This month, we launch a new series on cardiothoracic surgery for lung cancer with an overview piece by Aman Coonar and colleagues.1 Their central argument, and the theme of the series, is that with recent developments the outlook for patients is more positive than in the past. ‘If we can identify lung cancer earlier, the chance of “cure” is much greater,’ they say. ‘Surgical advances combined with more thoracic surgeons, enhanced recovery and advanced thoracic anaesthesia have significantly extended the profile of patients deemed “operable”.’
In an accompanying commentary, Tom Treasure urges some caution because of limited high-quality evidence for treatments given with curative intent.2 He’d like more clinical trials but agrees that the authors of the series ‘have provided us with excellent updates on clinical practice and some food for thought’.
The series is an outcome of a meeting organised by the cardiothoracic section of the Royal Society of Medicine. Although JRSM is editorially independent of the Royal Society of Medicine, and we don’t publish verbatim meeting reports, we’re happy to consider ideas for content that arise in relation to meetings that the Royal Society of Medicine hosts. Recent examples are our two series on empathy and value-based healthcare.3,4 We’re also happy to consider series ideas that don’t originate from Royal Society of Medicine meetings.
If you’re organising an interesting meeting of relevance to JRSM’s multispecialty series, we’d love to hear from you. Once the series is agreed in principle, submitted articles will be put through JRSM’s usual peer-review process. You can email me directly with your draft outline of topics and authors (kamran.abbasi@rsm.ac.uk).
References
- 1.Coonar A, Aresu G, Peryt A and Ali J. Thoracic surgery for lung cancer: current practice and future directions. J R Soc Med 2019; 112: 136–139. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed]
- 2.Treasure T. Thoracic intervention and surgery to cure lung cancer. J R Soc Med 2019; 112: 133–135. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed]
- 3.Howick J, Bizzari V and Dambha-Miller H. Therapeutic empathy: what it is and what it isn’t. J R Soc Med 2018; 111: 233–236. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed]
- 4.Harris M, Bhatti Y, Prime M, del Castillo J and Parston G. Low-cost innovation in healthcare: what you find depends on where you look. J R Soc Med 2018; 111: 47–50. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed]