Mesothelioma

Our plain-English summary of Mesothelioma, by A.S. Tsao (Journal of Thoracic Oncology, 2012).

The study

• Author: A.S. Tsao
• Journal: Journal of Thoracic Oncology
• Published: 2012;7(16 Suppl 5):S399-400
• Type of article: Review
• Cited by: 1 article, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This article is not an original study. It is a short written summary of a mesothelioma conference session made up of three presentations, published in a journal supplement. The first presentation reviewed drug trials. In one trial of sunitinib, four of 22 patients had a partial response. In a placebo-controlled trial of vorinostat, median overall survival was 31 weeks with vorinostat and 27 weeks with placebo. The second presentation covered the immunotherapy drug tremelimumab, which produced two partial responses among 22 evaluable patients. The third, given by the author, reviewed biomarkers. These included inherited mutations seen in Cappadocia, Turkey, linked to erionite exposure, and BAP1 mutations. The article states that asbestos exposure is suspected to lead BAP1 carriers to develop mesothelioma before uveal melanoma, and that higher osteopontin levels are seen in asbestos workers who develop mesothelioma. The author concluded that the blood marker SMRP can be used after surgery to identify recurrent disease, and that prognostic biomarkers still need prospective validation.

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: Conference session summary (overview of three presentations on ongoing and completed mesothelioma trials and biomarkers); not an original study
• Who was studied: No study population of its own. It summarizes presentations on trials in mesothelioma patients, mostly malignant pleural mesothelioma, given by Dr. Donington, Dr. Ibrahim and Dr. Tsao in a mesothelioma session (Santa Monica Supplement, December 2012).
• Exposure: No exposure was studied. Exposures are mentioned only in passing: erionite exposure in families with inherited mutations in Cappadocia, Turkey; asbestos exposure in BAP1 mutation carriers; and asbestos workers in relation to serum osteopontin.
• Main results:
  • Reported from a phase II salvage sunitinib trial: four of 22 patients had a partial response
  • Reported from the phase II NGR-hTNF trial in pretreated mesothelioma patients: one partial response among 57 patients, median progression-free survival 2.8 months, median overall survival 12.1 months
  • Reported from the phase III VANTAGE 014 trial (vorinostat versus placebo after prior pemetrexed and platinum): median progression-free survival 6.3 weeks for vorinostat versus 6.1 weeks for placebo
  • In the same vorinostat trial, median overall survival was 31 weeks with vorinostat versus 27 weeks with placebo
  • Reported from a phase II tremelimumab trial in second-line chemotherapy-resistant patients (N = 29, 22 evaluable): two partial responses
  • In the tremelimumab trial, the preliminary median overall survival, based on 11 patients, was 17.5 months
  • The article states that asbestos exposure is suspected to predispose BAP1 mutation carriers to develop mesothelioma before uveal melanoma
  • The article states that higher serum osteopontin levels are seen in asbestos workers who develop mesothelioma
  • The article states that combining osteopontin, SMRP and MPF in a panel did not predict better than SMRP alone
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that serum screening markers remain under development but SMRP can be used after surgery to identify recurrent disease. The author also concluded that prognostic biomarkers need prospective validation to identify patients who will benefit from aggressive surgery.

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.

Related studies

• Current readings: Window-of-opportunity trials for thoracic malignancies — A.S. Tsao (2014)
• Mesothelioma and small cell lung cancer — A.S. Tsao, J. Heymach (2011)
• Mesothelin Immunotherapy for Cancer: Ready for Prime Time? — R. Hassan, A. Thomas, et al. (2016)
• Advances in the biology of malignant pleural mesothelioma — P.A. Zucali, G.L. Ceresoli, et al. (2011)
• Histone deacetylase inhibitors in malignant pleural mesothelioma: preclinical rationale and clinical trials — P.K. Paik, L.M. Krug (2010)
• Malignant pleural mesothelioma: current concepts in treatment — A. Tsiouris, R.K. Walesby (2007)

Browse more research in Journal of Thoracic Oncology, or return to medical research.