On the basis of our analysis of the SEER database, sublobar resection can be performed in selected patients with small tumors (≤2 cm) and early-stage disease (stage I/II). Although perioperative mortality is significant, the favorable 1-year and 3-year survival may justify the role of an additional procedure on the single lung.

Spray cryotherapy was a safe adjunct modality to accomplish airway patency in patients with benign tracheal stenosis. Although efficacy evidence is limited for SCT, it may be useful for patients who have experienced treatment failure with conventional modalities. Further analysis of this cohort will determine the physiologic durability of the reported short-term changes. Additional trials are warranted for further evaluation of this modality.

The United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) guidelines recommend yearly low-dose CT (LDCT) screening for high-risk smokers. These guidelines are based on the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST), which showed that yearly LDCT screening for high-risk smokers decreased lung cancer-related mortality. 1 Despite strong supporting evidence, national data indicate low screening uptake, with < 6% of USPSTF criteria-eligible smokers being screened in 2015. 2 However, it is unclear if screening uptake is increasing, and very little is known about predictors of screening uptake. The current study estimated 2017 rates of LDCT screening among USPSTF criteria-eligible smokers in Florida, Nevada, and Georgia and investigated factors associated with utilization of screening.

In the last two decades, ‘concentrated epidemics’ of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) have established in several high risk groups in Pakistan, including Injecting Drug Users (IDUs) and among men who have sex with men (MSM). To explore the transmission patterns of HIV infection in these major high-risk groups of Pakistan, 76 HIV samples were analyzed from MSM, their female spouses and children, along with 26 samples from a previously studied cohort of IDUs. Phylogenetic analysis of HIV gag gene sequences obtained from these samples indicated a substantial degree of intermixing between the IDU and MSM populations, suggesting a bridging of HIV infection from IDUs, via MSM, to the MSM spouses and children. HIV epidemic in Pakistan is now spreading to the female spouses and offspring of bisexual MSM. HIV control and awareness programs must be refocused to include IDUs, MSM, as well as bisexual MSM, and their spouses and children.

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