Novel diagnostic processes and challenges in bronchoscopy.

Diagnostic bronchoscopy is a minimally invasive procedure that plays a crucial role in the diagnosis and management of various respiratory conditions. This paper explores the advancements in technology that have revolutionized the field and focuses on the new diagnostic procedures in bronchoscopy that have emerged in recent years. These innovative techniques have expanded the diagnostic capabilities of bronchoscopy, allowing for more accurate and comprehensive evaluation of respiratory conditions. This paper will also discuss the challenges in the diagnostic process with bronchoscope.

Decreasing incidence and mortality of lung cancer in Hungary between 2011 and 2021 revealed by robust estimates reconciling multiple data sources.

Objective: Hungary has repeatedly been shown to have the highest cancer-related mortality and incidence in Europe. Despite lung cancer being the most abundant malignant diagnosis in Hungary, numerous concerns have been raised recently regarding the bias inherent to reported incidence estimates. Re-analysis of reimbursement claims has been suggested previously by our group as an alternative approach, offering revised figures of lung cancer incidence between 2011 and 2016. Leveraging on this methodology, we aimed at updating Hungarian lung cancer incidence estimates with an additional 5 years (2017-2021), including years affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, we also attempted to improve the robustness of estimates by taking additional characteristics of the patient pathway into account. Methods: Lung cancer patients between 2011 and 2021 were identified based on reimbursement-associated ICD-10 codes, histology codes and time patterns. Multiple query architectures were tested for sensitivity and compared to official estimates of the Hungarian National Cancer Registry (HNCR). Epidemiological trends were estimated by Poisson-regression, corrected for age and sex. Results: A total of 89,948 lung cancer patients diagnosed in Hungary between 2011 and 2021 have been identified by our study. In 2019 alone, 7,887 patients were diagnosed according to our optimized query. ESP2013 standardized rate was estimated between 92.5/100,000 (2011) and 78.4/100,000 (2019). In 2019, standardized incidence was 106.8/100,000 for men and 59.7/100,000 for women. Up until the COVID-19 pandemic, lung cancer incidence was decreasing by 3.18% (2.1%-4.3%) yearly in men, while there was no significant decrease in women. Young age groups (40-49 and 50-59) featured the largest improvement, but women aged 60-79 are at an increasing risk for developing lung cancer. The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a statistically significant decrease in lung cancer incidence, especially in the 50-59 age group (both sexes). Conclusion: Our results show that using an optimized approach, re-analysis of reimbursement claims yields robust estimates of lung cancer incidence. According to this approach, the incidence rate of male lung cancer is declining in Hungary, in concordance with the trend observed for lung cancer mortality. Among women aged 60-79, the incidence of lung cancer has risen, requiring more attention in the near future.

Novel Combinations of Immunotherapies or DNA Damage Repair Inhibitors in Platinum-Refractory Extensive-Stage Small-Cell Lung Cancer: The Phase II BALTIC Study.

PURPOSE: The phase II, multiarm, signal-searching BALTIC study (NCT02937818) assessed novel treatment combinations for platinum-refractory/resistant extensive-stage small-cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC). EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: Patients with ES-SCLC with progressive disease during or within 90 days of completing first-line platinum-based chemotherapy received one of three regimens: durvalumab plus tremelimumab followed by durvalumab monotherapy (arm A), adavosertib plus carboplatin (arm B), or ceralasertib plus olaparib (arm C). The primary endpoint was objective response rate (ORR). Prespecified exploratory biomarker analyses were conducted in arms A and C. RESULTS: In arm A (n=41), arm B (n=10), and arm C (n=21), confirmed ORR was 7.3%, 0%, and 4.8%, respectively. Safety profiles in all arms were consistent with those of the individual drugs. In arm A, patients with PD-L1 expression (tumor cells [TC] or immune cells [IC]) ≥1% appeared to have a greater likelihood of achieving disease control with durvalumab plus tremelimumab than those with PD-L1 (TC and IC) <1%, and lower baseline circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) and reduction in on-treatment ctDNA level were both associated with longer overall survival (OS). Among patients treated with ceralasertib plus olaparib in arm C, specific immune response-relevant circulating chemokines and cytokines were identified as early biomarkers of survival and pharmacodynamic biomarkers. CONCLUSIONS: In BALTIC, all combination regimens demonstrated tolerable safety profiles, but antitumor activity was limited in refractory/resistant ES-SCLC. Among patients treated with durvalumab plus tremelimumab, an association of on-treatment reduction in ctDNA with longer OS suggests the potential use of ctDNA as a surrogate of treatment response, warranting further investigation.