Lung is one of the most vulnerable organs for distant metastasis from colorectal cancer (CRC) with a mean survival time of 5 to 19 months in literature. For selected cases of lung metastasis from CRC, aggressive treatment can provide long-term survival benefit to the patients among which surgery can provide a significant better survival benefit than other treatment modalities. However, multimodality treatment approaches can provide further improvement for the clinical outcome. The advancement of minimally invasive surgery for the pulmonary diseases has offered the patients an effective treatment option for tumor eradication while a fast course of postoperative recovery. In the article, we reviewed the current status of treatment for pulmonary metastasis from CRC as well as the experience in the National Taiwan University Hospital.

In Taiwan, the age-standardized incidence of EC, especially esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), has increased substantially during the past thirty years. We described the incidence trends of EC from 1985–2019 by an average annual percentage change (AAPC) and age-period-cohort model by using Taiwan Cancer Registry data. Age-period-cohort modeling was used to estimate the period and cohort effects of ESCC and esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC). The Spearman’s correlation coefficient was used to analyze the correlation between age-adjusted incidence rates of EC and the prevalence of risk factors from national surveys. The results showed the incidence rate of ESCC in men (AAPC = 4.2, 95% CI = 3.1–5.4, p < 0.001) increased prominently from 1985–1989 to 2015–2019 while that of EAC in men (AAPC = 1.2, 95% CI = 0.9–1.5, p < 0.001) and ESCC in women (AAPC = 1.7, 95% CI = 1.4–2.1, p < 0.001) increased to a lesser degree. Increased period effects were observed in ESCC in men, ESCC in women, and EAC in men. High correlations were found between the risk factors and the increased birth-cohort effects of ESCC (p < 0.05). To conclude, the incidence of ESCC in both sex and EAC in men increased with statistical significance in recent decades. The increased prevalence of risk factors from approximately 1970–1995 could explain the increased cohort effects of ESCC.

BackgroundTaiwan has one of the highest incidences of upper tract urothelial cancer (UTUC) worldwide, especially in women; however, no nationwide, long‐term follow‐up study has evaluated this.MethodsWe investigated the incidence of UTUC in Taiwan using data from the national population‐based Taiwan Cancer Registry database (1985–2019). We divided the birth cohort into nine 5‐year age groups and calculated the age‐specific incidence for these groups according to the corresponding birth years.ResultsThe average annual percent change in the incidence of renal pelvis cancer from 1985 to 2019 showed sex‐specific differences, with 3.5% and 5.3% increases in the incidences in men and women, respectively. The age‐specific incidence rate for renal pelvis cancer among women showed a gradual increase in the group with older women as well as an increase over time in each age group. The results of a birth cohort analysis revealed that younger cohorts had higher incidence rates of renal pelvis cancer than older cohorts did.ConclusionWe demonstrated that the incidence of UTUC is unusually high among older Taiwanese women and that younger cohorts have a high risk of UTUC than older cohorts.

Minimally invasive esophagectomy has gradually been accepted as an active treatment option for surgery of esophageal cancer. However, there is no consensus about how to perform the procedures in the thoracic and abdominal phase including anastomosis in the neck (McKeown) or chest (Ivor Lewis), VATS, robotic‐assisted or reduced port approaches or various endoscopic abrasion techniques. Further studies to investigate the roles of these novel techniques are required to treat the various patient populations.

In a country with a high prevalence of cigarette smoking, betel chewing, and alcohol drinking, cancers of the oral cavity, nasopharynx, and larynx were the fourth, twelfth and seventeenth leading causes of cancer death, respectively, for men in 2020. We analyzed patients with head and neck cancer from 1980 to 2019 from the Taiwan Cancer Registration Database and discussed the annual average percent change, average percent change, age period, and birth cohort. Obvious period effects and birth effects are seen in oral, oropharyngeal, and hypopharyngeal cancer; however, the most significant period effect was seen between 1990 and 2009, which mainly reflects the consumption of betel nuts per capita. In addition, the period effect lessens after 2010 in oral cancer and hypopharyngeal cancers, while oropharyngeal cancers remain an obvious period effect, which results from the rising prevalence of HPV. Due to the high prevalence rate of betel quid chewing and cigarette smoking in the 1990s, the government executed several acts. As a result, the age-adjusted incidence rates of oral, oropharyngeal, and hypopharyngeal cancers have flattened since 2010, which can be explained by the declining cigarette smoking rate. The strict policy indeed shows an obvious effect on the head and neck cancer incidence rates, and we expect to see a further decline in the future.