The Past, Present and Future of Pulmonary Metastasectomy: A Review Article.

Pulmonary metastases are a sign of advanced malignancy and an omen of poor prognosis. Once primary tumors metastasize, they become notoriously difficult to treat and interdisciplinary management often involves a combination of chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgery. Over the last 25 years, the emerging body of evidence has recognized the curative potential of pulmonary metastasectomy. Surgical resection of pulmonary metastases is now commonly considered for patients with controlled primary disease, absence of widely disseminated extrapulmonary disease, completely resectable lung metastases, sufficient cardiopulmonary reserve, and lack of a better alternative systemic therapy. Since the development of these selection criteria, other prognostic factors have been proposed to better predict survival and optimize the selection of surgical candidates. Disease-free interval (DFI), completeness of resection, surgical approach, number and laterality of lung metastases, and lymph node metastases all play a dynamic role in determining patient outcomes. There is a definite need to continue reviewing these prognosticators to identify patients who will benefit most from pulmonary metastasectomy and those who should avoid unnecessary loss of lung parenchyma. This literature review aims to explore and synthesize the last 25 years of evidence on the long-term survival, prognostic factors, and patient selection process for pulmonary metastasectomy.

Predominant histologic subtype in lung adenocarcinoma predicts benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy in completely resected patients: discovery of a holy grail?

The recently published 2015 World Health Organisation (WHO) classification of lung tumors, which is based on the 2011 International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC)/American Thoracic Society (ATS)/European Respiratory Society (ATS) multidisciplinary classification, recommends diagnosis of resected lung adenocarcinoma according to the predominant histologic subtype. This has been shown to correlate with overall and disease-free survival (DFS) in many studies from four continents. Now classification according to predominant histologic subtype has been demonstrated to predict benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy in a subset of patients with completely resected lung adenocarcinoma previously included in the International Adjuvant Lung Cancer Trial (IALT), JBR.10, Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) 9633 and Adjuvant Navelbine International Trialist Association 01 (ANITA) adjuvant chemotherapy trials, all of which were part of the LACE-Bio study. This "hot-off-the press" landmark investigation further cements the clinical importance of classification of resected lung adenocarcinoma according to predominant histologic subtype and suggests that it could be a critical factor for patient stratification in future clinical trials.

The promise of lung master protocol for squamous cell carcinoma: one trial to rule them all, one trial to find them ?

The recently initiated lung master protocol (Lung-MAP) trial provides hope that the successes of targeted molecular therapy in lung adenocarcinoma can be extended to squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). It also is a template for rapid translation of clinical research through regulatory approval to clinical practice. This is vital in cancers with multiple possible oncogenic genomic aberrations, for which clinical trials would be too costly and impractical to conduct for individual targets making up less than 10% of cases.