Surgical Choices
Additional Information
Photodynamic Therapy and the Evolution of a Lung-Sparing Surgical Treatment for Mesothelioma (6/2011)
University of Pennsylvania concludes that in addition to the inherent advantages of sparing the lung, radical pleurectomy (RP) plus photodynamic therapy (PDT) yielded a superior overall survival than modified extrapleural pneumonectomy (MEPP) plus photodynamic therapy in this series. Given these results, we believe RP plus PDT is a reasonable option for appropriate patients pursuing a surgical treatment for malignant pleural mesothelioma and that this procedure can serve as the backbone of surgically based multimodal treatments. More...
Surgical Treatment of Mesothelioma (5/2011)
Although there are no randomized trials comparing the EPP and P/D, ultimately the choice of procedure depends on the stage of the cancer, the patient’s pulmonary health, the surgeon’s experience and philosophy and the extent of planned follow-up chemotherapy and radiation. Regardless of which procedure is chosen, the doctors say the medical data underscores trimodality therapy significantly improves chances of extending their life. More...
EPP Surgery is Inappropriate for Some Mesothelioma Patients (4/2011)
Patients with non-epithelial mesothelioma and lymph node involvement are poor candidates for the extensive surgical procedure known as extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP). Careful selection of mesothelioma surgical candidates, say the study’s authors, not only improves outcomes for the right patients, but protects those who are not good surgical candidates from undergoing a risky operation for limited benefit. More...
Quantitative Measurement of Lung Re-expansion in Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma Patients Undergoing Pleurectomy/Decortication (12/8/2010)
This study provided objective evidence that pleurectomy/decortication (P/D) allows a trapped lung to re-expand, quantifies the re-expansion based on scans, and investigates whether the expansion persists after surgery. It found that debulking of mesothelioma with P/D substantially increased the ipsilateral lung volume relative to both the presurgical ipsilateral volume and the contralateral lung volume. This improvement persisted months after surgery. More...
Therapeutic Surgery for Nonepithelioid Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma: Is it Really Worthwhile?(3/2010)
Debate remains about the relative prognostic importance of the histologic subtype of malignant pleural mesothelioma. From a prospective database, the details of 312 malignant pleural mesothelioma surgical patients were reviewed. A comparison was made of the survival from the three major cell types. More...