MESOTHELIOMA PUBLICATION
Long-term prognostic analysis of patients with mesothelioma

This is an abstract of an article about the prognostic analysis of patients with mesothelioma, published at PubMed by the NIH.

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE: Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is a rare disease with poor prognosis. This study was to analyze long-term results, and prognostic factors of patients with MPM.

METHODS: Records of 24 patients with MPM, proved by pathology or cytology, treated in our hospital from Jan. 1988 to Dec. 2001 were analyzed retrospectively. Of the 24 patients, 12 received chemotherapy alone (1-6 cycles of cisplatin-based regimens), 7 received surgery plus postoperative chemotherapy (1-6 cycles of cisplatin-based regimens), and 5 received surgery plus postoperative radiotherapy. Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank test were used to evaluate the survival rates. Cox regression model was used to explore prognostic factors of MPM.

RESULTS: Of the 24 patients, 1-, 3-, and 5-year survival rates were 37.5%, 20.8%, and 4.2%, respectively,with a median survival time of 9 monthsu those in chemotherapy group were 16.7%, 0, and 0, respectively, with a median survival time of 5 monthsu in surgery plus chemotherapy group were 28.6%, 14.3%, and 0, respectively, with a median survival time of 10 monthsu in surgery plus radiotherapy group were 100.0%, 80.0%, and 20.0%, respectively, with a median survival time of 42 months. There were significant differences among 3 groups (Chi(2)=11.93, P =0.002). Multivariate analysis showed that clinical classification (P=0.038), and mode of treatment (P=0.005) were independent prognostic factors of MPM.

CONCLUSION: Mode of treatment, and clinical classification are independent prognostic factors for patients with MPM.