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New Mesothelioma Tool for Better Treatment and Prognosis

ByHolly Zink
New Mesothelioma Tool for Better Treatment and Prognosis

Researchers from China have come up with a tool to check prognosis in mesothelioma patients depending on where the cancer is located.

Mesothelioma develops in the lining that covers many of the internal organs in you body. It is caused by exposure to asbestos.

There are different types of mesothelioma depending on where it develops. Pleural mesothelioma grows in the lining of your lungs and chest wall. Peritoneal mesothelioma grows in the lining of your abdomen. Mesothelioma can also occur in the testis or around the heart.

The location where mesothelioma grows can have a big impact on diagnosis. It also affects how well you respond to treatment. When it takes longer to make an accurate diagnosis, the disease has time to spread and become more serious. Some cancer sites are easier to access for treatment, which leads to better outcomes.

The researchers in this study wanted to compare survival of malignant mesothelioma across different locations in the body. The goal was to create a model that could help with treatment plans for malignant mesothelioma patients.

Better Tool, Better Treatment Decisions, Better Prognosis

This study used patient data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. Researchers used information from 1, 772 patients with malignant mesothelioma.

The researchers discovered that patients had a better prognosis when the mesothelioma was in the testis or hollow organs. Their average survival was 61 months. Patients with mesothelioma in soft tissue, solid organs, or the lining of the lungs had lower survival at 16 months.

The researchers also found other factors that were related to survival. These include marital status, old age, gender, type of mesothelioma, and how much the cancer has spread.

All these variables were used to create a tool that doctors can use to make good treatment decisions for mesothelioma patients. The tool featured good prediction accuracy for one-, three-, and five- year survival probability.

Source

Shao S, Sun L, Qin K, et al. Survival analysis and development of a prognostic nomogram for patients with malignant mesothelioma in different anatomic sites. Front Oncol. 2022;12:950371. Published 2022 Nov 10. doi:10.3389/fonc.2022.950371

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