Malignant Mesothelioma and Central Nervous System Metastases: Report of two cases, Pooled Analysis and Systematic Review

Annals of the American Thoracic Society. 2014 July 31. [Epub ahead of print] [Link]

Miller AC, Miettinen M, Schrump DS, Hassan R.

Abstract

Objective

The incidence and patterns of metastatic disease to the central nervous system (CNS) from malignant mesothelioma (MM) is not well characterized. We describe the treatment of two cases of pleural MM with CNS metastases. We also report the results of a systematic review with pooled data analysis of CNS metastases from MM.

Data Sources

PubMed, Scopus, EMBASE, and Web of Science were searched to identify relevant published studies.

Study Selection

Inclusion criteria for the pooled analysis were any clinical or autopsy study in which a) patients had a confirmed histological diagnosis of MM, b) CNS metastasis was identified by autopsy, clinical pathological specimen or compelling radiographic imaging. Case reports were excluded from the pooled analysis but were incorporated into the discussion.

Data Extraction

One-hundred forty-one potentially relevant references were identified. Seven studies including 655 patients were included in the pooled analysis. Ninety-seven additional cases were identified and incorporated into the discussion.

Data Synthesis

A systematic review of the literature is provided with pooled data analysis.

Conclusions

A systematic review of the literature is provided with pooled data analysis.