QOL is not only related to the unavoidable decline in physical condition and daily functioning of the dying patient but is also related to domains that, as death approaches, have the potential to show improvement through the efforts of health-care professionals, such as presenting prognostic information to optimize the patients' understanding and assists them with psychological adjustments, facilitating patient-family caregiver congruence on the end-of-life care decision regarding the place of death and lightening the caregiving burden of family caregivers.

In this article, we summarize the basic concepts, protocols, and techniques that we use for CT-guided core biopsy of lung lesions to assist radiologists in obtaining diagnostic specimens while reducing preventable complications.

Marked decrease in the basal level of serum ENO1 autoantibodies is a common malignant event of lung and breast cancers, suggesting that ENO1 autoantibody may serve as a prognostic marker to monitor the disease progression of these cancer patients.

Human 8-oxoguanine DNA N-glycosylase 1 (hOGG1) plays an important role in repairing oxidative DNA damage induced by tobacco carcinogens. In this case-control study, the authors examined the interactive effect of hOGG1 gene polymorphisms and cigarette smoking on the risk of lung cancer in Taiwan. A total of 1,096 cases and 1,007 controls were enrolled from 6 medical centers in Taiwan during 2002-2004. hOGG1 Ser326Cys genetic polymorphisms were determined using the MassARRAY system (SEQUENOM, Inc., San Diego, California). Tobacco smoking history was obtained through personal interview according to a structured questionnaire. Logistic regression analysis was used to estimate multivariate-adjusted odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals. The odds of developing lung cancer for persons with the Cys/Cys genotype versus the Ser/Ser genotype were 1.11 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.74, 1.65) for never smokers, 1.45 (95% CI: 0.74, 2.83) for moderate smokers, and 3.52 (95% CI: 1.54, 8.06) for heavy smokers. The P value for interaction in the logistic model was 0.01. The increased risk associated with the Cys/Cys genotype among heavy smokers remained statistically significant for various histologic types of lung cancer, including adenocarcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and small cell carcinoma. The authors conclude that there was a noticeable modifying effect on the association between hOGG1 genotype and lung cancer risk by cigarette smoking status.

BACKGROUND The authors conducted a pilot clinical trial to explore the vaccination of patients with late‐stage lung carcinoma with dendritic cells (DCs) pulsed with necrotic tumor cells derived from malignant pleural effusion specimens, and to evaluate the antitumor immune response induced by this therapy. METHODS Autologous DCs were generated by culturing adherent mononuclear cells with interleukin‐4 and granulocyte‐macrophage–colony‐stimulating factor for 7 days. Day‐7 DCs were cocultured overnight with autologous necrotic tumor cells derived from pleural effusion specimens to allow internalization of tumor antigens. DCs were then treated with tumor necrosis factor‐alpha for 16 hours. The antigen‐loaded DCs were injected into each patient's inguinal lymph nodes under sonographic guidance. Eight patients with late‐stage nonsmall cell lung carcinoma were treated in this manner. Patients were vaccinated once weekly for 4 weeks and then boosted twice biweekly. RESULTS The authors found that there was no Grade II/III toxicity and autoimmune response in all patients after intranodal injection of the DC vaccine. Minor to moderate increases in T‐cell responses against tumor antigens were observed after DC vaccination in six of eight patients. Five patients had progressive disease. One patient had minor tumor response and two patients had stable disease. The two patients who had longer disease control also had better T‐cell responses. CONCLUSIONS The results indicated that it was feasible to immunize patients with lung carcinoma intranodally with DCs pulsed with necrotic tumor cells enriched from pleural effusion specimens, and this approach may generate T‐cell responses and provide clinical benefit in some patients. Cancer 2005. © 2005 American Cancer Society.