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These analyses demonstrate that first-line erlotinib provides a statistically significant improvement in PFS versus GP in Asian patients with EGFR mutation-positive NSCLC (NCT01342965).

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Specific investigative procedures, such as bronchoscopy, are considered stressful to the patient involved. Patients who show the highest levels of response prior to the procedure tend to experience adverse psychological reactions postprocedure [1]. It has been recognized that there could be considerable gains from providing a psychological intervention designed to minimize the psychological impact of a medical procedure. These interventions include information provision. The type of information provided falls into two categories. Sensory information provides the patient with a description of the likely sensations that the patient might expect to feel, and procedural information describes what will happen during the procedure. Generally, information about sensations that are likely to be experienced has been found to produce more beneficial effects [2][3], particularly with distressing investigative procedures, such as endoscopy [4,5].Little is known about the fears faced by the patient undergoing a fibreoptic bronchoscopic examination. The aim of this study was to identify the fears of patients undergoing fibreoptic bronchoscopy and whether the patients' demographic features, their knowledge and understanding of the procedure and its indication, and their doctors' explanation contributed to reducing these fears. Patients and methodsThe University Hospital in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, is an 880 bed acute general teaching hospital. One hundred and four consecutive patients undergoing bronchoscopy were interviewed, using a standardized questionnaire. These patients were recruited from the outpatient department and the medical and surgical wards, as well as direct referrals from the primary care department of the hospital. Consent was obtained from each patient by their attending doctor.The patients received a short explanation describing the procedure and the reasons for having the examination 24-48 h before undergoing bronchoscopy. The authors personally interviewed and filled out the questionnaire with each patient in the waiting area of the endoscopy unit, 20-30 min prior to carrying out the procedure. Their age, gender, ethnicity, source of referral, inpatient/outpatient status, level of education, previous endoscopic experience and preference for sedation were recorded. The patients were asked to state their greatest fear about the procedure, without any prompting of the possible responses. The doctors' explanation and the patients' knowledge and understanding of the procedure and its indication were noted. The aim of this study was to identify the common fears of patients undergoing fibreoptic bronchoscopy and to determine whether any factors might contribute to reducing these fears.One hundred and four consecutive patients undergoing bronchoscopy were interviewed.Sixty one patients expressed fear about the procedure, as follows: afraid of pain (33); afraid of breathing difficulties (11); afraid of oropharyngeal irritation (5); afraid of the bronchoscopy findings (2); afraid of sedation, cross-infection and nas...

In our region with a high incidence of tuberculosis, the most frequent cause of pleural exudates is tuberculosis followed by malignancy, particularly lung cancer.