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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

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