Surgical resection of Pancoast tumors after neoadjuvant high-dose radiation and chemotherapy can be safely performed. High-dose radiation in trimodality treatment is well tolerated and might be beneficial. Similar to other studies, late central nervous system relapse is problematic and indicates a need for assessing the role of prophylactic cranial irradiation in this disease.

No abstract

Peritoneal mesothelioma is a rare cancer of the peritoneum with about 250 new cases diagnosed each year in the United States. It is the second most common site for mesothelioma development and accounts for 10-20% of all mesotheliomas diagnosed in the United States. A meeting sponsored by the NIH Office of Rare Diseases was held in Bethesda, Maryland on September 13 and 14, 2004. The objective of this meeting was to review the epidemiology, biology and current surgical and medical management of peritoneal mesothelioma. In addition, the meeting also discussed clinical and pre-clinical evaluation of novel treatments for mesothelioma as well as ongoing laboratory research to better understand this disease. This report summarizes the proceedings of the meeting as well as directions for future clinical and basic research.

Patients with microscopic residual disease following trimodality therapy had similar outcomes to patients achieving a pCR. Patients with SCC were more likely to achieve a pCR, and had a higher propensity to fail distantly when compared with patients with AC. This data should be considered in the design of future clinical trials.

Bexarotene can be safely added to platinum-based chemotherapy provided that there is aggressive prophylaxis of hypertriglyceridemia. The median time to progression and overall survival are promising and warrant further evaluation of bexarotene in advanced NSCLC.