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Introduction Adding neurokinin-1 receptor antagonist (NK1RA) to 5-hydroxytryptamine-3 receptor antagonist and dexamethasone (DEX) improved carboplatin (CBDCA)- induced chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) in patients with thoracic cancer. NK1RAs with highdrug cost are raising medical expenses. Olanzapine (OLZ) is less expensive and can be expected to have an excellent effect on CINV. This phase II trial aimed at evaluating the efficacy and safety of 5 mg OLZ plus granisetron (GRN) and DEX in CBDCA combination therapy with area under curve (AUC) =5 mg/mL/min for the prevention of nausea and vomiting in patients with thoracic cancer. Methods and analysis This is an open-label, singlearm, multicentre, phase II trial. Patients who receive CBDCA-based therapies (AUC =5) and have never been administered moderate to high emetogenic chemotherapy will be enrolled. All patients will receive a combination of GRN, DEX and OLZ. The primary endpoint is complete response (CR) rate, defined as the absence of emetic episodes and no use of rescue medication for 120 hours after the initiation of CBDCA. Forty-eight patients are required based on our hypothesis that this regimen can improve CR rate from 65% (null hypothesis) to 80% (alternative hypothesis) with a one-sided type I error of 0.1 and a power of 0.8. We set the target sample size at 50 considering dropouts. Ethics and dissemination The study protocol was approved by the institutional review board at each of the participating centres. Data will be presented at international conferences and published in peer-reviewed journals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Endobronchial ultrasonography (EBUS) facilitates a lung cancer diagnosis. However, qualitative tissue characterization of lung tumors is difficult using EBUS. Integrated backscatter (IBS) is an ultrasound technique that calculates the power of the ultrasound signal to characterize tissue components in coronary arteries. We hypothesized that qualitative diagnosis of lung tumors is possible using the IBS technique. The aim of the present study was to elucidate whether the IBS technique can be used in lung tissue diagnoses.Methods: Thirty-five consecutive patients who underwent surgery for lung cancer were prospectively enrolled. Surgical specimens of the lung and the tumor tissue were obtained, and the IBS values were measured within 48 h after surgery. Histologic images of lung and tumor tissues were compared with IBS values, and the relative interstitial area according to results of Masson's trichrome staining were determined by using an imaging processor.Results: The IBS values in tumor tissue were significantly lower than those in normal lung tissue (-50.9 ± 2.6 dB and -47.6 ± 2.6 dB, respectively; P < .001). The IBS values of adenocarcinomas associated with a good 5-year survival rate were higher than those of non-adenocarcinomas (-48.1 ± 1.6 dB and -52.6 ± 1.4 dB; P < .001). There were significant correlations between the IBS values and the relative interstitial area or micro air area in tumor (r = 0.53 and r = 0.67; P < .01). After combining normal lung tissue and adenocarcinomas with a good prognosis, the sensitivity and specificity for establishing the presence of lung tumors were 84% and 85%.Conclusions: Qualitative diagnosis of lung tumors was possible, with a sensitivity of 84% and a specificity of 85%, using the ultrasound IBS technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]