Cost of a 5-year lung cancer survivor: symptomatic tumour identification vs proactive computed tomography screening.

BACKGROUND: Our objective was to analyse the cost effectiveness of computed tomography (CT) screening for lung cancer in terms of the cost per long-term survivor, which has not been evaluated to date. METHODS: Estimations were computed based on data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results registries covering years 1999-2003. The design framework of our model allowed for the incorporation of multiple values taken from the epidemiological and clinical literature to be utilised for cost inputs, scope of patients screened, diagnostic staging, and survival percentages applied separately to two cohorts: age 40-79 and 60-79 years. This enabled the analysis of over 1400 scenarios, each containing a unique set of input values, for which the estimated cost per 5-year survivor (CP5YS) was compared between the symptom-detected and proactive screening approaches. RESULTS: Estimated CP5YS were higher for the symptom-detected approach in all 729 scenarios analysed for the cohort ages 60-79 years, ranging from approximately $5800 to $116,700 increased cost per 5-year survivor (CP5YS). For the cohort ages 40-79 years, 75% of the 729 scenarios analysed showed increased CP5YS for the symptom-detected approach ranging from $5700 to $110,000 increased CP5YS. Total costs and total 5-year survivors were higher for the proactive screening method for all scenarios analysed across both cohorts with increases ranging from 50-256% and 98-309%, respectively. CONCLUSION: The predicted increase in long-term survival with CT screening and the potential for better utilisation of health-care dollars in terms of CP5YS, particularly when screening patients over the age of 60 years, are critically important considerations in directing effective future lung cancer management strategy.

MR of intravenous leiomyomatosis of the uterus extending into the inferior vena cava.

We report the first case of the unusual entity intravenous leiomyomatosis of the uterus in which the MR findings are described. Because of this tumor's intravenous extension and growth up the inferior vena cava. MR is ideally suited for its imaging.

Cystic pulmonary metastatic sarcoma.

Neoplastic cavitary lesions are an unusual type of pulmonary metastases. The authors report two cases of cystic metastatic sarcoma of the lungs that illustrate the clinical, radiologic, and pathologic difficulties encountered in the diagnosis of these lesions. In one patient, multiple small, thin-walled cystic metastases from a lower leg leiomyosarcoma were the only manifestation of metastatic disease. The cystic lesions did not change over an 8-month period and a diagnosis of malignancy was not established until spontaneous pneumothorax, presumably due to rupture of the malignant blebs, prompted a thoracotomy. In the second patient, three thin-walled bullae developed after treatment of noncystic pulmonary metastases from a lower-leg synovial sarcoma. In both patients, the cystic lesions were not evident on chest radiographs, but were well visualized with computed tomography (CT), where they mimicked benign bullous disease. However, additional small cavitary lesions not seen with CT were present in resected pulmonary wedge specimens from both patients. A great degree of variability in the cellular composition of the cyst wall lining in both cases, and a lack of any solid neoplastic tissue masses in one case, led to histopathologic difficulties that required immunohistochemical studies for definitive diagnosis of the metastatic disease. These cases show that pulmonary bullae, even though thin-walled and benign-appearing on CT, may be a manifestation of pulmonary metastases. These lesions must therefore be surgically removed from patients in whom a curative resection of pulmonary metastases is warranted.