Lung Cancer Histology and Staging*Workup for a nodule that is concerning: **Ensure there is a dedicated CT scan of the chest to evaluate **Try to obtain old imaging; the rate of change is important **Can get PET, but even if a lesion if not FDG-avid, but growing quickly we should consider biopsy anyway**Referral to pulmonary medicine, who can assist with biopsy and also regional lymph node evaluation (important – more below)**PFTs are often ordered because it provides information about lung function in anticipation of possible surgery for treatment Lung Cancer Histology: *Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)**Umbrella term for a variety of cancers**Increased risk in smokers**More common types: ***Adenocarcinoma (~50% of all lung cancers)****Most common overall; cancer of the mucus producing cells****IHC: TTF-1, NapsinA, CK7 positive***Squamous Cell Carcinoma (22.7%)****More often seen in patients with a smoking history ****IHC: p63 positive and cytokeratin pearls***Remaining ~15% are the other types of lung cancer / mixed histologies**Small cell lung cancer (SCLC)***Neuroendocrine tumor with very different pathology***Much more aggressive than NSCLC***Oncologic emergency***IHC: Chromogranin and synaptophysin positive IHC pearls: TTF-1 usually means lung cancer (but can be negative in squamous cell lung cancer). This will be important in the future (we promise :])*Staging for NSCLC:**Nodal evaluation: lymph node evaluation is part of the workup for NSCLC**Single digit = central/mediastinal nodes (higher risk)**Double digit = peripheral/hilar/intrapulmonary lymph nodes (lower risk)**“R” vs. “L” is direction *Pearl: Why is this important? If there is nodal involvement, systemic therapy is going to be necessary *Putting it all together: **T: Tumor size: T1-4**N: Nodal involvement***N0: no nodal involvement ***N1: Nodes closest to the primary tumor (double digits)****Ipsilateral peribronchial, hilar, intrapulmonary ***N2: Further away (single digit)****Ipsilateral mediastinal and/or subcarinal LN***N3: Contralateral any node or supraclavicular LN **M: Metastasis – in lung cancer, patients with certain patterns of metastatic disease are still curable! ***M0: no mets***M1a: Contralateral lobe, pleural effusion or pericardial effusion à these are generally still curable!***M1b: single site of metastatic disease à these are generally still curable!***M1c: multiple sites of metastatic disease à these are generally not curable*Staging for SCLC: **Limited stage - meaning it can fit in “one radiation field”**Extensive stage - does not fit in “one radiation field”*Once lung cancer is diagnosed:**Go to NCCN to learn the flow of ongoing management**Complete staging (if not already done):***CT C/A/P (don’t necessarily need if a PET scan is done)***PET Scan***MRI brain à in general this is needed, but there are some exception to this (see NCCN)**Referral to pulmonary for nodal evaluationReferences: NCCN.orghttps://doi-org.proxy.library.vanderbilt.edu/10.1016/j.semcancer.2017.11.019-Article about IHC markers for lung cancer Please visit our website (TheFellowOnCall.com) for more information Twitter: @TheFellowOnCallInstagram: @TheFellowOnCallListen in on: Apple Podcast, Spotify, and Google Podcast

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

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