Malignant mesothelioma in children: report of seven cases and review of the literature

Our plain-English summary of Malignant mesothelioma in children: report of seven cases and review of the literature, by J. Brenner, P.P. Sordillo, G.B. Magill (Medical and Pediatric Oncology, 1981).

The study

• Authors: J. Brenner, P.P. Sordillo, G.B. Magill
• Journal: Medical and Pediatric Oncology
• Published: 1981;9(4):367-73
• Type of article: Case report, Review
• Cited by: 62 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher
• In J-M's library: Johns-Manville's company medical library held a copy (J-M no. 001989).

Abstract

Seven children with malignant mesothelioma have been seen at Memorial Hospital since 1953. In six, the origin was at the pleura and in one at the peritoneum. None of the patients related a history of exposure to asbestos. Two patients lived more than five years. The other five patients died within two years of the diagnosis. Distant metastases were seen in four of the patients, including three who had metastases to brain. Surgery or radiotherapy were not effective in controlling the disease in most of the patients. One patient had a complete response to a combination of Adriamycin, cyclophosphamide, and vincristine and has remained free of disease for 5 1/2 years. The seven cases are reviewed, as are the other 42 cases of malignant mesothelioma in children reported in the literature.

In plain English

This article combined a case series with a review of the medical literature. The authors described seven children and teenagers with malignant mesothelioma seen at Memorial Hospital in New York since 1953. Of the 148 patients with malignant mesothelioma seen there between 1950 and 1980, only these seven were younger than 20. The case reports describe patients aged 5 to 17. In six the tumor began in the pleura (the lining of the chest) and in one in the peritoneum (the lining of the abdomen). None of the patients reported a history of asbestos exposure, and none had parents who worked with asbestos. Two patients lived more than five years. Four developed distant spread, three of them to the brain. One girl had a complete response to Adriamycin, cyclophosphamide and vincristine and was free of disease five and a half years after diagnosis. Across all 49 childhood cases the authors gathered, 40 of the 47 with a known site were pleural. Median survival was eight months in the 23 cases with survival recorded. The authors concluded that mesotheliomas in children are especially aggressive.

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 of seven patients from one hospital, plus a review of 42 other childhood cases reported in the literature (49 in total)
• Who was studied: Seven patients younger than 20 with malignant mesothelioma seen at Memorial Hospital (Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center), New York. Of the 148 malignant mesothelioma patients seen there between 1950 and 1980, only these seven were younger than 20. The case reports describe patients aged 5 to 17.
• Exposure: No asbestos exposure was reported by any of the seven patients, and none had parents who worked with asbestos
• Main results:
  • Of the seven Memorial Hospital patients, six had tumors originating in the pleura and one in the peritoneum
  • None of the seven Memorial Hospital patients had parents who worked with asbestos
  • Two of the seven Memorial Hospital patients lived more than five years; the other five died within two years of diagnosis
  • Four of the seven Memorial Hospital patients developed distant metastases
  • Three of the seven Memorial Hospital patients had brain metastases
  • One Memorial Hospital patient (case VII, a 16-year-old girl) had a complete response to Adriamycin, cyclophosphamide and vincristine and was free of disease five and a half years after diagnosis
  • One Memorial Hospital patient developed mesothelioma in the same lung where she had had a spontaneous pneumothorax four years earlier
  • Among the 47 of the 49 reviewed childhood cases in which the site was noted, 40 (85%) were pleural and seven (15%) peritoneal
  • Among the 40 reviewed children with pleural mesothelioma there were 27 boys and 13 girls; among the 7 with peritoneal mesothelioma there were five females and two males
  • In the 23 reviewed childhood cases in which survival was noted, median survival was eight months, and only three patients survived more than five years
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that mesotheliomas in children are especially aggressive. They called the complete response to chemotherapy in one of their patients encouraging, and suggested that aggressive multimodality treatment be considered in such patients.

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: Mesothelioma, Pleura, Peritoneum.

Related studies

• Malignant peritoneal mesothelioma in children: description of two cases and review of the literature — M. Kovalivker, A. Motovic (1985)
• Cytoreductive surgery and hyperthermic intraperitoneal perfusion with chemotherapy in children with peritoneal tumor spread: A French nationwide study over 14 years — A. Scalabre, P. Philippe-Chomette, et al. (2018)
• Primary malignant peritoneal mesothelioma. A report of seven cases and a review of the literature — J.A. Asensio, P. Goldblatt, et al. (1990)
• Mesothelioma in children and adolescents: the European Cooperative Study Group for Pediatric Rare Tumors (EXPeRT) contribution — D. Orbach, N. André, et al. (2020)
• Cytoreductive surgery and Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy (HIPEC) for children, adolescents, and young adults: the first 50 cases — A. Hayes-Jordan, H. Green, et al. (2015)
• Are children more vulnerable to mesothelioma than adults? A comparison of mesothelioma risk among children and adults exposed non-occupationally to blue asbestos at Wittenoom — A. Reid, P. Franklin, et al. (2018)

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