Early mesothelioma revisited

Our plain-English summary of Early mesothelioma revisited, by S. Hasegawa (International Journal of Clinical Oncology, 2012).

The study

• Author: S. Hasegawa
• Journal: International Journal of Clinical Oncology
• Published: 2012;17(1):30-2
• Cited by: 3 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This short article introduced a set of review articles on early malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM). It reported no new research; all figures came from other studies. Citing a Japanese registry, the author noted that 5-year survival for surgical lung cancer cases rose from 51.9% in 1996 to 69.6% in 2004. For MPM, median survival after diagnosis is about 1 year, and after trimodality treatment does not reach 20 months in most large studies. The author cited longer median survival in early-stage MPM: 28.3 months in 12 of 188 patients with only nonspecific inflammation at thoracoscopy, treated only with talc poudrage; 38 months after surgery in stage I patients; and 59 months in Toronto patients with N0 to N1 nodal status who completed trimodality treatment. The author described such reports as having low levels of evidence and stated there is no established evidence that early discovery enables cure, or even improves survival by many months. The author concluded that diagnosing MPM earlier may be a practical way to obtain better survival. The article did 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: Introduction to a series of review articles (a short commentary). It contains no original data, and all figures are cited from other studies.
• Main results:
  • Cited from another study, not this article's own data: in the Japanese Lung Cancer Registry, 5-year survival for all surgical lung cancer cases was 51.9% in 1996 and 69.6% in 2004.
  • Cited from other studies: median survival after diagnosis of MPM is approximately 1 year.
  • Cited from other studies: median survival after trimodality treatment (induction chemotherapy, extrapleural pneumonectomy and postoperative radiation) does not reach 20 months in most large studies.
  • Cited from a study by Boutin: among 188 MPM patients who had thoracoscopy, 12 (6.5%) showed only nonspecific inflammation. Median survival in these 12 patients was 28.3 months, with no treatment other than talc poudrage.
  • Cited from a Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center report: median survival after extrapleural pneumonectomy or pleurectomy/decortication in AJCC stage I patients was 38 months.
  • Cited from a Toronto group report: median survival in the N0 to N1 subgroup that completed trimodality treatment was 59 months.
  • Cited from another study: a prospective randomized trial demonstrated a benefit of early chemotherapy.
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that, with the treatments currently available, diagnosing MPM earlier may be a practical way to obtain better survival.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The author stated that there is currently no established evidence that early discovery of MPM will enable cure, or even improve survival by many months.
  • The author stated that the reports showing better survival in early-stage MPM have low levels of evidence.

Topics

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

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Mesothelioma.

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