Initial experience of Da Vinci robotic thoracic surgery at the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University.

Robot-assisted thoracic surgery (RATS) is a relatively new but rapidly adopted technique, pioneered by the urological and gynecological departments. The primary objective of this study is to present the current status, a series of improvement and innovation of Da Vinci robotic surgery in the Department of Thoracic Surgery at First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University. In addition, we discuss the prospect of robotic surgical technology.

Time-to-Progression of NSCLC from Early to Advanced Stages: An Analysis of data from SEER Registry and a Single Institute.

The average time required for cancers to progress through stages can be reflected in the average age of the patients diagnosed at each stage of disease. To estimate the time it takes for non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) to progress through different tumor, node and metastasis (TNM) stages and sizes, we compared the mean adjusted age of 45904 NSCLC patients with different stages and tumor sizes from Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) cancer registry database and our institute. Multiple-linear-regression models for age were generated adjusting for various factors. Caucasian, African-American and Asian patients with stage IA cancers were on average 0.8, 1.0 and 1.38 adjusted years younger, respectively, than those with stage IIIB cancers (p < 0.001). And these with T1a cancers were on average 0.84, 0.92 and 1.21 adjusted years younger, respectively, than patients with T3 cancers (p < 0.001). Patients with tumors measuring larger than 8 cm in diameter were on average 0.85 adjusted years older than these with tumors smaller than 1 cm (p < 0.001), with Caucasian demonstrating the shortest age span (0.79 years, P < 0.001). In conclusion, the time-to-progression of NSCLC from early to advanced stages varied among ethnicities, Caucasian patients demonstrating a more rapid progression nature of tumor than their African-American and Asian counterparts.

Alveolar adenoma resected by thoracoscopic surgery.

Alveolar adenoma, a rare benign pulmonary neoplasm, usually presents as asymptomatic. Since first described in 1986, no more than 35 cases have been reported in the English medical literature. Here we report a case of 48-year-old woman who suffered from this tumor, the patient is doing well 4 years after thoracoscopic lobectomy.