The Biological Role of Pleural Fluid PAI-1 and Sonographic Septations in Pleural Infection: Analysis of a Prospectively Collected Clinical Outcome Study.

Rationale: Sonographic septations are assumed to be important clinical predictors of outcome in pleural infection, but the evidence for this is sparse. The inflammatory and fibrinolysis-associated intrapleural pathway(s) leading to septation formation have not been studied in a large cohort of pleural fluid (PF) samples with confirmed pleural infection matched with ultrasound and clinical outcome data. Objectives: To assess the presence and severity of septations against baseline PF PAI-1 (Plasminogen-Activator Inhibitor-1) and other inflammatory and fibrinolysis-associated proteins as well as to correlate these with clinically important outcomes. Methods: We analyzed 214 pleural fluid samples from PILOT (Pleural Infection Longitudinal Outcome Study), a prospective observational pleural infection study, for inflammatory and fibrinolysis-associated proteins using the Luminex platform. Multivariate regression analyses were used to assess the association of pleural biological markers with septation presence and severity (on ultrasound) and clinical outcomes. Measurements and Main Results: PF PAI-1 was the only protein independently associated with septation presence (P < 0.001) and septation severity (P = 0.003). PF PAI-1 concentrations were associated with increased length of stay (P = 0.048) and increased 12-month mortality (P = 0.003). Sonographic septations alone had no relation to clinical outcomes. Conclusions: In a large and well-characterized cohort, this is the first study to associate pleural biological parameters with a validated sonographic septation outcome in pleural infection. PF PAI-1 is the first biomarker to demonstrate an independent association with mortality. Although PF PAI-1 plays an integral role in driving septation formation, septations themselves are not associated with clinically important outcomes. These novel findings now require prospective validation.

Osteopontin drives KRAS-mutant lung adenocarcinoma.

Increased expression of osteopontin (secreted phosphoprotein 1, SPP1) is associated with aggressive human lung adenocarcinoma (LADC), but its function remains unknown. Our aim was to determine the role of SPP1 in smoking-induced LADC. We combined mouse models of tobacco carcinogen-induced LADC, of deficiency of endogenous Spp1 alleles, and of adoptive pulmonary macrophage reconstitution to map the expression of SPP1 and its receptors and determine its impact during carcinogenesis. Co-expression of Spp1 and mutant KrasG12C in benign cells was employed to investigate SPP1/KRAS interactions in oncogenesis. Finally, intratracheal adenovirus encoding Cre recombinase was delivered to LSL.KRASG12D mice lacking endogenous or overexpressing transgenic Spp1 alleles. SPP1 was overexpressed in experimental and human LADC and portended poor survival. In response to two different smoke carcinogens, Spp1-deficient mice developed fewer and smaller LADC with decreased cellular survival and angiogenesis. Both lung epithelial- and macrophage-secreted SPP1 drove tumor-associated inflammation, while epithelial SPP1 promoted early tumorigenesis by fostering the survival of KRAS-mutated cells. Finally, loss and overexpression of Spp1 was, respectively, protective and deleterious for mice harboring KRASG12D-driven LADC. Our data support that SPP1 is functionally involved in early stages of airway epithelial carcinogenesis driven by smoking and mutant KRAS and may present an important therapeutic target.

Patient-derived malignant pleural mesothelioma cell cultures: a tool to advance biomarker-driven treatments.

Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is an aggressive cancer, associated with poor prognosis. We assessed the feasibility of patient-derived cell cultures to serve as an ex vivo model of MPM. Patient-derived MPM cell cultures (n=16) exhibited stemness features and reflected intratumour and interpatient heterogeneity. A subset of the cells were subjected to high-throughput drug screening and coculture assays with cancer-specific cytotoxic T cells and showed diverse responses. Some of the biphasic MPM cells were capable of processing and presenting the neoantigen SSX-2 endogenously. In conclusion, patient-derived MPM cell cultures are a promising and faithful ex vivo model of MPM.

Intercostal vessel screening prior to pleural interventions by the respiratory physician: a prospective study of real world practice.

INTRODUCTION: The rising incidence of pleural disease is seeing an international growth of pleural services, with physicians performing an ever-increasing volume of pleural interventions. These are frequently conducted at sites without immediate access to thoracic surgery or interventional radiology and serious complications such as pleural bleeding are likely to be under-reported. AIM: To assess whether intercostal vessel screening can be performed by respiratory physicians at the time of pleural intervention, as an additional step that could potentially enhance safe practice. METHODS: This was a prospective, observational study of 596 ultrasound-guided pleural procedures conducted by respiratory physicians and trainees in a tertiary centre. Operators did not have additional formal radiology training. Intercostal vessel screening was performed using a low frequency probe and the colour Doppler feature. RESULTS: The intercostal vessels were screened in 95% of procedures and the intercostal artery (ICA) was successfully identified in 53% of cases. Screening resulted in an overall site alteration rate of 16% in all procedures, which increased to 30% when the ICA was successfully identified. This resulted in procedure abandonment in 2% of cases due to absence of a suitable entry site. Intercostal vessel screening was shown to be of particular value in the context of image-guided pleural biopsy. CONCLUSION: Intercostal vessel screening is a simple and potentially important additional step that can be performed by respiratory physicians at the time of pleural intervention without advanced ultrasound expertise. Whether the widespread use of this technique can improve safety requires further evaluation in a multi-centre setting with a robust prospective study.

Clinically important associations of pleurodesis success in malignant pleural effusion: Analysis of the TIME1 data set.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Chemical pleurodesis is performed for patients with MPE with a published success rate of around 80%. It has been postulated that inflammation is key in achieving successful pleural symphysis, as evidenced by higher amounts of pain or detected inflammatory response. Patients with mesothelioma are postulated to have a lower rate of successful pleurodesis due to lack of normal pleural tissue enabling an inflammatory response. METHODS: The TIME1 trial data set, in which pleurodesis success and pain were co-primary outcome measures, was used to address a number of these assumptions. Pain score, systemic inflammatory parameters as a marker of pleural inflammation and cancer type were analysed in relation to pleurodesis success. RESULTS: In total, 285 patients were included with an overall success rate of 81.4%. There was a significantly higher rise in CRP in the Pleurodesis Success group compared with the Pleurodesis Failure group (mean difference: 19.2, 95% CI of the difference: 6.2-32.0, P = 0.004) but no significant change in WCC. There was no significant difference in pain scores or analgesia requirements between the groups. Patients with mesothelioma had a lower rate of pleurodesis success than non-mesothelioma patients (73.3% vs 84.9%, χ2 = 5.1, P = 0.023). CONCLUSION: Change in CRP during pleurodesis is associated with successful pleurodesis but higher levels of pain are not associated. Patients with mesothelioma appear less likely to undergo successful pleurodesis than patients with other malignancies, but there is still a significant rise in systemic inflammatory markers. The mechanisms of these findings are unclear but warrant further investigation.

Tobacco chemical-induced mouse lung adenocarcinoma cell lines pin the prolactin orthologue proliferin as a lung tumour promoter.

Lung adenocarcinoma (LADC) is the leading cause of cancer death worldwide. Nevertheless, syngeneic mouse models of the disease are sparse, and cell lines suitable for transplantable and immunocompetent mouse models of LADC remain unmet needs. We established multiple mouse LADC cell lines by repeatedly exposing two mouse strains (FVB, Balb/c) to the tobacco carcinogens urethane or diethylnitrosamine and by culturing out the resulting lung tumours for prolonged periods of time. Characterization of the resulting cell lines (n = 7) showed that they were immortal and phenotypically stable in vitro, and oncogenic, metastatic and lethal in vivo. The primary tumours that gave rise to the cell lines, as well as secondary tumours generated by transplantation of the cell lines, displayed typical LADC features, such as glandular architecture and mucin and thyroid transcription factor 1 expression. Moreover, these cells exhibited marked molecular similarity with human smokers' LADC, including carcinogen-specific Kras point mutations (KrasQ61R in urethane- and KrasQ61H in diethylnitrosamine-triggered cell lines) and Trp53 deletions and displayed stemness features. Interestingly, all cell lines overexpressed proliferin, a murine prolactin orthologue, which functioned as a lung tumour promoter. Furthermore, prolactin was overexpressed and portended poor prognosis in human LADC. In conclusion, we report the first LADC cell lines derived from mice exposed to tobacco carcinogens. These cells closely resemble human LADC and provide a valuable tool for the functional investigation of the pathobiology of the disease.

Development and validation of response markers to predict survival and pleurodesis success in patients with malignant pleural effusion (PROMISE): a multicohort analysis.

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of malignant pleural effusion is increasing worldwide, but prognostic biomarkers to plan treatment and to understand the underlying mechanisms of disease progression remain unidentified. The PROMISE study was designed with the objectives to discover, validate, and prospectively assess biomarkers of survival and pleurodesis response in malignant pleural effusion and build a score that predicts survival. METHODS: In this multicohort study, we used five separate and independent datasets from randomised controlled trials to investigate potential biomarkers of survival and pleurodesis. Mass spectrometry-based discovery was used to investigate pleural fluid samples for differential protein expression in patients from the discovery group with different survival and pleurodesis outcomes. Clinical, radiological, and biological variables were entered into least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression to build a model that predicts 3-month mortality. We evaluated the model using internal and external validation. FINDINGS: 17 biomarker candidates of survival and seven of pleurodesis were identified in the discovery dataset. Three independent datasets (n=502) were used for biomarker validation. All pleurodesis biomarkers failed, and gelsolin, macrophage migration inhibitory factor, versican, and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases 1 (TIMP1) emerged as accurate predictors of survival. Eight variables (haemoglobin, C-reactive protein, white blood cell count, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status, cancer type, pleural fluid TIMP1 concentrations, and previous chemotherapy or radiotherapy) were validated and used to develop a survival score. Internal validation with bootstrap resampling and external validation with 162 patients from two independent datasets showed good discrimination (C statistic values of 0·78 [95% CI 0·72-0·83] for internal validation and 0·89 [0·84-0·93] for external validation of the clinical PROMISE score). INTERPRETATION: To our knowledge, the PROMISE score is the first prospectively validated prognostic model for malignant pleural effusion that combines biological and clinical parameters to accurately estimate 3-month mortality. It is a robust, clinically relevant prognostic score that can be applied immediately, provide important information on patient prognosis, and guide the selection of appropriate management strategies. FUNDING: European Respiratory Society, Medical Research Funding-University of Oxford, Slater & Gordon Research Fund, and Oxfordshire Health Services Research Committee Research Grants.

PneumoLLM: Harnessing the power of large language model for pneumoconiosis diagnosis.

The conventional pretraining-and-finetuning paradigm, while effective for common diseases with ample data, faces challenges in diagnosing data-scarce occupational diseases like pneumoconiosis. Recently, large language models (LLMs) have exhibits unprecedented ability when conducting multiple tasks in dialogue, bringing opportunities to diagnosis. A common strategy might involve using adapter layers for vision-language alignment and diagnosis in a dialogic manner. Yet, this approach often requires optimization of extensive learnable parameters in the text branch and the dialogue head, potentially diminishing the LLMs' efficacy, especially with limited training data. In our work, we innovate by eliminating the text branch and substituting the dialogue head with a classification head. This approach presents a more effective method for harnessing LLMs in diagnosis with fewer learnable parameters. Furthermore, to balance the retention of detailed image information with progression towards accurate diagnosis, we introduce the contextual multi-token engine. This engine is specialized in adaptively generating diagnostic tokens. Additionally, we propose the information emitter module, which unidirectionally emits information from image tokens to diagnosis tokens. Comprehensive experiments validate the superiority of our methods.

Achieving Molecular Profiling in Pleural Biopsies: A Multicenter, Retrospective Cohort Study.

BACKGROUND: Pleural biopsy findings offer greater diagnostic sensitivity in malignant pleural effusions compared with pleural fluid. The adequacy of pleural biopsy techniques in achieving molecular marker status has not been studied, and such information (termed "actionable" histology) is critical in providing a rational, efficient, and evidence-based approach to diagnostic investigation. RESEARCH QUESTION: What is the adequacy of various pleural biopsy techniques at providing adequate molecular diagnostic information to guide treatment in malignant pleural effusions? STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: This study analyzed anonymized data on 183 patients from four sites across three countries in whom pleural biopsy results had confirmed a malignant diagnosis and molecular profiling was relevant for the diagnosed cancer type. The primary outcome measure was adequacy of pleural biopsy for achieving molecular marker status. Secondary outcomes included clinical factors predictive of achieving a molecular diagnosis. RESULTS: The median age of patients was 71 years (interquartile range, 63-78 years), with 92 of 183 (50%) male. Of the 183 procedures, 105 (57%) were local anesthetic thoracoscopies (LAT), 12 (7%) were CT scan guided, and 66 (36%) were ultrasound guided. Successful molecular marker analysis was associated with mode of biopsy, with LAT having the highest yield and ultrasound-guided biopsy the lowest (LAT vs CT scan guided vs ultrasound guided: LAT yield, 95%; CT scan guided, 86%; and ultrasound guided, 77% [P = .004]). Biopsy technique and size of biopsy sample were independently associated with successful molecular marker analysis. LAT had an adjusted OR for successful diagnosis of 30.16 (95% CI, 3.15-288.56; P = .003) and biopsy sample size an OR of 1.18 (95% CI, 1.02-1.37) per millimeter increase in tissue sample size (P < .03). INTERPRETATION: Although previous studies have shown comparable overall diagnostic yields, in the modern era of targeted therapies, this study found that LAT offers far superior results to image-guided techniques at achieving molecular profiling and remains the optimal diagnostic tool.

Malignant pleural effusion: Updates in diagnosis, management and current challenges.

Malignant pleural effusion (MPE) is a common condition which often causes significant symptoms to patients and costs to healthcare systems. Over the past decade, the management of MPE has progressed enormously with large scale, randomised trials answering key questions regarding optimal diagnostic strategies and effective management strategies. Despite a number of management options, including talc pleurodesis, indwelling pleural catheters and combinations of the two, treatment for MPE remains symptom directed and centered around drainage strategy. The future goals for providing improved care for patients lies in changing the treatment paradigm from a generic pathway to personalised care, based on probability of malignancy type and survival. This article reviews the current evidence base, new discoveries and future directions in the diagnosis and management of MPE.

The bacteriology of pleural infection (TORPIDS): an exploratory metagenomics analysis through next generation sequencing.

BACKGROUND: Pleural infection is a common and severe disease with high morbidity and mortality worldwide. The knowledge of pleural infection bacteriology remains incomplete, as pathogen detection methods based on culture have insufficient sensitivity and are biased to selected microbes. We designed a study with the aim to discover and investigate the total microbiome of pleural infection and assess the correlation between bacterial patterns and 1-year survival of patients. METHODS: We assessed 243 pleural fluid samples from the PILOT study, a prospective observational study on pleural infection, with 16S rRNA next generation sequencing. 20 pleural fluid samples from patients with pleural effusion due to a non-infectious cause and ten PCR-grade water samples were used as controls. Downstream analysis was done with the DADA2 pipeline. We applied multivariate Cox regression analyses to investigate the association between bacterial patterns and 1-year survival of patients with pleural infection. FINDINGS: Pleural infection was predominately polymicrobial (192 [79%] of 243 samples), with diverse bacterial frequencies observed in monomicrobial and polymicrobial disease and in both community-acquired and hospital-acquired infection. Mixed anaerobes and other Gram-negative bacteria predominated in community-acquired polymicrobial infection whereas Streptococcus pneumoniae prevailed in monomicrobial cases. The presence of anaerobes (hazard ratio 0·46, 95% CI 0·24-0·86, p=0·015) or bacteria of the Streptococcus anginosus group (0·43, 0·19-0·97, p=0·043) was associated with better patient survival, whereas the presence (5·80, 2·37-14·21, p<0·0001) or dominance (3·97, 1·20-13·08, p=0·024) of Staphylococcus aureus was linked with lower survival. Moreover, dominance of Enterobacteriaceae was associated with higher risk of death (2·26, 1·03-4·93, p=0·041). INTERPRETATION: Pleural infection is a predominantly polymicrobial infection, explaining the requirement for broad spectrum antibiotic cover in most individuals. High mortality infection associated with S aureus and Enterobacteriaceae favours more aggressive, with a narrower spectrum, antibiotic strategies. FUNDING: UK Medical Research Council, National Institute for Health Research Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, Wellcome Trust, Oxfordshire Health Services Research Committee, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, and John Fell Fund.

Pleural Fluid Has Pro-Growth Biological Properties Which Enable Cancer Cell Proliferation.

OBJECTIVES: Patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) or pleural metastases often present with malignant pleural effusion (MPE). This study aimed to analyze the effect of pleural fluid on cancer cells. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Established patient-derived cancer cell cultures derived from MPE (MPM, breast carcinoma, lung adenocarcinoma) were seeded in 100% pleural fluid (exudate MPM MPE, transudate MPE, non-MPE transudate fluid) and proliferation was monitored. In addition, the establishment of new MPM cell cultures, derived from MPE specimens, was attempted by seeding the cells in 100% MPE fluid. RESULTS: All established cancer cell cultures proliferated with similar growth rates in the different types of pleural fluid. Primary MPM cell culture success was similar with MPE fluid as with full culture medium. CONCLUSIONS: Pleural fluid alone is adequate for cancer cell proliferation in vitro, regardless of the source of pleural fluid. These results support the hypothesis that pleural fluid has important pro-growth biological properties, but the mechanisms for this effect are unclear and likely not malignant effusion specific.

The Association Between Pleural Fluid Exposure and Survival in Pleural Mesothelioma.

BACKGROUND: Most patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) seek treatment with malignant pleural effusion (MPE). In vitro evidence suggests that MPE may not be a simple bystander of malignancy, but rather potentially has biological properties that improve cancer cell survival and promote cancer progression. If this is the case, MPE management may need to shift from current symptomatic strategies to aggressive fluid removal to impact survival. RESEARCH QUESTION: Is there an association between pleural fluid exposure and survival in MPM? STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Data from 761 patients who received a diagnosis of MPM between 2008 and 2018 were collected from patient medical records in three UK pleural units. Data included factors previously identified as influencing prognosis in MPM. Medical imaging was reviewed for presence, size, and duration of pleural effusion. Time-dependent covariate analysis of pleural fluid exposure and survival (model included weight loss, serum albumin, hemoglobin, MPM subtype, performance status, chemotherapy, and age) and multivariate Cox regression analysis of pleurodesis and survival were conducted. RESULTS: Median overall survival was 278 days (interquartile range, 127-505 days; 95% CI, 253-301 days). Pleural fluid exposure duration showed no association with survival (hazard ratio, 1.0; 95% CI, 1.0-1.0). Median survival was 473, 378, and 258 days with complete, partial, and no pleurodesis (P = .008). INTERPRETATION: Pleurodesis success seems to be associated with improved survival; however, it is unclear whether duration of MPM exposure to pleural fluid is associated with survival within the limitations of this retrospective study. Future prospective studies are required to assess this potentially important mechanism.

Evaluation of cardiovascular risk in a lung cancer screening cohort: what value does it bring?

There is a significant opportunity to improve cardiovascular disease (CVD) outcomes in lung cancer screening cohorts with a low-cost, noninvasive assessment of CVD risk, alongside existing assessments https://bit.ly/3a6Ha41.

Clinical perspective and practices on pleural effusions in chronic systemic inflammatory diseases.

Systemic inflammatory diseases are a heterogeneous family of autoimmune chronic inflammatory disorders that affect multiple systems within the human body. Connective tissue disease (CTD) is a large group within this family characterised by immune-mediated inflammation of the connective tissue. This group of disorders are often associated with pleural manifestations. CTD-induced pleuritis exhibits a wide variety of symptoms and signs including exudative pleural effusions and chest pain. Accurate estimation of prevalence for CTD-related pleuritis is challenging as small effusions are asymptomatic and remain undetected. Rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus are frequent CTDs and present with pleural pathology in approximately 5-20% and 17-60% of cases, respectively. By contrast, pleural involvement in systemic sclerosis, eosinophilia-myalgia syndrome, mixed connective tissue disease, ankylosing spondylitis, polymyositis and dermatomyositis syndrome is rare. Clinical management depends on the severity of symptoms; however, most effusions resolve spontaneously. In this review we discuss the pathophysiological mechanisms and the clinical considerations of CTD-induced pleuritis.

Management of incidental nodules in lung cancer screening: ready for prime-time?

Current clinical management of lung nodule patients is inefficient and therefore causes patient misclassification, which increases healthcare expenses. A precise and robust lung nodule classifier could minimise healthcare costs and discomfort for patients. http://bit.ly/2oMIEwQ.

Biological effect of tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) and DNase intrapleural delivery in pleural infection patients.

Background: Pleural infection (PI) is a major global disease with an increasing incidence, and pleural fluid (PF) drainage is essential for the successful treatment. The MIST2 study demonstrated that intrapleural administration of tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) and DNase, or t-PA alone increased the volume of drained PF. Mouse model studies have suggested that the volume increase is due to the interaction of the pleura with the t-PA via the monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP-1) pathway. We designed a study to determine the time frame of drained PF volume induction on intrapleural delivery of t-PA±DNase in humans, and to test the hypothesis that the induction is mediated by the MCP-1 pathway. Methods: Data and samples from the MIST2 study were used (210 PI patients randomised to receive for 3 days either: t-PA and DNase, t-PA and placebo, DNase and placebo or double placebo). PF MCP-1 levels were measured by ELISA. One-way and two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with Tukey's post hoc tests were used to estimate statistical significance. Pearson's correlation coefficient was used to assess linear correlation. Results: Intrapleural administration of t-PA±DNase stimulated a statistically significant rise in the volume of drained PF during the treatment period (days 1-3). No significant difference was detected between any groups during the post-treatment period (days 5-7). Intrapleural administration of t-PA increased MCP-1 PF levels during treatment; however, no statistically significant difference was detected between patients who received t-PA and those who did not. PF MCP-1 expression was not correlated to the drug given nor the volume of drained PF. Conclusions: We conclude that the PF volume drainage increment seen with the administration of t-PA does not appear to act solely via activation of the MCP-1 pathway.

Does attempting talc pleurodesis affect subsequent indwelling pleural catheter (IPC)-related non-draining septated pleural effusion and IPC-related spontaneous pleurodesis?

Prior talc pleurodesis does not result in worsened outcomes from subsequent indwelling pleural catheter use, and patients should not be dissuaded from choosing talc as a primary treatment for recurrent pleural effusion. http://ow.ly/qAAC30mYmr3.

Novel mouse model of indwelling pleural catheter in mice with malignant pleural effusion.

This novel mouse model mimics malignant pleural effusion drainage using an indwelling pleural catheter in humans, and provides direct access to the pleural space potentially enabling the testing of intrapleural therapies in the treatment of MPE. bit.ly/2W2kzO0.