Mesothelioma Publication - Greece

This is an abstract of an article about mesothelioma published at PubMed by the NIH.  The study reported in this article took place at Alexandra Hospital in Athens, Greece.

Primary malignant mesothelioma of the peritoneum: a clinical and immunohistochemical study.

Markaki S, Protopapas A, Milingos S, Lazaris D, Antsaklis A, Michalas S.
Department of Histopathology, Alexandra Hospital, Athens, Greece.
Gynecol Oncol. 2005 Mar;96(3):860-4.

BACKGROUND: Primary peritoneal mesothelioma is regarded as a fatal disease that presents with progressive ascites at a relatively late stage of its natural history. Differential diagnosis between this rare tumor and both serous papillary carcinoma of the peritoneum and ovary can be problematic.

CASE: A 54-year-old woman presented to our institution with a 4-month history of dull epigastric pain and increased abdominal girth. Exploratory laparotomy revealed the presence of extensive intraperitoneal dissemination of a malignant neoplasm without a recognizable primary site. Suboptimal cytoreduction was carried out, and histological diagnosis was that of a malignant epithelioid mesothelioma. This was confirmed with a panel of immunohistochemical markers. The patient despite having a complete response after adjuvant chemotherapy died 18 months after primary surgery.

CONCLUSION: No single immunohistochemical stain is pathognomonic of peritoneal primary malignant mesothelioma (PMM), and the results of a panel of antibodies should be interpreted to set the diagnosis.

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