| |

Prognostic Factors Forecast the Future for Women with Mesothelioma

ByHolly Zink

Prognostic Factors Forecast the Future for Women with Mesothelioma A new study in the World Journal of Surgical Oncology examines mesothelioma prognostic factors. Prognostic factors are measurable traits that can be used to estimate the chance of recovery. They can also measure the chance of mesothelioma recurring or coming back.

In other words, prognostic factors can help predict the course of the disease and the future outcome.

Prognostic factors are available at the time of diagnosis. They can include patient characteristics such as age, ethnicity, sex, or smoking status. And they also include disease characteristics such as disease stage or type. For mesothelioma, they may even involve the amount of asbestos exposure.

The key to prognostic factors is that they must be measurable. Clinicians need a number, or a score, or a category. This might be the histologic subtype or tumor size. And researchers use these numbers to study the disease and develop new treatments.

Malignant Peritoneal Mesothelioma Subtypes

Peritoneal mesothelioma is a fast-growing cancer. Exposure to asbestos is the primary cause of mesothelioma. The main prognostic factors include the patient’s mesothelioma type and the treatments they receive.

There are three main mesothelioma subtypes. They are the epithelioid subtype, the sarcomatoid subtype, and the biphasic subtype. Epithelioid mesothelioma is the most common subtype. Sarcomatoid is the second most common. Biphasic is the rarest. It contains some of both types of cells.

All three subtypes cause mesothelioma symptoms like coughing, chest pain, fatigue and weight loss. The only way to tell the three types of cells apart is to examine them under a microscope.

Prognostic Factors of Mesothelioma and Average Survival Rates

The Chinese team looked at 52 female malignant peritoneal mesothelioma patients treated in 2012 to 2017. The prognostic factors included the patient’s mesothelioma type, a protein in their DNA, and the treatments they received.

First, results show the average survival time is longer for the epithelioid type compared with the sarcomatoid type. Patients with epithelioid type had an average of 12 months. And almost 46% of epithelioid-type patients lived past 1 year. Whereas patients with the sarcomatoid type had just 5 months.

Second, the average survival time is also longer in patients with a special protein called PCNA. Patients who had the PCNA protein naturally in their DNA lived 10% longer than those without. They were also 60% likely to live longer than 1 year. Those without PCNA were only 28% likely to live longer than 1 year.

Third, survival time is longest for patients with cytoreductive surgery plus pemetrexed and platinum perfusion. These patients were expected to live 24 months with a 73% chance to live longer than 1 year.

Patients who received cytoreductive surgery and paclitaxel and platinum perfusion were next. They lived an average of 12 months. Patients had a 46% chance to live longer than 1 year.

Prognostic factors for malignant peritoneal mesothelioma are important. Researchers have shown that patients with cytoreductive surgery and who use pemetrexed have prolonged survival.

These prognostic factors of malignant peritoneal mesothelioma are important. Application of pemetrexed could prolong survival time. More studies could lead to early diagnosis and new treatments for malignant peritoneal mesothelioma.

Source:

Ma, Jianting, and Shengzhi Zhang. “Prognostic factors of malignant peritoneal mesothelioma: a retrospective study of 52 female patients.” World Journal of Surgical Oncology 20, no. 1 (2022): 1-7. https://wjso.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12957-022-02688-x

Similar Posts

  • |

    Mesothelioma Blood Test May Be Possible

    ByAlex Strauss

    An international team of researchers is studying the proteins found on the surface of cancer cells in an effort to improve mesothelioma diagnosis. The team, made up of scientists from the US, Switzerland, Italy and Chile, has just published their findings on a new kind of test to identify protein-derived mesothelioma biomarkers in blood serum. Mesothelioma is an aggressive cancer of the membranes around organs. Because the most common mesothelioma biomarker, mesothelin, is also overproduced by other kinds of cancer cells, it has only limited diagnostic value. A test to identify a set of proteins produced specifically by mesothelioma cells could greatly improve diagnostic accuracy. Led by Ferdinando Cerciello and Bernd Wollscheid of the Institute of Molecular Systems Biology in…

  • |

    Mesothelioma Still Carries Heavy Mortality Burden in U.S.

    ByAlex Strauss

    Asbestos exposure cost Americans more than 427,000 years of potential life in the first decade of the new millennium. That figure comes from a study on mesothelioma and asbestosis – the two most deadly asbestos-related diseases – conducted by the CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Using National Center for Health Statistics mortality data, NIOSH researchers evaluated premature deaths and “loss of potentially productive years of life” attributable to either asbestosis or mesothelioma between 1999 and 2010. The data included only people 25 years or older with an underlying cause of death listed on their death certificate of either asbestosis or malignant mesothelioma. When the figures were calculated using the normal life expectancy for each asbestosis victim…

  • | |

    Needle Biopsy “Simple, Safe & Accurate” for Mesothelioma

    ByAlex Strauss

    Mesothelioma researchers in China say a biopsy method that involves a single skin puncture can produce good diagnostic results for mesothelioma patients with little pain or risk. The study focused on percutaneous (through the skin) biopsy in patients who had unexplained fluid buildup or swelling in their abdomens. Abdominal distension and fluid buildup (called ascites) can be signs of peritoneal mesothelioma, a rare but aggressive cancer of the abdominal lining caused by exposure to asbestos. Peritoneal mesothelioma accounts for less than 30% of all mesothelioma cases. Because the symptoms may be vague and often develop many decades after asbestos exposure, peritoneal mesothelioma can be especially challenging to diagnose.  Misdiagnosis and under-diagnosis are not uncommon. In the newest study on percutaneous…

  • | |

    Inflammation Both “Friend and Foe” in Mesothelioma

    ByAlex Strauss

    An immune system response that causes mesothelioma symptoms such as fever, fatigue, and weight loss may also be helpful to clinicians as a way to find and treat the disease. Scientists with The Asbestos Diseases Research Institute in Sydney, Australia make that case that both systemic inflammation (throughout the body) and at the site of a tumor – has long been associated with mesothelioma and other cancers. Inflammation results when the body attempts to address the imbalances of cancer by producing more of certain immune system cells. Some inflammatory markers, such as CD+8 T-cells and C-reactive protein, have been linked to better prognosis in mesothelioma. Other inflammatory markers, such as certain macrophages and a high neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, can signal the…

  • |

    Mesothelioma Rates Expected to Rise for Another Decade

    ByAlex Strauss

    Most developed countries can expect another decade or more of rising mesothelioma rates before the incidence of the disease starts to wane. That is one of the major findings in a recent report from The Baird Institute for Applied Heart and Lung Surgical Research in Australia. The report, which looked at the causes, distribution and projected future incidence of malignant mesothelioma, contains both good and bad news for the U.S.. Mesothelioma is an aggressive and often fatal cancer caused by exposure to asbestos.  It is thought to be triggered by chronic inflammation and irritation in the lung tissue and the surrounding pleural membrane by the sharp asbestos fibers.   Mesothelioma often takes decades to develop. According to the Baird Institute report, the average…

  • |

    Peritoneal Mesothelioma Study: Long-Term Survival is Possible

    ByAlex Strauss

    A new study out of Italy has some encouraging news for patients with the peritoneal form of malignant mesothelioma. The recent analysis of 108 peritoneal mesothelioma patients who underwent complete cytoreductive surgery (CRS) followed by a rinse of heated chemotherapy (HIPEC) found a 43.6% cure rate among long-term survivors. Peritoneal mesothelioma is a rare form of one of the rarest cancers. Triggered almost exclusively by exposure to asbestos, mesothelioma affects about 2,500 Americans each year.  About a third of those patients are diagnosed with the peritoneal form of the disease, which occurs on the membrane that lines the abdomen and surrounds the internal organs. During cytoreductive surgery, surgeons attempt to remove all traces of the mesothelioma tumor so that no cells…