Copd. Bronchoalveolar lung cancer

Previous studies have reported very different rates of human rhinovirus (HRV) and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) genome detection in nasal and sputum samples, but not in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) and bronchial biopsy samples. Our study aimed to investigate the presence of HRV and RSV in the lungs of 31 consecutive patients with stable COPD (11 GOLD stage I, 11 II, and 9 III) and 22 control subjects (12 current or past smokers, and 10 non-smokers), who underwent diagnostic (e.g., lung cancer) and/or therapeutic (e...

OBJECTIVES: Purines are well-known as intracellular sources for energy but they also act as extracellular signaling molecules. In the recent years, there has been a growing interest in the therapeutic potential of purinergic signaling for cancer treatment. This is the first study to analyze lung purine levels and purinergic receptors in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this prospective clinical trial we enrolled 26 patients with NSCLC and 21 patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) without signs of malignancy...

The use of flow cytometry in the clinical laboratory has grown substantially in the past decade. Flow cytometric analysis provides a rapid qualitative and quantitative description of multiple characteristics of individual cells. For example, it is possible to detect the cell size and granularity, aspects of DNA and RNA content and the presence of cell surface and nuclear markers which are used to characterize the phenotype of single cells. Flow cytometry has been used for the immunophenotyping of a variety of specimens including whole blood, bone marrow, serous cavity fluids, (cerebrospinal fluid) CSF, urine and all types of body fluids...

UNLABELLED: CD56+ natural killer (NK) and CD56+ T cells, from sputum or bronchoalveolar lavage of subjects with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are more cytotoxic to highly susceptible NK targets than those from control subjects. Whether the same is true in lung parenchyma, and if NK activity actually contributes to emphysema progression are unknown. To address these questions, we performed two types of experiments on lung tissue from clinically-indicated resections (n = 60)...

Antiretroviral therapy (ART) represents a significant milestone in the battle against AIDS. However, we continue learning about HIV and confronting challenges 30 years after its discovery. HIV has cleverly tricked both the host immune system and ART. First, the many HIV subtypes and recombinant forms have different susceptibilities to antiretroviral drugs, which may represent an issue in countries where ART is just being introduced. Second, even under the suppressive pressures of ART, HIV still increases inflammatory mediators, deregulates apoptosis and proliferation, and induces oxidative stress in the host...

OBJECTIVE: Successful pulmonary wedge resection for early-stage non-small cell lung cancer requires a pathologically confirmed negative margin. To date, however, no clear evidence is available regarding whether an optimal margin distance, defined as the distance from the primary tumor to the closest resection margin, exists. Toward addressing this gap, we investigated the relationship between the margin distance and local recurrence risk. METHODS: We reviewed all adult patients who had undergone wedge resection for small (≤2 cm) non-small cell lung cancer from January 2001 to August 2011, with follow-up through to December 31, 2011...

BACKGROUND: Tumor cells produce various cytokines and chemokines that attract leukocytes. Leukocytes can amplify parenchymal innate immune responses, and have been shown to contribute to tumor promotion. Neutrophils are among the first cells to arrive at sites of inflammation, and the increased number of tumor-associated neutrophils is linked to poorer outcome in patients with lung cancer. RESULTS: We have previously shown that COPD-like airway inflammation promotes lung cancer in a K-ras mutant mouse model of lung cancer (CC-LR)...

BACKGROUND: Recent investigations suggest that neutrophils play an important role in the immune response to lung cancer as well as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The aim of this study was to evaluate the amount of neutrophils and markers of their activity in lung cancer and COPD and in coexistence of these two diseases. METHODS: In total, 267 persons were included in the study: 139 patients with lung cancer, 55 patients with lung cancer and COPD, 40 patients with COPD, and 33 healthy subjects...

UNLABELLED: Lung cancer (LC) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) commonly coexist in smokers, and the presence of COPD increases the risk of developing LC. The aim of this study was to identify distinct proteomic profiles able to discriminate these two pathological entities. Protein content was assessed in the bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) of 60 patients classified in four groups: COPD, COPD and LC, LC without COPD, and control with neither COPD nor LC. Proteins were separated into spots by bidimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2D-PAGE) and examined by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF/TOF)...

In chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD/emphysema) we have shown a reduced ability of lung and alveolar (AM) macrophages to phagocytose apoptotic cells (defective 'efferocytosis'), associated with evidence of secondary cellular necrosis and a resultant inflammatory response in the airway. It is unknown whether this defect is present in cancer (no COPD) and if so, whether this results from soluble mediators produced by cancer cells. We investigated efferocytosis in AM (26 controls, 15 healthy smokers, 37 COPD, 20 COPD+ non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and 8 patients with NSCLC without COPD) and tumor and tumor-free lung tissue macrophages (21 NSCLC with/13 without COPD)...

Lung cancer (LC) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) commonly coexist in smokers, and the presence of COPD increases the risk of developing LC. Cigarette smoke causes oxidative stress and an inflammatory response in lung cells, which in turn may be involved in COPD and lung cancer development. The aim of this study was to identify differential proteomic profiles related to oxidative stress response that were potentially involved in these two pathological entities. Protein content was assessed in the bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) of 60 patients classified in four groups: COPD, COPD and LC, LC, and control (neither COPD nor LC)...

Cytotoxic CD8(+) T-cells mount immune responses to cancer via cytotoxic pathways including granzyme B. Cancer cells are also known to develop immune evasion mechanisms. We hypothesised that lung cancer cells would over-express the granzyme B-inhibitor, proteinase inhibitor-9 (PI-9) and down-regulate granzyme B expression by neighbouring CD8(+) T-cells. We investigated PI-9 expression in lung cancer cell lines, and primary lung cancer cells obtained at curative lung resection from cancer patients with/without chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)...

We are still at the early phase of finding useful phenotypes in COPD that can guide therapy. However, in a simple sense, "sick patients die." Many phenotypic measurements of severity correlate with mortality in COPD: FEV(1), the ratio of inspiratory capacity to total lung capacity (IC/TLC), diffusing capacity of the lung for carbon monoxide (D(LCO)), 6-min walk distance, and maximum oxygen (O(2)) consumption or maximum watts on exercise testing. However, composite parameters, such as the BODE index (body mass index, air flow obstruction, dyspnea, exercise capacity), perform better, likely because they capture different aspects of severity that affect functional impairment and risk of death...

Exhaled breath condensate (EBC) has been increasingly used as a new and non-invasive method to study airway inflammation. In this study we have compared the concentrations of lipid mediators in EBC with concentrations in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF). We included 37 patients undergoing bronchoscopy (12 sarcoidosis, 12 COPD, 6 lung cancer, 5 chronic cough, 1 Wegener's granulomatosis, 1 sclerodermia). Patients were not allowed to have exacerbation or any change in concomitant medication for at least 4 weeks prior to the study...

RATIONALE: Cigarette smoke is the major cause of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer. The mechanisms by which smoking induces pulmonary dysfunction are complex, involving stress from toxic components and inflammatory responses. Although CCCAAT/enhancer-binding protein (C/EBP)-β is known as a key intracellular regulator of inflammatory signaling, its role in pulmonary inflammation has not been established. OBJECTIVES: To characterize the role of C/EBPβ in the airway epithelial response to cigarette smoke...

Induced sputum is a valuable tool enabling thorough evaluation of respiratory system, and it has been increasingly used in pneumonology. The article presents the mechanism of sputum induction and basic differences between induced sputum and BALF. The usefulness of induced sputum in modern oncology and microbiology is discussed, from diagnosing lung cancer and tuberculosis to assessment and monitoring of respiratory tract bacterial flora in chronic lung diseases. The authors describe the role of sputum cell count and fluid-phase analysis in various conditions, like asthma, COPD, non-asthmatic eosinophilic bronchitis (NAEB) and interstitial lung diseases, as well as in estimating occupational exposure for diagnosing occupational respiratory disorders...

Asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and lung cancer cause extensive mortality and morbidity worldwide. However, the current state-of-the-art diagnosis and management schemes of these diseases are suboptimal as the incidence of asthma has risen by 250% over the last two decades and the 5-year mortality rate of lung cancer remains at 88%. Proteomic analysis is at the frontier of medical research and demonstrates tremendous potential in the early detection, diagnosis and staging, as well as providing novel therapeutic targets for improved management of smoking-related lung diseases...

Pulmonary Langerhans-cell histiocytosis in adults is a rare condition of unknown etiology characterized by the accumulation of Langerhans cells organized in granulomas involving the distal bronchioles and destroying their walls. It occurs in young subjects who smoke, with frequency peaking between 20 and 40 years. High-resolution thoracic CT is essential for diagnosis; in typical forms it shows a combination of nodules, cavitary nodules, thick-walled cysts, and thin-walled cysts. Diagnostic certainty requires a surgical lung biopsy, by videothoracoscopy, but only if a specialist considers it indicated...

Recent studies have demonstrated that K-ras mutations in lung epithelial cells elicit inflammation that promotes carcinogenesis in mice (intrinsic inflammation). The finding that patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), an inflammatory disease of the lung, have an increased risk of lung cancer after controlling for smoking suggests a further link between lung cancer and extrinsic inflammation. Besides exposure to cigarette smoke, it is thought that airway inflammation in COPD is caused by bacterial colonization, particularly with non-typeable Hemophilus influenzae (NTHi)...

Cigarette smoking has been causally linked several diseases, primarily lung cancer and chronic obstructive lung disease (COPD). The diagnosis of COPD currently involves an assessment of smoking and/or occupational exposures, a history of cough, sputum and dyspnea and spirometric measures of airflow obstruction and since spirometric measures take long follow up times to detect significant changes, surrogate measures of outcome capable of predicting long-term health changes have been sought for. These include biomarkers of oxidative stress, inflammation and tissue damage in sputum, bronchoalveolar lavage, exhaled breath and serum...