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Journal Articles on Mesothelioma: Cancer Information for Patients and Families

Archive for the 'Survival' Category

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October 22nd, 2008. A case of solid pseudopapillary tumour of the pancreas and malignant mesothelioma

Discussion: An abdominal computerised tomogram revealed pancreatic body mass arising. Pleural fluid cytology and a pleural biopsy failed to demonstrate malignancy. The pancreatic tumour was resected by distal pancreatectomy, segmental colectomy and splenectomy. The tumour was a solid pseudopapillary pancreatic tumour (SPT) with a high metastatic potential. The patient deteriorated and a repeat biopsy of the thickened pleura confirmed malignancy which was initially thought to be metastases from the SPT. Immunohistochemical staining confirmed malignant mesothelioma. The patient developed liver metastases and died 2 years from the diagnosis of metastatic disease.

October 18th, 2008. Carboplatin and pemetrexed in the management of malignant pleural mesothelioma: A realistic treatment option?

Conclusion: The combination of carboplatin and pemetrexed may be a viable option in the treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma.

October 16th, 2008. Histologic assessment and prognostic factors of malignant pleural mesothelioma treated with extrapleural pneumonectomy

Postoperative treatment was associated with DSS and with recurrence-free survival. Our study confirms that in many cases, final histopathologic typing of MPM is influenced by complete surgical resection and that initial biopsy should be carefully weighed in the treatment stratification.

September 27th, 2008. Treatment of peritoneal mesothelioma in pediatric patients

Treatment was well tolerated, and three of these patients have achieved long-term survival. The fathers of three of the patients worked in the construction industry and may have been the source of indirect asbestos exposure.

September 23rd, 2008. Pleural fluid findings as prognostic factors for malignant pleural mesothelioma

However, none of these variables emerged as statistically significant from the multivariate Cox model. In conclusion, our results showed that there is an inverse correlation between the intensity of inflammation and survival.

September 23rd, 2008. The impact of lymph node station on survival in 348 patients with surgically resected malignant pleural mesothelioma: implications for revision of the American Joint Committee on Cancer staging system

Conclusion: This study confirms a preferential pattern of drainage of malignant pleural mesothelioma to N2 rather than N1 lymph nodes, but suggests that N1 only nodal involvement should be classified as lower stage disease. Multiple N2 nodal site involvement could potentially be classified as higher stage disease than single station N2. Our results emphasize the need for larger, confirmatory multicenter studies that could lead to revision of the current staging system.

September 23rd, 2008. Predicted mortality from malignant mesothelioma among women exposed to blue asbestos at Wittenoom, Western Australia

Conclusion: The high toll from mesothelioma in this cohort of women and girls will continue well into the future.

September 16th, 2008. Survival of peritoneal malignant mesothelioma in Italy: a population-based study

Treatment was not associated with a statistically significant improvement in survival, but our study included cases first diagnosed before the introduction of the most recent therapeutic approaches. This provides a large historical comparison for future studies on survival trends at the population level.

September 6th, 2008. Prevention of malignant seeding at drain sites after invasive procedures (surgery and/or thoracoscopy) by hypofractionated radiotherapy in patients with pleural mesothelioma

Discussion: The present study shows the efficacy and safety of local radiotherapy in preventing malignant seeding after thoracoscopy in patients with pleural mesothelioma although larger prospective trials are probably still needed to validate this treatment approach.

August 9th, 2008. Mesothelioma mortality in Brazil, 1980-2003

Mortality was highest among males and people over age 65. Given the history of asbestos exposure in Brazil, our findings support the need for policies that limit or ban the use of this product.

August 5th, 2008. Current status and future strategies of cytoreductive surgery plus intraperitoneal hyperthermic chemotherapy for peritoneal carcinomatosis

In spite of the need for more high quality phase III studies, there is now a consensus among many surgical oncology experts throughout the world about the use of this new treatment strategy as standard care for colorectal cancer patients with PC. This review summarizes the current status and possible progress in future.

August 5th, 2008. Surgical treatment of peritoneal carcinomatosis with reduction surgery and perioperative chemotherapy

An organ resection should thus be performed. The patient is then referred to a specialized center, either within the ten days following the procedure, or after three months, most of the time after an adjuvant therapy.

July 29th, 2008. Open lung-sparing surgery for malignant pleural mesothelioma: the benefits of a radical approach within multimodality therapy

Conclusion: If a patient with epithelioid MPM is fit enough to tolerate a thoracotomy then macroscopic clearance of the tumour is the preferred option as part of a multimodality regime including chemotherapy.

July 11th, 2008. Incidence of atrial fibrillation after extrapleural pneumonectomy versus pleurectomy in patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma

The increased odds of having AF after EPP could be due to right heart stress caused by pneumonectomy. Increased right heart stress might not be sufficient to cause AF alone, but may be an important risk factor that warrants further investigation.

July 3rd, 2008. Pemetrexed plus cisplatin or pemetrexed plus carboplatin for chemonaïve patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma: results of the International Expanded Access Program

Conclusion: This large EAP confirmed the activity of pemetrexed plus cisplatin and pemetrexed plus carboplatin in chemonaive patients with MPM, demonstrating clinically similar time to progressive disease and 1-year survival rates.

July 3rd, 2008. Single-agent pemetrexed for chemonaïve and pretreated patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma: results of an International Expanded Access Program

Conclusions: In the present expanded access program, single-agent pemetrexed demonstrated promising activity in MPM in both chemonaïve and pretreated patients, with TTPD of 6.0 and 4.9 months, respectively, 1-year survival >or=54.7%, and mild hematologic toxicity.

July 1st, 2008. Morbidity, mortality, mean survival, and the impact of histology on survival after pleurectomy in 64 patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma

Conclusion: Our results show that pleurectomy can be performed as a means of palliation for advanced-stage disease with a low mortality rate and may, in fact, improve survival in patients with epithelial subtype as compared with historical controls in the literature with no surgical intervention.

July 1st, 2008. Malignant mesothelioma with heterologous elements: clinicopathological correlation of 27 cases and literature review

Immunohistochemical labelling for cytokeratins is helpful in the distinction, but lack of labelling for cytokeratins in a spindle cell/sarcomatoid tumour does not exclude the diagnosis of mesothelioma, irrespective of the presence of heterologous elements. We suggest that if the anatomical distribution conforms to that of mesothelioma, a diagnosis of heterologous mesothelioma should be made in preference to a diagnosis of primary pleural osteosarcoma or chondrosarcoma, regardless of cytokeratin positivity, as for conventional non-heterologous sarcomatoid mesothelioma.

June 26th, 2008. Piroxicam and intracavitary platinum-based chemotherapy for the treatment of advanced mesothelioma in pets: preliminary observations

The therapy was able to arrest the effusion in all patients for variable remission times: one dog is still in remission after 3 years, one dog died of progressive disease after 8 months and one cat died due to progressive neoplastic growth after six months, when the patient developed a mesothelial cuirass. The combination showed remarkable efficacy at controlling the malignant effusion secondary to MM in our patients and warrants further investigations.

June 26th, 2008. Induction of apoptosis by intrapleural perfusion hyperthermo-chemotherapy for malignant pleural mesothelioma

Conclusion: In patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma, intrapleural perfusion hyperthermo-chemotherapy induced potent apoptosis of tumor cells, increasing immediately postperfusion and peaking at 24 h.