Reply: To PMID 25534527

Our plain-English summary of Reply: To PMID 25534527, by E. Taioli, A.S. Wolf, R.M. Flores (The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, 2015).

The study

• Authors: E. Taioli, A.S. Wolf, R.M. Flores
• Journal: The Annals of Thoracic Surgery
• Published: 2015;100(4):1509
• Type of article: Letter, Comment
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This item is a short reply letter, not a research study, and it reports no new data. The authors had published a meta-analysis comparing survival after two operations for mesothelioma: pleurectomy decortication and extrapleural pneumonectomy. Two surgeons, Drs Bertoglio and Korasidis, wrote to the journal questioning whether survival after these operations can really be compared. They argued that surgery should always be combined with other treatments, that patient groups differ, and that pleurectomy decortication covers a wide range of techniques, which they called a "Pandora's box". In reply, the authors wrote that there is no evidence-based proof that the added treatments the letter writers mentioned give mesothelioma patients any survival benefit. They wrote that surgery has historically been the mainstay of treatment. The authors agreed that pleurectomy with decortication is a "Pandora's box" of what many consider suboptimal cancer operations. They added that survival with extrapleural pneumonectomy was still worse, citing an earlier published study. The letter does 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 (authors' reply to a letter about their published meta-analysis); no new data
• The authors' conclusion: The authors wrote that there is no evidence-based proof that the adjuvant treatments raised by the letter writers add survival benefit for mesothelioma patients, and that surgery has historically been the mainstay of treatment. They agreed that pleurectomy with decortication is a 'Pandora's box' of what many consider suboptimal oncologic procedures, but stated that survival with extrapleural pneumonectomy was still worse, citing earlier published work.

Topics

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

Related studies

• Reply: To PMID 25534527 — R.M. Flores, E. Taioli, et al. (2015)
• Reply: To PMID 24726598 — L. Spaggiari, G. Marulli, et al. (2015)
• Meta-analysis of survival after pleurectomy decortication versus extrapleural pneumonectomy in mesothelioma — E. Taioli, A.S. Wolf, et al. (2015)
• Current Treatment of Mesothelioma: Extrapleural Pneumonectomy Versus Pleurectomy/Decortication — A.S. Wolf, R.M. Flores (2016)
• The use of surgery in mesothelioma — J.Y. Lim, A.S. Wolf, et al. (2013)
• Short-term outcomes of pleurectomy decortication and extrapleural pneumonectomy in mesothelioma — M. van Gerwen, A. Wolf, et al. (2018)

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