The 2024 World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC) and the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Annual Meeting, two of the most prestigious events in oncology, have concluded sequentially. As the most authoritative annual gatherings in lung cancer and the entire oncology field, the WCLC and ESMO conferences brought together top oncology experts and scientists from around the world to share, discuss, and publish the latest cutting-edge advancements in oncology. In both conferences, lung cancer immunotherapy remained a hot topic of considerable interest. This article aims to summarize and discuss the important research progress on perioperative immunotherapy for non-small cell lung cancer reported at the two conferences.

The 2025 American Society of Clinical Oncology Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium (ASCO-GI) was held from January 23 to 25, 2025. Several significant studies on the treatment of esophageal and gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) cancer were presented at the symposium, highlighting notable advances, particularly in the perioperative and advanced settings. Immunotherapy has demonstrated significant promise in the neoadjuvant treatment of esophageal cancer, showing potential to become a standard treatment. Furthermore, the long-term survival benefits of combining immunotherapy with chemotherapy for advanced GEJ cancer were further validated. This article summarizes and interprets the researches presented at the symposium concerning perioperative and advanced treatments for esophageal and GEJ cancers.

The 2025 European Lung Cancer Congress (ELCC) convened in Paris, France, centering on the optimization and innovation of immunotherapy for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Key topics at the congress included the application strategies for perioperative immunotherapy, breakthroughs in combination therapy models for advanced NSCLC, and the emerging roles of biomarkers in predicting diverse treatment outcomes. This paper integrates data from several key pivotal studies to systematically analyze the clinical value of neoadjuvant therapy within the perioperative setting, the potential of targeted combination regimens, and the challenges of managing drug resistance, thus offering new directions for clinical practice.

The 2024 American Society of Clinical Oncology Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium (ASCO-GI) was held in San Francisco, the USA from January 18th to 20th, 2024 (local time). The multiple studies presented in this symposium will have a significant impact on the clinical practice of esophageal cancer. This article will focus on the surgical methods of esophageal cancer, perioperative immunotherapy, drug therapy for advanced esophageal cancer, rescue treatment after immunotherapy resistance, and other relevant aspects. It aims to summarize and interpret the significant advancements in the field of esophageal cancer presented in this symposium.

Surgery is an important treatment for the anterior mediastinal disease. With the rapid development of minimally invasive techniques, complete resection of the lesion in most patients with thymic disease can be achieved through thoracoscopic surgery. Practice has proved that the three-port resection of anterior mediastinal thymus disease via the subxiphoid approach is an ideal surgical method for the treatment of anterior mediastinal thymic tumors at present, which has strong popularization and popularity and can benefit the patients. The procedure focuses primarily on the anterior and upper mediastinum and can thoroughly expose the anatomy of the mediastinum and both sides, with minimal intraoperative bleeding, high safety, minimal trauma and postoperative pain, and a short hospital stay. It has clear advantages over conventional thoracic open-heart surgery and transversal resection. However, the surgical approach and field of view, and intraoperative precautions of this procedure are completely different from those of previous thoracoscopic procedures, and from the subxiphoid single-port approach adopted by other centers. Based on 10 years of surgical experience at our center, a modular mode of surgical operation has been developed and its procedure has been standardized. This paper will share and discuss relevant operational points and experiences.

National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) has updated and released the latest content of NCCN guidelines version 1. 2023 thymomas and thymic carcinomas (known as "guidelines"). The guideline sets standards for the diagnosis and treatment of thymoma and thymic carcinoma based on high quality clinical evidence and the latest advances in research. There have been some updates and revisions in the latest two versions of the guidelines, mainly focusing on the principles of radiotherapy, the principles of systematic therapy, multidisciplinary participation and the improvement of some footnotes, compared with the first version of the guidelines in 2022. In this paper, the contents of the new guideline will be interpreted in order to provide reference for the work of thymoma and thymic carcinoma in our country at the present stage.

Objective:To investigate the application prospect of 3D virtual reconstruction and printing technology based on thin-slice CT images in network cloud+dual-track teaching.Methods:A total of 120 medical students who were on probation in The Second Affiliated Hospital of Air Force Medical University from April 2021 to April 2022 were selected as subjects and were randomly divided into experimental group and control group, with 60 students in each group. The students in the experimental group received 3D virtual reconstruction and printing technology combined with network cloud+dual-track teaching, and those in the control group received network cloud+dual-track teaching alone. After 6 months of learning, the teaching effect was compared by closed-book examination, skill operation, speech defense, and questionnaire survey. SPSS 23.0 was used for the t-test and the chi-square test. Results:Compared with the control group in terms of department examination, the experimental group had significantly better scores of theoretical knowledge [(84.25±5.53) vs. (79.43±6.69), P<0.001] and operational skills [(87.68±5.72) vs. (82.97±5.32), P<0.001]. The experimental group had significantly higher scores than the control group in speech [(44.90±2.56) vs. (41.88±2.71), P<0.001] and defense [(45.83±2.62) vs. (43.85±2.56), P<0.001]. The questionnaire survey showed that compared with the control group, the experimental group had significantly higher scores of practical ability, active learning ability, expression ability, practice enthusiasm, and information acquisition ability ( P<0.001). Conclusion:The network cloud+dual-track teaching model assisted by 3D virtual reconstruction and printing technology can significantly improve the objective learning effect and subjective learning initiative of students and has a relatively high value of teaching application and promotion.

Objective:To evaluate the left ventricular myocardial strain in patients with light chain cardiac amyloidosis (AL-CA) with normal left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) by three-dimensional speckle tracking imaging(3D-STI), and to explore the clinical value of 3D-STI in predicting the prognosis of AL-CA patients with normal LVEF.Methods:A total of 80 patients with AL-CA and LVEF≥50% were retrospectively analyzed in the Xijing Hospital of Air Force Military Medical University from October 2014 to May 2020.According to whether the patients had endpoint events, they were divided into endpoint event group and non-endpoint event group. The clinical data, conventional echocardiographic parameters, 3D-STI related parameters and follow-up results were collected. Cox regression proportional hazards model was used to analyze the survival status of AL-CA patients with univariate and multivariate regression analyses, in order to find the relevant indicators of conventional echocardiography and 3D-STI to predict adverse events.Results:All patients were followed up for 20(7.3, 40.8) months. At the end of follow-up, 25 patients had all-cause deaths. Compared with the non-endpoint group, the endpoint event group had significantly increased left ventricular end diastolic maximum wall thickness (MLVWT), peak early diastolic flow velocity/peak early diastolic velocity at mitral annulus(E/e′) (all P<0.05), and decreased LVEF, left ventricular global longitudinal strain (GLS) and basal segment longitudinal strain (LS) (all P<0.05). Multivariate cox regression analysis after adjusting for age and gender showed that basal segment LS ( HR=0.812, 95% CI=0.675-0.976, P=0.026) was an independent predictor of end-point events in patients with AL-CA. Kaplan-Meier survival curve showed that AL-CA patients with basal segment LS≤13.07% were more likely to have endpoint events. Conclusions:Basal segment LS can be used as a predictor of endpoint events in patients with AL-CA.

Objective To investigate the application prospect of the most extensive genome engineering pig internationally in preclinical xenotransplantation. Methods Porcine endogenous retrovirus (PERV) knockout combined with 3 major heterologous antigen gene knockouts and 9 humanized genes for inhibition of complement activation, regulation of coagulation disorders, anti-inflammatory and anti-phagocytosis were transferred into a pig (PERV-KO/3-KO/9-TG) as a donor, and the heart, liver and kidney were obtained and transplanted to 3 Rhesus macaque recipients respectively to establish a preclinical research model of pig-to-Rhesus macaque xenotransplantation. The functional status of xenografts after blood flow reconstruction was observed and the survival of recipients was summarized. The hemodynamics of xenografts were monitored. The change of hematological indexes of each recipient was compared. The histopathological manifestation of xenografts was observed. Results After the blood flow was reconstructed, all xenografts showed ruddy color, soft texture and good perfusion. The transplant heart, liver and kidney showed full arterial and venous blood flow and good perfusion at 1 d after operation. The postoperative survival time of heart, liver, and kidney transplant recipients was 7, 26, and 1 d, respectively. The levels of creatine kinase, creatine kinase isoenzyme, and lactate dehydrogenase increased in heart transplant recipient at 1 d after operation, and gradually recovered to near normal levels at 6 d after operation. All indexes increased sharply at 7 d after operation. The level of aspartate aminotransferase increased in liver transplant recipients at 2 d after operation, and the alanine aminotransferase basically returned to normal at 10 d after operation, but the total bilirubin continued to increase. Both aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase increased at 12 d after operation, and reached a peak at 15 d after operation. The kidney transplant recipient developed mild proteinuria at 1 d after operation, and died of sudden severe arrhythmia. Histopathology showed that the tissue structure of cardiac and renal xenografts was close to normal, and liver xenografts presented with patchy necrosis, the liver tissue structure was disordered, accompanied by inflammatory damage, interstitial hemorrhage and thrombotic microangiopathy. Conclusions PERV-KO/3-KO/9-TG pig shows advantages in overcoming hyperacute rejection, mitigating humoral rejection and coagulation dysregulation. However, whether it can be used as potential donor for clinical xenotransplantation needs further evaluation.

Objective    To investigate the safety and feasibility of laryngeal mask general anesthesia as a replacement of tracheal intubation general anesthesia in the "three-port" thoracoscopic thymectomy via subxiphoid and subcostal arch for thymoma patients without myasthenia. Methods    From January 2018 to June 2019, clinical data of patients with thymoma who underwent the novel "three-port" operation in our institution were analyzed retrospectively. The patients were divided into two groups according to the anesthesia methods, including a tracheal intubation general anesthesia group and a laryngeal mask general anesthesia group. There were 70 patients in the tracheal intubation general anesthesia group, including 42 males and 28 females, with an average age of 45.83±15.89 years. There were 39 patients in the laryngeal mask general anesthesia group, including 26 males and 13 females, with an average age of 43.31±15.64 years. The clinical data of the two groups were compared. Results    The baseline characteristics of the patients in the two groups were well balanced (P>0.05). No massive bleeding, conversion to thoracotomy, postoperative myasthenia or death occurred in those patients. No patient with laryngeal mask anesthesia had a conversion to tracheal intubation anesthesia during the operation. There was no significant difference in the operation time, intraoperative bleeding, intraoperative maximum partial pressure of CO2, lowest partial pressure of oxygen and anesthesia effect score between the two groups (P>0.05). There was also no statistical difference in postoperative aspiration, gastrointestinal discomfort, length of hospital stay, pain score and patient satisfaction degree between the two groups (P>0.05). However, the anesthesia time before operation and the time of awake after anesthesia in the laryngeal mask anesthesia group were significantly shorter than those in the tracheal intubation general anesthesia group (P<0.05), and the incidence of transient arrhythmia, laryngeal discomfort and hoarseness in the laryngeal mask general anesthesia group was significantly lower than that in the tracheal intubation general anesthesia group (P<0.05). Conclusion    The "three-port" thoracoscopic thymectomy via subxiphoid and subcostal arch under laryngeal mask general anesthesia is safe and feasible in the treatment of thymoma without myasthenia, and can be recommended routinely.