Original articleGeneral thoracicTrimodality Therapy for Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma
Section snippets
Material and Methods
This study was fully approved by the Swedish Medical Center Institutional Research Board.
Results
We evaluated 55 patients after they completed induction chemotherapy. The distribution of regimens is summarized in Table 1. The combination of cisplatin, methotrexate, and vinblastine was the preferred chemotherapy regimen early on in this experience. The last 19 patients received pemetrexed in combination with cisplatin or carboplatin.
Of the 55 patients who underwent mediastinoscopy, 2 had positive nodes and were deemed inoperable. Of 53 patients who underwent exploration for resection, 7
Comment
The treatment of early stage MPM remains very challenging. Sugarbaker and colleagues [2] have produced the largest experience of trimodality treatment of MPM with EPP, followed by adjuvant chemotherapy and sequential radiotherapy. Other centers have used induction chemotherapy, followed by resection and adjuvant radiotherapy [3, 4, 5, 6], and the present study adds further weight that a trimodality regimen of induction chemotherapy, surgical resection, and radiotherapy is a feasible means of
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