EML4-ALK-positive lung adenocarcinoma has a tendency to express a characteristic morphological pattern. The combined use of morphological feature analysis and immunohistochemistry may be a useful and cost effective screening method for EML4-ALK lung adenocarcinoma.

Although it is known that the lung undergoes compensatory growth after pulmonary resection, mechanisms by which lung cells exhibit compensatory proliferation are not well defined. We investigated the involvement of hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) in postpneumonectomy compensatory lung regeneration in mice, because HGF has mitogenic and morphogenic actions on lung epithelial cells. Following left pneumonectomy, alveolar and airway epithelial cells underwent compensatory DNA synthesis, reaching maximal levels 5 d after the surgery. Before changes in DNA synthesis in lung epithelial cells, expression of HGF mRNA and protein levels in the remaining lung, liver, and kidney were changed in response to left pneumonectomy, and these changes were associated with postoperative increases in plasma HGF levels. c-Met/HGF receptor expression was localized predominantly in alveolar type II and airway epithelial cells, whereas c-Met/HGF receptor mRNA expressions were transiently upregulated before the peak in lung DNA synthesis. Neutralization of endogenous HGF by an antibody in pneumonectomized mice suppressed the compensatory DNA synthesis in lung epithelial cells, whereas administration of recombinant HGF to pneumonectomized mice stimulated DNA synthesis in lung epithelial cells. These results strongly suggest that HGF has a role as a pulmotrophic factor in postpneumonectomy compensatory lung regeneration.

Our findings indicate that the intermediate-term oncologic outcomes after VATS thymectomy for early-stage thymoma are as favorable as outcomes after open thymectomy. Further follow-up is still required to evaluate the long-term outcomes after VATS thymectomy.

Our trial regarding the choice of total or partial thymectomy in thoracoscopic surgery for thymomas yielded acceptable results that warrant further investigations into long-term survival and recurrence after longer-term observation of patients undergoing these procedures.

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Celsior provides better lung preservation than EC or UW as demonstrated by increased oxygenation, decreased capillary permeability, and improved lung compliance, particularly at 12-hr storage times. These results are highly relevant, inasmuch as EC and UW are the most common clinically used lung preservation solutions. Further studies of Celsior in experimental and clinical lung transplantation, as well as in other solid organs, are indicated.

A non-small-cell lung cancer without distant metastases was incidentally found in a 77-year-old man who had suffered from myasthenia gravis (MG) without thymoma. The patient's condition was stabilized by oral pyridostigmine bromide which he had taken during the past 6 years. He simultaneously underwent thymectomy and left lower lobectomy with regional lymph node dissection. Although postoperative myasthenic crisis occurred, mechanical ventilation and intravenous steroid pulse relieved the patient and the symptoms improved thereafter. Cases of operable lung cancer with non-thymomatous MG have rarely been reported and the appropriate therapeutic strategy for such cases remains to be debated. Their causal association remains to be identified, whereas some studies have implied that immune disorder due to the abnormal thymus might possibly enhance the oncogenesis of extrathymic malignancies. Myasthenic crisis should also be taken into account in postoperative management of MG patients who simultaneously undergo thymectomy and lobectomy for synchronous lung cancer.

The prognosis of patients with TNET was favourable in those treated with macroscopic complete resection. Survival is promising even in patients with postoperative recurrence, following treatment utilized for pulmonary neuroendocrine tumour or gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumour.