Bronchopleural fistula (BPF) remains a rare but fatal complication of thoracic surgery. The aim of this study was to develop and validate a predictive model of BPF after pulmonary resection and to identify patients at high risk for BPF. From January 2005 to December 2012, 34,000 patients underwent major pulmonary resection (lobectomy, bilobectomy, or pneumonectomy) and were entered into the French National database Epithor. The primary outcome was the occurrence of postoperative BPF at 30 days. The logistic regression model was built using a backward stepwise variable selection. Bronchopleural fistula occurred in 318 patients (0.94%); its prevalence was 0.5% for lobectomy (n = 139), 2.2% for bilobectomy (n = 39), and 3% for pneumonectomy (n = 140). The mortality rate was 25.9% for lobectomy (n = 36), 16.7% for bilobectomy (n = 6), and 20% for pneumonectomy (n = 28). In the final model, nine variables were selected: sex, body mass index, dyspnea score, number of comorbidities per patient, bilobectomy, pneumonectomy, emergency surgery, sleeve resection, and the side of the resection. In the development data set, the C-index was 0.8 (95% confidence interval: 0.78 to 0.82). This model was well calibrated because the Hosmer-Lemeshow test was not significant (χ(2) = 10.5, p = 0.23). We then calculated the logistic regression coefficient to build the predictive score for BPF. This strong model could be easily used by surgeons to identify patient at high risk for BPF. This score needs to be confirmed prospectively in an independent cohort.

The aim of this study is to identify the risk group of patients with T4 lung cancer who could more likely benefit from surgical resection. Between January 1, 1990, and December 31, 1998, 77 patients underwent pulmonary resection for T4 lung cancer: lobectomy (n = 20), bilobectomy (n = 4) and pneumonectomy (n = 53). The T4 sites of mediastinal involvement were: Intrapericardiac portions of the pulmonary artery (n = 30), left atrium (n = 19), aorta (n = 8), superior vena cava (n = 8), carina (n = 7), the esophagus (n = 8) and the vertebral body (n = 6). Ten patients had multiple neoplastic nodules in the same lobe of the lung. Overall survival rates at 1, 2 and 3 years were 46, 31 and 21%, respectively. Factors adversely affecting survival with univariate analysis included the localization of tumours in the lower lobe (P = 0.04) and both the involvement of superior and inferior mediastinal lymph nodes (P = 0.03). Multivariate analysis included two factors adversely affecting survival: the location of the primary tumour and the nodal stations involved. Regression tree analysis classified the patients into low-risk group (primary tumour in upper lobe or in main stem bronchus and pN0 or pN1 or superior or inferior mediastinal nodes involved), intermediate-risk group (primary tumour in upper lobe or in main stem bronchus and both superior and inferior mediastinal nodes involved, primary tumour in inferior lobe and pN0 or pN1 or inferior mediastinal nodes involved) and high-risk group (primary tumour in inferior lobe and both superior and inferior nodes involved). The 3-year survival rates were 36% for the low-risk group, 4% for the intermediate-risk group and 0% for the high-risk group (P = 0.006). In patients with T4 lung cancer, the surgery can justify itself for tumours in the upper lobe or in the main stem bronchus and with pN0 or pN1.

(1) Background: Several smaller studies have shown that COVID-19 patients with cancer are at a significantly higher risk of death. Our objective was to compare patients hospitalized for COVID-19 with cancer to those without cancer using national data and to study the effect of cancer on the risk of hospital death and intensive care unit (ICU) admission. (2) Methods: All patients hospitalized in France for COVID-19 in March–April 2020 were included from the French national administrative database, which contains discharge summaries for all hospital admissions in France. Cancer patients were identified within this population. The effect of cancer was estimated with logistic regression, adjusting for age, sex and comorbidities. (3) Results: Among the 89,530 COVID-19 patients, we identified 6201 cancer patients (6.9%). These patients were older and were more likely to be men and to have complications (acute respiratory and kidney failure, venous thrombosis, atrial fibrillation) than those without cancer. In patients with hematological cancer, admission to ICU was significantly more frequent (24.8%) than patients without cancer (16.4%) (p < 0.01). Solid cancer patients without metastasis had a significantly higher mortality risk than patients without cancer (aOR = 1.4 [1.3–1.5]), and the difference was even more marked for metastatic solid cancer patients (aOR = 3.6 [3.2–4.0]). Compared to patients with colorectal cancer, patients with lung cancer, digestive cancer (excluding colorectal cancer) and hematological cancer had a higher mortality risk (aOR = 2.0 [1.6–2.6], 1.6 [1.3–2.1] and 1.4 [1.1–1.8], respectively). (4) Conclusions: This study shows that, in France, patients with COVID-19 and cancer have a two-fold risk of death when compared to COVID-19 patients without cancer. We suggest the need to reorganize facilities to prevent the contamination of patients being treated for cancer, similar to what is already being done in some countries.