title: Alleviation of severe compressive symptoms in a patient with advanced lung carcinoma using tracheal and superior vena cava stents.
abstract: Lung cancer is now the leading cause of death from cancer worldwide. Although surgery remains the treatment of choice, the majority of patients will be unresectable at presentation with a poor survival outcome. In those patients who also have tracheobronchial involvement; the aim of intervention is to restore airway patency, thus improving quality of life in a minimally invasive way. Superior vena cava (SVC) infiltration by lung carcinoma is present in 3%-5% of patients with lung cancer. In patients with malignant SVC syndrome, the average life expectancy is 3 to 10 months. In these cases the disease progresses rapidly and obstruction develops before there is time for collaterals to develop. We present a case of a 75-year-old man who had alleviation of severe compressive symptoms secondary to advanced lung carcinoma using tracheal and SVC stents placed as a single procedure.
authors.affiliation: Interventional Radiology, Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Hospital, Lambeth Palace Road, London SE1 7EH, United Kingdom. jpmorales@doctors.org.uk
authors.forename: Jose Pablo
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Morales
authors.forename: Tarun
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sabharwal
authors.forename: Shahrina
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Man-Harun
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Adam
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000402:Airway Obstruction / Q000209:etiology / Q000601:surgery*; D019917:Blood Vessel Prosthesis Implantation; D003251:Constriction, Pathologic / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000150:complications / Q000601:surgery*; D008297:Male; D015607:Stents; D013479:Superior Vena Cava Syndrome / Q000209:etiology / Q000601:surgery*; D014132:Trachea / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014683:Vena Cava, Superior / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*