Mesothelin and osteopontin

Our plain-English summary of Mesothelin and osteopontin, by G. Hillerdal (The European Respiratory Journal, 2013).

The study

• Author: G. Hillerdal
• Journal: The European Respiratory Journal
• Published: 2013;42(2):557
• Type of article: Letter, Comment
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This item is a letter to the editor, not a research study, and reported no new data. The author, from Karolinska Hospital in Stockholm, commented on a review by Pantazopoulos and colleagues about mesothelin and osteopontin. The author questioned the review's statement that patients with early-stage disease can survive more than five years after prompt resection, saying it implied that resection benefits the patient, which the author called far from proven. According to the author, the only randomised study, the much-criticised MARS study in England, showed that resection considerably shortened survival; the letter's reference list shows that trial tested extra-pleural pneumonectomy. The author added that good survival in other surgical series could be explained by very strict patient selection. The author also called the review's claim that early diagnosis offers the best hope an unproven hypothesis, pointing to lead time bias. The author wrote that screening for mesothelioma in risk groups is not indicated at present. The author agreed with the review that mesothelin, in serum or pleura, can aid diagnosis and monitoring for recurrence. The letter 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: letter to the editor commenting on a published review; no new data
• Main results:
  • The author did not dispute the review's statement about survival after resection. The author objected that the statement implies resection benefits the patient, which the author called far from proven.
  • The author stated that the randomised MARS study in England, which the author called much criticised, showed that resection considerably shortened survival. This is the author's description of another study, not a finding of this letter.
  • According to the letter's reference list, the MARS study compared extra-pleural pneumonectomy with no extra-pleural pneumonectomy for malignant pleural mesothelioma.
  • The author argued that good survival in surgical series such as Sugarbaker et al. can be explained by very strict patient selection.
  • The author called the idea that early diagnosis improves prognosis an unproven hypothesis, noting lead time bias.
  • The author agreed with the review that mesothelin, in serum or pleura, can aid diagnosis and be used to monitor patients for recurrence.
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that screening for mesothelioma in risk groups is not indicated at present, because it has not been shown that early discovery improves prognosis.

Topics

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

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Mesothelin, Osteopontin.

Related studies

• Combined serum mesothelin and plasma osteopontin measurements in malignant pleural mesothelioma — A. Cristaudo, A. Bonotti, et al. (2011)
• Plasma versus serum levels of osteopontin and mesothelin in patients with malignant mesothelioma--which is best? — J. Creaney, D. Yeoman, et al. (2011)
• Effectiveness of mesothelin family proteins and osteopontin for malignant mesothelioma — I. Pantazopoulos, P. Boura, et al. (2013)
• Changes of mesothelin and osteopontin levels over time in formerly asbestos-exposed power industry workers — M.K. Felten, K. Khatab, et al. (2014)
• Mesothelin and osteopontin — I. Pantazopoulos, T. Xanthos, et al. (2013)
• Soluble mesothelin, megakaryocyte potentiating factor, and osteopontin as markers of patient response and outcome in mesothelioma — K. Hollevoet, K. Nackaerts, et al. (2011)

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