Antonoff, Mara B.

Every effort must be made by the leaders in our field, as well as by every individual cardiothoracic surgeon, to assure equal opportunity for all cardiothoracic surgeons, regardless of race, gender or any other sociodemographic source of bias. Every effort must be made by every surgeon, not just those in particular leadership roles. Opportunities for advancement must be equal in multiple domains, including clinical practice, patient referral, clinical leadership, academic leadership, institutional leadership and leadership in professional medical and surgical societies. Such actions to minimize bias and promote inclusivity will also ensure that cardiothoracic surgical care is provided by a workforce that represents the diversity of patients whom we serve. In the final analysis, it is an absolute fact that gender differences in payments to cardiothoracic surgeons are absolutely unacceptable and cannot be tolerated.

AbstractBackground and ObjectivesPrecision medicine has altered the management of colorectal cancer (CRC). However, the concordance of mutational findings between primary CRC tumors and associated pulmonary metastases (PM) is not well‐described. This study aims to determine the concordance of genomic profiles between primary CRC and PM.MethodsPatients treated for colorectal PM at a single institution from 2000 to 2017 were identified. Mutational concordance was defined as either both wild‐type or both mutant alleles in lung and colorectal lesion; genes with opposing mutational profiles were reported as discordant.ResultsThirty‐eight patients met inclusion criteria, among whom KRAS, BRAF, NRAS, MET, RET, and PIK3CA were examined for concordance. High concordance was demonstrated among all evaluated genes, ranging from 86% (KRAS) to 100% concordance (NRAS, RET, and MET). De novo KRAS mutations were detected in the PM of 4 from 35 (11%) patients, 3 of whom had previously received anti‐epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) therapy. Evaluation of Cohen's κ statistic demonstrated moderate to perfect correlation among evaluated genes.ConclusionsBecause high intertumoral genomic homogeneity exists, it may be reasonable to use primary CRC mutational profiles to guide prognostication and targeted therapy for PM. However, the possibility of de novo KRAS‐mutant PM should be considered, particularly among patients previously treated with anti‐EGFR therapy.