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Current Thoracic Surgery 2023 , Vol 8 , Issue 3
Does lung cancer histology affect the efficacy of talc pleurodesis throughpleural catheter?
Melike Badoglu1,Hüsnü Baykal1
1Department of Chest Diseases, Ankara Atatürk Sanatoryum Training and Research Hospital, University of Health Sciences, Ankara, Turkey DOI : 10.26663/cts.2023.0021 Viewed : 1910 - Downloaded : 617 Background: Up to 50% of lung cancer patients develop pleural effusion during the course of the disease. Dyspnea is the primary indication for intervention. After drainage, chemical pleurodesis may be applied. Talc is the most effective sclerosing agent, and sometimes the procedure may not be successful. Adults, histologically confirmed lung cancer patients with pleural effusion who had talc pleurodesis through pleural catheter between 2014 and 2019 were included. The aim was to clarify whether lung cancer histological type and talc pleurodesis efficacy were correlated or not.

Materials and Methods: A total 222 patients were enrolled retrospectively. Through the study; age, sex, cancer histological type, pleural/pleural effusion FDG uptake in PET/CT, pleural effusion’s location, amount, biochemical property, and pleurodesis efficacy were recorded.

Results: Mean age was 65.52 years, 22.9% of them were women, and 73.3% were men. Lung cancer histological types were; small cell lung cancer (13.1%), adenocarcinoma (72.1%), squamous cell carcinoma (9.5%), and not specified non-small cell lung cancer (5.4%). In 22.1% of the patients, pleurodesis was efficient, in 50% partially efficient, and in 27.9% inefficient. The only independent factor affecting pleurodesis efficacy was found as cancer histological type (p < 0.05). Pleurodesis efficacy was found higher in the squamous cell carcinoma group (p < 0.05).

Conclusions: As far as we know, this is the first study on correlation between efficacy of talc pleurodesis through the pleural catheter and the lung cancer histological types. Pleurodesis was significantly more efficient in patients with squamous cell carcinoma, possibly due to its immunohistochemical behavior. Keywords : lung cancer, malignant pleural effusion, pleurodesis efficacy, talc pleurodesis