ERS International Congress 2021: highlights from the Thoracic Surgery and Lung Transplantation Assembly

Our plain-English summary of ERS International Congress 2021: highlights from the Thoracic Surgery and Lung Transplantation Assembly, by S. Bos, S. Ricciardi, E.J. Caruana, et al (ERJ Open Research, 2022).

The study

• Authors: S. Bos, S. Ricciardi, E.J. Caruana, N.A. Acet Öztürk, D. Magouliotis, C. Pompili, M. Migliore, R. Vos, F. Meloni, S. Elia, M. Hellemons
• Journal: ERJ Open Research
• Published: 2022;8(2)
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

Abstract

The thoracic surgery and lung transplantation assembly of the European Respiratory Society (ERS) is delighted to present the highlights from the 2021 ERS International Congress. We have selected four sessions that discussed recent advances across a wide range of topics including: digital health surveillance in thoracic surgery, emerging concepts in pulmonary metastasectomy, advances in mesothelioma care, and novel developments in lung graft allocation and monitoring. The sessions are summarised by early career members in close collaboration with the assembly faculty. We aim to give the reader an update on the highlights of the conference in the fields of thoracic surgery and lung transplantation.

Copyright ©The authors 2022.

In plain English

This article was not a research study. It was a commissioned, peer-reviewed report summarising four sessions from the 2021 European Respiratory Society (ERS) International Congress. Members of the ERS Thoracic Surgery and Lung Transplantation Assembly wrote it. The sessions covered digital health monitoring in thoracic surgery, surgery and ablation for cancer spread to the lungs, mesothelioma care, and allocation of donor lungs and monitoring of lung transplant recipients. The article collected no new data. Its findings come from speakers' talks and other published studies. In the mesothelioma session, speakers described a deep-learning tool called MesoNet, developed by one speaker's team to predict overall survival of mesothelioma patients from whole slide images of tissue. The article reported that no new treatment agents were approved for malignant pleural mesothelioma between 2004 and 2019. It also reported that nivolumab plus ipilimumab is now approved as a first-line treatment for unresectable cases. Hyperthermic intrathoracic chemotherapy (HITOC) added to cytoreductive surgery was described as possibly associated with improved outcomes in selected patients. The article noted differing protocols and small study populations in that literature. Asbestos was not discussed.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: congress highlights report (commissioned, peer-reviewed summary of conference sessions); no original data
• Who was studied: Four sessions of the 2021 ERS International Congress (held fully virtually because of COVID-19) on thoracic surgery and lung transplantation, including one session on mesothelioma care
• Main results:
  • A speaker's team was reported to have developed a deep-learning approach, MesoNet, to predict overall survival of mesothelioma patients from whole slide images (findings from a cited study, not this article)
  • Speakers reported that no new treatment agents were approved for malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) during 2004 to 2019
  • Nivolumab plus ipilimumab was reported as now approved as a first-line treatment option for unresectable MPM
  • HITOC added to cytoreductive surgery was described as possibly associated with improved outcomes in selected MPM patients
• The authors' conclusion: In the take-home messages for the mesothelioma session, the authors stated that artificial intelligence with deep learning can predict survival in MPM and may aid diagnosis
• Limitations the authors state:
  • For HITOC, the authors noted differing protocols among centres and small study populations in the available literature

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Thoracic Surgery, Lung Transplant, Mesothelioma.

Related studies

• ERS International Congress 2023: highlights from the Thoracic Oncology Assembly — M.J. Catarata, A.W. Creamer, et al. (2024)
• The role of surgical cytoreduction in the treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma: meeting summary of the International Mesothelioma Interest Group Congress, September 11-14, 2012, Boston, Mass — V. Rusch, E.H. Baldini, et al. (2013)
• Highlights of the 14th international mesothelioma interest group meeting: Pathologic separation of benign from malignant mesothelial proliferations and histologic/molecular analysis of malignant mesothelioma subtypes — A. Churg, K. Nabeshima, et al. (2018)
• The role of radiation treatment in pleural mesothelioma: Highlights of the 14th International Conference of the International mesothelioma interest group — R.M. MacRae, M. Ashton, et al. (2019)
• Characteristics of thoracic malignancies that occur after solid-organ transplantation — C. Génébès, L. Brouchet, et al. (2010)
• Incidental Diagnosis of Malignant Peritoneal Mesothelioma During Liver Transplantation Surgery: A Case Report — S. Khan, A. Malik, et al. (2024)

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