Background Analysis of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma (MPM) database revealed that clinical (cTNM) staging minimally stratified survival and was discrepant with pathological (pTNM) staging. To improve prognostic classification of MPM, alternative staging models based on … [Read more...]
Radiotherapy for the treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma
Malignant pleural mesothelioma is an aggressive disease that continues to be associated with poor outcomes. Although, traditionally this disease is considered to be resistant to radiotherapy, more recent evidence suggests that radiotherapy can produce positive outcomes. Over the past 15 years, the development of new, highly conformal radiotherapy … [Read more...]
Plasmatic extracellular vesicle microRNAs in malignant pleural mesothelioma and asbestos-exposed subjects suggest a 2-miRNA signature as potential biomarker of disease
Background: Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma (MPM) is an aggressive cancer mainly caused by asbestos exposure and refractory to current therapies. Specific diagnostic markers for early MPM diagnosis are needed. Changes in miRNA expression have been implicated in several diseases and cancers, including MPM. We examined if a specific miRNA signature … [Read more...]
Nintedanib Chemo Combo Promising for Malignant Mesothelioma
Frontline treatment with nintedanib plus pemetrexed and cisplatin improved progression-free survival (PFS) by 3.7 months for chemotherapy-naive patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM), according to data reported at the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting. In the phase II trial, known as LUME-Meso, the median PFS was 9.4 months with the nintedanib … [Read more...]
Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Opdivo, Yervoy put the brakes on mesothelioma in phase 2
New phase 2 data suggest immunotherapy could stall mesothelioma progression—and that when it comes to Bristol-Myers Squibb’s checkpoint inhibitors, two might be better than one. Early results unveiled Monday at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting showed that Bristol’s PD-1 med Opdivo and CTLA4 drug Yervoy slowed disease growth … [Read more...]
Chest pain and recurrent chylothorax: an unusual presentation of malignant pleural mesothelioma
Malignant mesothelioma presenting with recurrent chylous effusion is rare. We describe the case of a 34-year-old female Macedonian immigrant who presented with central chest pain and subsequently a left-sided chylous pleural effusion. The diagnosis was made on pleural biopsy via video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS). Our case demonstrates the … [Read more...]