Abstract

Objectives: Cisplatin-based doublet-chemotherapy is the standard palliative treatment for malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) supplemented with palliative radiotherapy when indicated by symptoms. This work aims to study the epidemiologic characteristics and overall survival rates of patients with MPM treated with palliative chemotherapy in one institution year 2000 - 2010.

Materials and Methods: Review of journals. Data were structured using the Aarhus Lung Cancer Register and statistics were analyzed using SPSS software.

Results: The median age of the 80 patients (70 males and 10 females) at diagnosis was 63 years (range 40-80). 46% of the patients had epithelioid histological subtype. As first line treatment 21 patients received cisplatin/vinorelbine iv., 29 patients received cisplatin/pemetrexed and 11 patients received pemetrexed as monotherapy. Median overall survival (mOS) for the whole group was 13.1 months (95% CI 10.1-16.2). We found no significant difference in mOS between patients treated with cisplatin/vinorelbine (mOS 17.0 months, 95% CI 12.6-21.4) and cisplatin/pemetrexed (mOS 14.0 months, 95% CI 8.9-19.1), p=0.598. Patients with epithelioid subtype had a significantly better mOS (15.2 months, 95% CI 11.6-18.8) compared to patients with non-epithelioid subtype (8.9 months, 95% CI 5.6-12.2), p=0.026.

Conclusion: Subtype of histology is significantly associated with survival in MPM. Patients with epithelioid histology have a better prognosis than patients with non-epithelioid subtype. Our results show no significant difference in overall survival in patients who received different cisplatin-based doublet-regimes. The survival rates in this retrospective study are comparable to other published data. Randomized trials exploring cisplatin-based doublet regimens like cisplatin/pemetrexed and cisplatin/vinorelbine po. are needed.

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