Editorial comment May cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), p21 and p27 expression affect prognosis and therapeutic strategy of patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma?

Our plain-English summary of Editorial comment May cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), p21 and p27 expression affect prognosis and therapeutic strategy of patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma?, by I. Opitz (European Journal of Cardio-thoracic Surgery, 2010).

The study

• Author: I. Opitz
• Journal: European Journal of Cardio-thoracic Surgery
• Published: 2010;38(3):252-3
• Type of article: Comment, Editorial
• Cited by: 1 article, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This article was an editorial comment, not an original study. The author commented on a paper by Mineo and colleagues at the University of Rome. That paper looked back at 77 consecutive patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma and measured three tumor proteins: COX-2, p21 and p27. As the author described it, high COX-2 together with low p21 and p27 was the only independent predictor of shorter overall survival in that study. The author noted that the paper reported 65 patients with negative resection margins out of 27 extrapleural pneumonectomies and 44 pleurectomy/decortications. In the author's experience, even extrapleural pneumonectomy is in most cases only an R1 resection. The author also pointed out that patients were not treated uniformly and that 8% had no surgery other than pleurodesis. The author concluded that the results justified further research on these markers. Any suggestion that patients with this marker pattern should receive less aggressive treatment, the author wrote, should be taken with caution and confirmed in a uniformly treated group.

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: Editorial comment on a retrospective study by Mineo et al.
• Who was studied: The study commented on: 77 consecutive patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma treated at the Department of Thoracic Surgery, University of Rome, observed over more than 20 years
• Exposure: No asbestos exposure is discussed. The commented study examined tumor expression of COX-2, p21 and p27 measured by immunohistochemistry.
• Main results:
  • As reported by the editorial: in the Mineo et al. study, the combination of high COX-2 with low p21 and p27 expression was the only independent prognostic factor for shorter overall survival among all factors analysed.
  • The author noted that the Mineo et al. paper reported 65 patients with negative resection margins out of 27 extrapleural pneumonectomies and 44 pleurectomy/decortications.
  • The author stated that, in the author's own experience, even extrapleural pneumonectomy is in most cases only an R1 resection.
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that the results justify further investigation of COX-2, p21 and p27. Research must continue until these markers can guide treatment decisions for a subgroup of patients or serve as a therapeutic target.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The author pointed out that patients in the commented study were not uniformly treated: some had surgery alone and others had various multimodal treatments.
  • The author advised caution about the suggestion that less aggressive treatment might be preferred for patients with this marker pattern, because the number of patients was relatively small and 8% had no surgery except pleurodesis.
  • The author stated that the finding needs confirmation in a uniformly treated patient group.
  • The author noted that the commented paper did not report how the different markers related to one another.

Topics

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

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

Related studies

• May cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), p21 and p27 expression affect prognosis and therapeutic strategy of patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma? — T.C. Mineo, V. Ambrogi, et al. (2010)
• Aquaporins 1, 3 and 5 in Different Tumors, their Expression, Prognosis Value and Role as New Therapeutic Targets — M.S. Moosavi, Y. Elham (2020)
• CD70 expression correlates with a worse prognosis in malignant pleural mesothelioma patients via immune evasion and enhanced invasiveness — S. Inaguma, J. Lasota, et al. (2020)
• DCLK1 is correlated with MET and ERK5 expression, and associated with prognosis in malignant pleural mesothelioma — H. Wang, Y.Y. Dai, et al. (2017)
• Tumoral CD10 expression correlates with aggressive histology and prognosis in patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma — K. Kadota, J. Villena-Vargas, et al. (2015)
• Sustained expression of steroid receptor coactivator SRC-2/TIF-2 is associated with better prognosis in malignant pleural mesothelioma — C.J. Jennings, A. O'Grady, et al. (2012)

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