Hashimoto M, et al. - In non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who underwent lobectomy or bi-lobectomy through open thoracotomy, researchers assessed the correlation between the changes in the circulating tumor cells (CTC) count in pulmonary venous blood (pvCTC)[(ΔpvCTC)] and clinical outcomes. In completely resected NSCLC patients, a significant correlation was observed, between increasing pvCTC count during surgical manipulation and postoperative distant metastasis. Furthermore, significant shorter time to distant metastasis (TDM) was observed in patient with high ΔpvCTC group.