Tobacco and COPD: presenting the World Health Organization (WHO) Tobacco Knowledge Summary.

The WHO recently published a Tobacco Knowledge Summary (TKS) synthesizing current evidence on tobacco and COPD, aiming to raise awareness among a broad audience of health care professionals. Furthermore, it can be used as an advocacy tool in the fight for tobacco control and prevention of tobacco-related disease. This article builds on the evidence presented in the TKS, with a greater level of detail intended for a lung-specialist audience. Pulmonologists have a vital role to play in advocating for the health of their patients and the wider population by sharing five key messages: (1) Smoking is the leading cause of COPD in high-income countries, contributing to approximately 70% of cases. Quitting tobacco is an essential step toward better lung health. (2) People with COPD face a significantly higher risk of developing lung cancer. Smoking cessation is a powerful measure to reduce cancer risk. (3) Cardiovascular disease, lung cancer and type-2 diabetes are common comorbidities in people with COPD. Quitting smoking not only improves COPD management, but also reduces the risk of developing these coexisting conditions. (4) Tobacco smoke also significantly impacts children's lung growth and development, increasing the risk of respiratory infections, asthma and up to ten other conditions, and COPD later in life. Governments should implement effective tobacco control measures to protect vulnerable populations. (5) The tobacco industry's aggressive strategies in the marketing of nicotine delivery systems and all tobacco products specifically target children, adolescents, and young adults. Protecting our youth from these harmful tactics is a top priority.

SABINA + Hong Kong: a territory wide study of prescribing trends and outcomes associated with the use of short-acting ß2 agonists in the Chinese population.

BACKGROUND: Excessive use of short-acting ß2 agonists (SABA) in patients with asthma continues to be a notable concern due to its link to higher mortality rates. Global relevance of SABA overuse in asthma management cannot be understated, it poses significant health risk to patients with asthma and imposes burden on healthcare systems. This study, as part of global SABINA progamme, aimed to describe the prescribing patterns and clinical outcomes associated with SABA use in the Chinese population. METHODS: Retrospective cohort study was conducted using anonymized electronic healthcare records of Clinical Data Analysis and Reporting System (CDARS) from Hong Kong Hospital Authority (HA). Patients newly diagnosed with asthma between 2011 and 2018 and aged ≥12 years were included, stratified by SABA use (≤2, 3-6, 7-10, or ≥11 canisters/year) during one-year baseline period since asthma diagnosis date. Patients were followed up from one-year post-index until earliest censoring of events: outcome occurrence and end of study period (31 December 2020). Cox proportional regression and negative binomial regression were used to estimate the mortality risk and frequency of hospital admissions associated with SABA use respectively, after adjusting for age, sex, Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI), and inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) dose. Outcomes include all-cause, asthma-related, and respiratory-related mortality, frequency of hospital admissions for any cause, and frequency of hospital admissions due to asthma. RESULTS: 17,782 patients with asthma (mean age 46.7 years, 40.8% male) were included and 59.1% of patients were overusing SABA (≥ 3 canisters per year). Each patient was prescribed a median of 5.61 SABA canisters/year. SABA overuse during baseline period was associated with higher all-cause mortality risk compared to patients with ≤2 canisters/year. Association was dose-dependent, highest risk in those used ≥11 canisters/year (adjusted hazard ratio: 1.42, 95% CI: 1.13, 1.79) and 3-6 canisters/year (adjusted hazard ratio: 1.22, 95% CI: 1.00, 1.50). Higher SABA prescription volume associated with increased frequency of hospital admissions with greatest risk observed in 7-10 canisters/year subgroup (adjusted rate ratio: 4.81, 95% CI: 3.66, 6.37). CONCLUSIONS: SABA overuse is prevalent and is associated with increased all-cause mortality risk and frequency of hospital admissions among the patients with asthma in Hong Kong.

Oncogenic mutation profiling in new lung cancer and mesothelioma cell lines.

BACKGROUND: Thoracic tumor, especially lung cancer, ranks as the top cancer mortality in most parts of the world. Lung adenocarcinoma is the predominant subtype and there is increasing knowledge on therapeutic molecular targets, namely EGFR, ALK, KRAS, and ROS1, among lung cancers. Lung cancer cell lines established with known clinical characteristics and molecular profiling of oncogenic targets like ALK or KRAS could be useful tools for understanding the biology of known molecular targets as well as for drug testing and screening. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Five new cancer cell lines were established from pleural fluid or biopsy tissues obtained from Chinese patients with primary lung adenocarcinomas or malignant pleural mesothelioma. They were characterized by immunohistochemistry, growth kinetics, tests for tumorigenicity, EGFR and KRAS gene mutations, ALK gene rearrangement and OncoSeq mutation profiling. RESULTS: These newly established lung adenocarcinoma and mesothelioma cell lines were maintained for over 100 passages and demonstrated morphological and immunohistochemical features as well as growth kinetics of tumor cell lines. One of these new cell lines bears EML4-ALK rearrangement variant 2, two lung cancer cell lines bear different KRAS mutations at codon 12, and known single nucleotide polymorphism variants were identified in these cell lines. DISCUSSION: Four new lung adenocarcinoma and one mesothelioma cell lines were established from patients with different clinical characteristics and oncogenic mutation profiles. These characterized cell lines and their mutation profiles will provide resources for exploration of lung cancer and mesothelioma biology with regard to the presence of known oncogenic mutations.

Oncogenic driver mutations in lung cancer.

Lung cancer is a heterogeneous and complex disease. Genomic and transcriptomic profiling of lung cancer not only further our knowledge about cancer initiation and progression, but could also provide guidance on treatment decisions. The fact that targeted treatment is most successful in a subset of tumors indicates the need for better classification of clinically related molecular tumor phenotypes based on better understanding of the mutations in relevant genes, especially in those oncogenic driver mutations. EGFR gene mutations, KRAS gene mutations, EML4-ALK rearrangements and altered MET signaling are widely recognized alterations that play important roles in both the biological mechanisms and the clinical sensitivity to treatment in lung cancer. In this article, we reviewed the discovery of the clinical values of these oncogenic driver mutations and the clinical studies revealing the prognostic and predictive values of these biomarkers for clinical sensitivity and resistance to anti-EGFR therapy or other targeted therapies. These form the basis of personalized treatment in lung cancer based on biomarker profiles of individual tumor, leading to therapeutic advancement and betterment.