to the clinic and back. This special edition features presentations by MD Anderson researchers at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2023.

• share
• favorite_border

New research from RUSH University reveals pathways to reducing organ injury caused by severe COVID-19 infection. What began as a study of how the common cold affected patients with certain types of kidney disease evolved to mitigating myocarditis, liver injury and severe kidney injury from COVID-19.

• share
• favorite_border

A study published April 11 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) evaluated two drugs that act on the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) as potential treatments for severe COVID-19. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes COVID-19, enters pulmonary and myocardial cells through binding of its spike protein to the human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). ACE2 is a vital enzyme that controls blood pressure and blood flow to multiple organs, including the lungs, heart and kidneys.