1.What information do lung cancer patients need to prepare when they visit the clinic? The information that patients should bring to the clinic mainly includes four aspects: firstly, pathological information, such as pathological reports, biopsies, etc., and preferably biomarker test reports, such as EGFR and ALK, etc.; secondly, lung cancer staging information, such as imaging examinations, etc.; thirdly, information on the assessment of the overall organ function of the patient, such as heart function, liver and kidney function, etc.; fourthly, previous treatment experience, such as drug regimen and treatment effect, etc. 2.Why must pathological examination be performed? What pathological information must patients bring with them when they visit the clinic? The first thing needed for the diagnosis of lung cancer is pathological results. Some people go for a film because they are not feeling well, or they find a shadow inside the lung by chance physical examination. However, just from imaging alone, there is no way to definitively determine whether the shadow or mass is lung cancer. It could be tuberculosis, inflammation, or rheumatic immune disease. In order to clarify the benignity or malignancy of this shadow, the most fundamental thing is the pathological diagnosis result. It is unacceptable to treat benign diseases as malignant tumors in clinical practice. There are many ways to obtain pathology, such as surgical resection to obtain pathological specimens, or bronchoscopy or CT-guided puncture to obtain pathology, and possibly lymph node excision biopsy, or sputum examination. Non-invasive tests are usually recommended first, followed by less invasive tests. Eventually, a pathology report will be generated with a series of pathological findings. The minimum content should include whether the tumor is adenocarcinoma, squamous carcinoma, or small cell lung cancer. Patients should always bring their previous pathology report with them when they visit the clinic. For cases where the local diagnosis is less clear or doubtful, it is best to borrow sections from the local hospital pathology department and come to our hospital for re-pathology consultation. In addition, patients who simply wish to obtain a treatment plan at the time of consultation and still return to the local area for treatment may not necessarily bring pathology slides with them. However, for patients who wish to be treated in the future at the Medical Academy Cancer Hospital, it is better to lend out the slides and bring them to the consultation. 3.What is the meaning of lung cancer staging? What are the main examination information to clarify the staging of lung cancer? The staging of lung cancer is mainly to understand the scope of tumor lesions, organs involved, whether there are intracranial metastases, whether there are bone metastases, and lymph node involvement, etc. Different stages will directly affect the choice of the best treatment. For early stage lung cancer, doctors will recommend surgical resection and then decide whether adjuvant therapy is needed based on the postoperative pathology. For patients with locally advanced or locally progressive stage, such as stage IIIA lung cancer with concurrent mediastinal lymph node metastasis, if well managed and treated with concurrent chemoradiotherapy, patients can achieve a cured treatment outcome similar to surgery. The information to determine the tumor stage is mainly imaging findings, including enhanced chest and abdomen CT, bone scan, brain MRI, etc. Some patients may question whether PET-CT is needed; PET-CT is a functional image that is important for staging lung cancer before treatment, especially for lymph node staging. However, it has certain disadvantages: firstly, it is more expensive and often not reimbursed by medical insurance; secondly, it does not show very well for very small tumor lesions, or well differentiated lung cancer, and it is also not easy to identify some atypical tuberculosis and chronic inflammation. Therefore, for the staging of lung cancer, the most important examinations are enhanced chest and abdomen CT, bone scan and brain MRI, while the indications for PET-CT examination need to be strictly controlled. 4.What tests are included in the assessment of the overall organ function of the patient? Before treatment, the doctor needs to evaluate the overall organ function of the patient to see if the patient has any other accompanying diseases, for example, whether he/she has had heart surgery, whether he/she has diabetes, hypertension, whether the kidney function is normal, and whether he/she is infected with hepatitis B virus, etc. In general, a more comprehensive assessment of overall organ function can be made through blood sampling, electrocardiogram, ultrasound and other examinations. 5.For patients who have been treated locally, what information do I need to bring about the treatment history? Many patients have already been treated locally before coming to me, so it is best to give a brief description of the past. This is because the later treatment is based on the previous treatment, and it is difficult for the doctor to give an appropriate treatment plan if he or she does not know the past treatment history. In general, the patient needs to briefly describe the following: what treatment regimen has been used, what medications have been used, how many cycles of treatment, any evaluation after treatment, and what the results were. The evaluation after the application of a certain treatment plan is a rather important thing. After treatment, patients will undergo appropriate tests, such as CT, blood tests, etc., which can reflect the real situation of the treatment at that time and provide guidance and suggestions for further treatment. Some patients, who may doubt the accuracy of the local hospital’s examination, discard the local hospital’s examination information, which is a big no-no. Therefore, some examination data during the treatment are very precious and patients must keep them. When you visit the hospital again, be sure to bring these data. 6.Is the above mentioned examination done in the local hospital or in the medical academy cancer hospital when you come to the clinic? This question involves two situations. If the patient comes to the clinic and only wants to inquire about the treatment plan, and then returns to the local hospital for treatment, he/she can have the examination done locally and bring the information of the local examination to the clinic. If the patient wishes to come to our hospital for subsequent treatment, then it is best to have the subsequent examination done in our hospital so that duplicate examinations can be avoided. 7.Does the patient need to sort out the information when he/she visits the hospital in order to facilitate the doctor’s visit? Some patients will hold a large pile of information when they visit the hospital, without categorizing and organizing it. Some may even take the daily checkout sheets from previous hospitalizations, and some of the checkout sheets have trade names for medications, and because of the many drug manufacturers, the doctor may not even be able to quickly understand which specific medication the patient is applying. When this happens, the doctor has to spend a lot of time organizing the information for the patient and looking for the patient’s past treatment experience from a large pile of information. After that, the doctor can sort out the ideas to communicate the follow-up treatment plan to the patient. However, some patients will sort out the treatment process in chronological order, and some even make a curve of the tests so that the doctor can see it at a glance. In this case, the doctor will soon be able to fully understand his previous treatment process and current physical condition, and will then have more time to communicate with the patient about future treatment. Therefore, it is advisable for the patient to have his previous information sorted when he visits the clinic. The patient should be classified according to the above mentioned four aspects: pathology, stage, systemic organ function, and past treatment.