Both rheumatoid factor (RF) and anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibody (ACPA) are associated with poor radiologic outcomes in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In general, RA patients positive for RF or ACPA (SPRA) are considered to manifest an aggressive disease course compared with seronegative RA patients (SNRA). However, the relationship between seropositivity and measures of disease severity other than radiologic outcome is disputed. In this study, we sought to compare the clinical presentations and treatment outcomes of SNRA and SPRA patients. A total of 241 patients diagnosed with DMARD-naïve RA under either 1987 American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria or 2010 ACR/European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) criteria were identified (40 with SNRA and 201 with SPRA). We investigated the disease activity measures including ESR, CRP, patient VAS, 28 tender/swollen joint count (28 TJC, 28 SJC) and DAS28 as well as radiologic outcomes at baseline, 1 and 2 years after conventional treatment with DMARD. Age, sex and disease duration were similar between SNRA and SPRA. However, the baseline 28 TJC (4.7±2.9 vs. 3.3±2.7, p = 0.004), 28 SJC (4.3±3.0 vs. 2.9±2.3, p = 0.001) and DAS28 (5.1±1.0 vs. 4.7±1.0, p = 0.043) components were significantly higher in SNRA than in SPRA. Over 2 years of similar treatment with DMARDs, all disease activity measures significantly improved in both groups. Comparison among populations matched for baseline disease activity showed that ΔDAS28 at 1 year was greater in SNRA than in SPRA (-2.84±1.32 vs. -3.70±1.29, p = 0.037) in high disease activity population (DAS28-ESR>5.1). Radiologic outcomes at baseline and at 1- or 2-year follow-up were similar between the 2 groups. In conclusion, SNRA patients manifested more active disease at baseline, but showed a better response to treatment compared with SPRA. SNRA does not appear to be a benign subtype of RA.

THORACIC IMAGING L ung adenocarcinoma is known for its pathologic heterogeneity and variable prognosis. To improve the classification of lung adenocarcinomas, the 2015 World Health Organization classification of lung tumors recommended classification of resected lung adenocarcinoma according to the most predominant histologic subtype (1). Many studies that followed confirmed that this classification provides prognostic stratification (2-7): Lepidic-predominant subtypes have a good prognosis, acinar and papillary predominant subtypes have an intermediate prognosis, and micropapillary and solid predominant subtypes have a poor prognosis.Interestingly, although CT features may overlap across the different predominant histologic subtypes, lepidicpredominant adenocarcinoma is more likely to manifest as pure and part-solid ground-glass opacity, whereas solid-predominant adenocarcinomas are likely to show a lower ground-glass opacity proportion (8,9). Given that lung cancers manifesting as subsolid nodules have a longer volume doubling time (VDT) than those manifesting as solid nodules (10-13), it is possible that VDTs vary according to the predominant histologic subtypes with implications for prognosis.The VDT of tumors, which theoretically reflects the exponential growth of tumor cells, is a key parameter for the differentiation of aggressive tumors from slowgrowing tumors and aids in predicting the likelihood of malignancy in pulmonary lesions. In the Dutch-Belgian randomized lung cancer screening trial, known as the NELSON study, a follow-up process on the basis of VDT (,400, 400-600, and .600 days) was effective in terms of reducing the false-positive rate (14). Henschke et al (10) demonstrated that the VDT of lung cancer varies according to the lung cancer subtypes and

OBJECTIVES Although the standard treatment for pathological N2 (pN2) non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients is definitive chemoradiation, surgery can be beneficial for resectable pN2 disease. Herein, we report the long-term clinical outcomes of upfront surgery followed by adjuvant treatment for selected patients with resectable pN2 disease. METHODS We performed a retrospective analysis of clinical outcomes for patients with pN2 disease who underwent surgery as the first-line therapy. Multivariable Cox regression analysis was used to identify the significant factors for overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival. RESULTS From 2004 to 2015, a total of 706 patients with pN2 NSCLC underwent complete anatomical resection at our institution. The patients’ clinical N stages were cN0, 308 (43.6%); cN1, 123 (17.4%) and cN2, 275 (39.0%). Adjuvant chemotherapy, radiotherapy and chemoradiotherapy were administered to 169 (23.9%), 115 (17.4%) and 299 patients (42.4%), respectively. With a median follow-up of 40 months, the respective median time and 5-year rate of OS were 52 months and 44.7%. According to subdivided pN2 descriptors, the median OS time was 80, 53 and 37 months for patients with pN2a1, pN2a2 and pN2b, respectively. Adjuvant chemotherapy was a significant prognostic factor for both OS [hazard ratio (HR) 0.39, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.28–0.52; P < 0.001] and recurrence-free survival (HR 0.42, 95% CI 0.30–0.58; P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS Upfront surgery followed by adjuvant therapy for resectable N2 disease showed favourable outcomes compared to those reported in previous studies. Adjuvant chemotherapy is essential to improve the prognosis for patients undergoing upfront surgery for N2 disease.