Study confirms benefits of trimodal treatment for mesothelioma

A recent study by researchers at the MD Anderson Cancer Center confirms what many North Carolina residents suffering from mesothelioma already know — mesothelioma patients benefit greatly from undergoing several forms of treatment. The study’s researchers found that post-disease diagnosis patients, who undergo multimodal treatment, live almost twice as long as those who do not.

The study, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, evaluated over 20,000 mesothelioma patients whose information was gathered from the National Cancer Database. From these patients, a subset of individuals diagnosed with similar types and stages of mesothelioma were paired, and then separated into surgical and non-surgical groups.

Those who underwent trimodal treatment had a median survival of 20.8 months, whereas those who underwent only surgery had a median survival of 13.9 months. Those who did not have surgery fared the worst, with a median survival of 10.5 months.

The study supports the ory that the trimodal treatment of surgery, chemotherapy and radiation affords patients extended survival time, according to researchers. The study’s authors recommend that multidisciplinary teams evaluate malignant pleural mesothelioma patients so that they may consider the risks and benefits of receiving such aggressive treatment. Citing high 90-day mortality rates for those who underwent procedure, the authors urge patients to seek treatment from medical practitioners who are experienced in operative and perioperative care for mesothelioma.

According to the study, neither disease histology nor cancer stage had any effect on the benefits of multimodal treatment. Patients had a survival advantage, regardless of the individual’s stage of cancer or lymph node involvement. But, patients with epithelial histology of mesothelioma had the longest survivability, up from 13.7 months (without surgery) to 23.4 months (with trimodal treatment), compared to those with biphasic histology and sarcomatoid histology.

Source:The Mesothelioma Center, “Mesothelioma Patients Survive Longer with Trimodal Treatment,” Tim Povtak, Sept. 5, 2017