Invited commentary

Our plain-English summary of Invited commentary, by C.P. Clarke (The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, 2011).

The study

• Author: C.P. Clarke
• Journal: The Annals of Thoracic Surgery
• Published: 2011;91(6):1745-6
• Type of article: Comment
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This invited commentary on a study by Friedberg and colleagues reported no new data. The author wrote that photodynamic therapy (PDT) alongside surgery for malignant mesothelioma had been studied for years but was limited by how deep its activating light reached, usually only a few millimeters. The author summarized that, in the Friedberg series, patients who had a radical pleurectomy with intraoperative PDT had a better median overall survival than those who had an extrapleural pneumonectomy with intraoperative PDT. The author noted that this was a retrospective study with relatively small numbers, and that patient demographics in the two groups were similar. The author called the result encouraging and said it merited further study, because of the long lag between asbestos exposure and mesothelioma. The author added that this lag, together with the lung fibrosis asbestos exposure often induces, means most sufferers are old with limited lung reserve and not suitable for pleuropneumonectomy. The author endorsed the study authors' point that recurrence is often local and much easier to re-treat after radical pleurectomy than after pleuropneumonectomy.

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: invited commentary (opinion piece on another study; no original data)
• Who was studied: No population was studied directly; the commentary discussed the patient series reported by Friedberg and colleagues
• Exposure: No exposure was studied; asbestos exposure was mentioned as the cause of the long lag before mesothelioma develops
• Main results:
  • The author stated that PDT is limited by the depth the activating light can penetrate tissue, usually only a few millimeters
  • The author's account of the Friedberg study: patients who had radical pleurectomy plus intraoperative PDT had better median overall survival than those who had extrapleural pneumonectomy plus intraoperative PDT
  • The author noted the Friedberg study was retrospective with relatively small numbers, but patient demographics in both groups were similar
  • The author stated that most sufferers are old with limited pulmonary reserves and not suitable candidates for pleuropneumonectomy
  • The author called it a pertinent point by the study authors that recurrence is often local and much easier to re-treat after radical pleurectomy than after pleuropneumonectomy
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that the Friedberg findings were encouraging and merited further study

Topics

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

Related studies

• Invited commentary — L. Lang-Lazdunski (2015)
• Photodynamic therapy and the evolution of a lung-sparing surgical treatment for mesothelioma — J.S. Friedberg, R. Mick, et al. (2011)
• Invited commentary — R.M. Flores (2014)
• Invited commentary — B.C. Tong (2014)
• Invited commentary — D. Rice (2010)
• Invited commentary — V.W. Rusch (2015)

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