Multimodal therapy may give patients the best odds of surviving mesothelioma. Multimodal therapy often includes surgery, chemotherapy and radiation.
A new article in the Journal of Chest Surgery detail the results of a new analysis of mesothelioma survival.
Many Mesothelioma Therapies
Malignant mesothelioma is a rare and aggressive cancer that rarely responds to a single cancer therapy. Malignant mesothelioma is almost always caused by exposure to asbestos. Usually, that happens in the workplace.
Because mesothelioma is such a difficult cancer to treat, doctors often take a multi-faceted approach. This includes combining surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation.
Yet even when combined, these therapies achieve only minimal success. And patients often face a grim prognosis. The 5-year survival rate of patients with mesothelioma is less than 20%.
Researchers from Gazi University looked at the most positive treatment outcomes. These were seen in patients with a specific combination of therapies. The retrospective study looked at surgical and prognostic outcomes. They focused on patients who received multimodal treatment.
The team looked at mesothelioma surgical patients between January 2010 and December 2020. The included sixty-four patients in the study. The median survival of patients was 21 months. And the 5-year survival rate was 20.2%.
Specific Treatment Combinations
Multimodal therapy can offer a better survival rate in patients with mesothelioma.
In this study, many treatments were used. Adjuvant treatment was used after chemo-radiotherapy. This was only in patients who did not receive induction chemotherapy. Radiotherapy was also used in those who received induction chemotherapy.
Patients who completed all treatment procedures had significantly higher survival rates. Researchers conclude that surgery-based multimodality therapy has the power to improve the odds of surviving mesothelioma.
Source:
Sayan, Muhammet, Aynur Bas, Merve Satir Turk, Dilvin Ozkan, Ali Celik, İsmail Cuneyt Kurul, and Abdullah Irfan Tastepe. “Survival Effect of Complete Multimodal Therapy in Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma.” Journal of chest surgery (2022). https://doi.org/10.5090/jcs.22.037
