Chemotherapy of malignant mesothelioma

Our plain-English summary of Chemotherapy of malignant mesothelioma, by R.E. Gerner, G.E. Moore (Oncology, 1974).

The study

• Authors: R.E. Gerner, G.E. Moore
• Journal: Oncology
• Published: 1974;30(2):152-5
• Cited by: 21 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

Six patients with malignant mesothelioma were treated with various chemotherapeutic agents. Two of three patients treated with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) had relatively prolonged complete responses. The possible antitumor effect of 5-FU in malignant mesothelioma should be confirmed by a larger series or collection of cases.

PubMed has no abstract for this study. This is the authors' abstract, copied from the article.

In plain English

This 1974 report from the Roswell Park Memorial Institute in Buffalo, New York, described six adult patients (five men and one woman) with malignant mesothelioma treated with various anticancer drugs through 1973. The tumor started in the pleura (lining of the chest) in five patients and in the peritoneum (lining of the abdomen) in one. Because the drugs, doses and routes differed between patients, the authors presented the cases as individual case histories. Two of the three patients given 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) had complete regressions that the authors called relatively prolonged. In one of them, a remission lasted 18 months. The third 5-FU patient, the one with peritoneal mesothelioma, showed no tumor response. The drug methyl-GAG shrank measurable tumor by 50 percent for 2 months in one patient. No tumor-killing effect was seen with thio-tepa, DTIC, adriamycin or glucosamine. The authors concluded that the possible effect of 5-FU against mesothelioma should be confirmed in a larger series or collection of cases. The article does not discuss asbestos exposure.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Case series: six patients described as individual case histories
• Who was studied: Six adult patients (5 male, 1 female) with malignant mesothelioma treated at Roswell Park Memorial Institute, Buffalo, N.Y., through 1973. The primary tumor was pleural in 5 and peritoneal in 1.
• Exposure: The article reports no asbestos or other exposure history. What it studied was treatment with chemotherapy drugs (5-fluorouracil, thio-tepa, glucosamine, methyl-GAG, cyclophosphamide, DTIC, adriamycin, and a multiple-drug combination), with differing doses and routes. One patient also had chest radiation.
• Main results:
  • Two of the three patients treated with 5-FU had relatively prolonged complete responses after intravenous 5-FU.
  • In Case 6 (pleural mesothelioma), the remission after 5-FU lasted 18 months.
  • In Case 5, intravenous 5-FU produced complete regression of the neck mass and pleural thickening lasting 6 months before the lesions reappeared.
  • In Case 1 (peritoneal mesothelioma), oral 5-FU for 5 months had no tumor-killing effect.
  • Methyl-GAG produced a 50 percent regression of measurable lesions lasting 2 months in one patient.
  • One patient treated with multiple-drug chemotherapy and cyclophosphamide had a beneficial subjective response.
  • No tumor-killing effect was observed with thio-tepa, DTIC, adriamycin or glucosamine.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that the possible antitumor effect of 5-FU in malignant mesothelioma should be confirmed by a larger series or collection of cases.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • Treatment differed between patients in drug, dose and route, so the cases could only be presented as individual case histories.

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Mesothelioma, Peritoneal mesothelioma.

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Chemotherapy, Malignant Mesothelioma, Fluorouracil (5-FU).

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