Interview with Prof. Kazuhiro Yasufuku and Prof. Xue-Ning Yang: how do you define non-palpable nodule?

Introduction

Prof. Kazuhiro Yasufuku (Figure 1, right) is Associate Professor of Surgery at the University of Toronto, Staff Thoracic Surgeon at the Division of Thoracic Surgery at Toronto General Hospital. He is the Director of the Interventional Thoracic Surgery Program at the University Health Network (UHN), and also the clinical lead of Thoracic Surgery within the GTx program within UHN. He leads the Thoracic Robotic Surgery Program at the UHN.

Figure 1 Professor Kazuhiro Yasufuku (right) and Professor Xue-Ning Yang (left).

Dr. Yasufuku has been a leader in the field of minimally invasive diagnostics and therapeutics for thoracic malignancy. He co-developed the Convex Probe Endobronchial Ultrasound in collaboration with Olympus and has successfully introduced the clinical application of EBUS-TBNA in thoracic oncology. His clinical interests include minimally invasive diagnostic and surgery for thoracic oncology and lung transplantation. He has numerous ongoing clinical trials looking at the application of new technology in Thoracic Surgery and Interventional Pulmonology.

Dr. Xue-Ning Yang (Figure 1, left) is a thoracic surgeon and chief of Division of Surgery at Guangdong Lung Cancer Institute, Guangdong General Hospital, Guangzhou, China. Dr. Yang’s clinical interests include minimally invasive thoracic surgery and lung cancer. His research is focused on Molecular Biology and clinical study of early stage lung cancer.

During the 24th Annual Meeting of Asian Society for Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery (ASCVTS) in conjunction with 9th AATS/ASCVTS Postgraduate Course held in Taipei, Taiwan in 2016, Prof. Yasufuku has presented important presentation on the topic “Management of the non-palpable lung nodule: Image guided minimal invasive surgical techniques”. After the presentation, we are honored to have an interview with Prof. Yasufuku and Prof. Yang together.

Interview (Figure 2)

Figure 2 Interview with Prof. Kazuhiro Yasufuku and Prof. Xuening Yang (1). Available online: http://www.asvide.com/articles/1012

Interview questions:

• How do you define non-palpable nodule?
• For deeply or central located GGO, segmentectomy is also an option. Would you like to share your experiences upon it?
• How do you think about the efficiency of using the hybrid room?
• Would you like to share your experience on navigation bronchoscopy?
• Talk about your experience on dye marking in multiple colors for detection of multiple nodules.

Acknowledgements

None.

Footnote

Conflicts of Interest: The author has no conflicts of interest to declare.

References

1. Zhong JS. Interview with Prof. Kazuhiro Yasufuku and Prof. Xue-Ning Yang. Asvide 2016;3:252. Available online: http://www.asvide.com/articles/1012

(Science Editor: Jessie S. Zhong, ATM, editor@atmjournal.org)