Li Li

IMPORTANCE: Lung cancer is the second most common cancer and the leading cause of cancer death in the US. In 2020, an estimated 228 820 persons were diagnosed with lung cancer, and 135 720 persons died of the disease. The most important risk factor for lung cancer is smoking. Increasing age is also a risk factor for lung cancer. Lung cancer has a generally poor prognosis, with an overall 5-year survival rate of 20.5%. However, early-stage lung cancer has a better prognosis and is more amenable to treatment. OBJECTIVE: To update its 2013 recommendation, the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) commissioned a systematic review on the accuracy of screening for lung cancer with low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) and on the benefits and harms of screening for lung cancer and commissioned a collaborative modeling study to provide information about the optimum age at which to begin and end screening, the optimal screening interval, and the relative benefits and harms of different screening strategies compared with modified versions of multivariate risk prediction models. POPULATION: This recommendation statement applies to adults aged 50 to 80 years who have a 20 pack-year smoking history and currently smoke or have quit within the past 15 years. EVIDENCE ASSESSMENT: The USPSTF concludes with moderate certainty that annual screening for lung cancer with LDCT has a moderate net benefit in persons at high risk of lung cancer based on age, total cumulative exposure to tobacco smoke, and years since quitting smoking. RECOMMENDATION: The USPSTF recommends annual screening for lung cancer with LDCT in adults aged 50 to 80 years who have a 20 pack-year smoking history and currently smoke or have quit within the past 15 years. Screening should be discontinued once a person has not smoked for 15 years or develops a health problem that substantially limits life expectancy or the ability or willingness to have curative lung surgery. (B recommendation) This recommendation replaces the 2013 USPSTF statement that recommended annual screening for lung cancer with LDCT in adults aged 55 to 80 years who have a 30 pack-year smoking history and currently smoke or have quit within the past 15 years.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the prognostic value of variables including nodal size, level, laterality, extranodal neoplastic spread (ENS), and necrosis in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and further explore the feasibility of an N-staging system using Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) guidelines for lymph node levels based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: The MRI scans of 924 patients with histologically diagnosed nondisseminated NPC were reviewed retrospectively. The distribution of the tumors was mapped using RTOG guidelines and laterality. The multiplicity of each tumor was calculated, as well as the size and status of ENS and the necrosis of individual nodes. RESULTS: Nodal level, cervical lymph node laterality, and ENS were independent prognostic factors for disease failure and distant failure in multivariate analyses. There was no significant difference in the hazard ratios (HR) for distant failure between level II and retropharyngeal, level Ib, level V, or level III involvement, whereas patients with level IV and supraclavicular fossa involvement had a significant increase in HRs. The subsets that made up a given N stage group had similar HRs for distant failure. Both the HRs for disease failure and distant failure by the proposed N staging system between one stage and the next were statistically significant (P < 0.05). The survival curves of disease-free survival and distant metastasis-free survival for all subclassifications of N stage showed significant difference from the adjacent stage (P < 0.05). The overall distribution pattern of the proposed N staging was more equitable than that of the 6th American Joint Committee on Cancer N staging. CONCLUSIONS: Nodal variables including level, cervical lymph node laterality, and ENS are independent prognostic factors for NPC. The proposed N staging system of NPC using RTOG guidelines based on MRI is highly predictive and may provide a more objective method for staging NPCs.

PURPOSE: To investigate the incidence, prognostic value, and staging categories of retropharyngeal lymph node (RLN) metastasis in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: We did a retrospective review of the data from 749 biopsy-proved nonmetastatic NPC patients. All patients had undergone contrast-enhanced computed tomography and had radiotherapy as their primary treatment. RESULTS: The incidence of RLN metastasis was 51.5%. After adjusting for tumor (T) and node (N) classifications, a borderline significant difference of distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) rates was observed between patients with or without RLN metastasis. In N(0) disease, the presence of RLN metastasis was a significant independent predictor for overall survival (OS), loco-regional relapse-free survival, and DMFS in multivariate Cox modeling analysis. No significant difference was observed in all end points between patients with unilateral and bilateral RLN metastasis. The hazard ratios of death and distant failure for N(0) with RLN metastasis were similar to N(1). The survival curve of OS and DMFS for N(0) disease with RLN metastasis had approximated that of N(1) disease. The survival curve of OS for T(1) disease with RLN metastasis was approximately the same as T(2) disease. However, the survival curve of DMFS for T(1) disease with RLN metastasis was approximately the same as in T(3) disease. CONCLUSIONS: RLN metastasis has a tendency to affect the DMFS rates of patients with NPC. Retropharyngeal node involvement has a negative effect on the prognosis of N(0) disease. RLN metastasis should be classified as N(1).

BACKGROUND: The study was conducted to evaluate the performance of a state-of-the-art commercial deep learning-based computer-aided diagnosis (DL-CAD) system for detecting and characterizing pulmonary nodules. METHODS: Pulmonary nodules in 346 healthy subjects (male: female = 221:125, mean age 51 years) from a lung cancer screening program conducted from March to November 2017 were screened using a DL-CAD system and double reading independently, and their performance in nodule detection and characterization were evaluated. An expert panel combined the results of the DL-CAD system and double reading as the reference standard. RESULTS: The DL-CAD system showed a higher detection rate than double reading, regardless of nodule size (86.2% vs. 79.2%; P < 0.001): nodules ≥ 5 mm (96.5% vs. 88.0%; P = 0.008); nodules < 5 mm (84.3% vs. 77.5%; P < 0.001). However, the false positive rate (per computed tomography scan) of the DL-CAD system (1.53, 529/346) was considerably higher than that of double reading (0.13, 44/346; P < 0.001). Regarding nodule characterization, the sensitivity and specificity of the DL-CAD system for distinguishing solid nodules > 5 mm (90.3% and 100.0%, respectively) and ground-glass nodules (100.0% and 96.1%, respectively) were close to that of double reading, but dropped to 55.5% and 93%, respectively, when discriminating part solid nodules. CONCLUSION: Our DL-CAD system detected significantly more nodules than double reading. In the future, false positive findings should be further reduced and characterization accuracy improved.