Mesothelioma: an update

Abstract

Educational aimsµ To show that malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is an increasing incident cancer, affecting mainly men at older age and related in most of the cases to asbestos exposure. µ To emphasise that histology is the key-point for the diagnosis of mesothelioma and should follow the recommendations of the International Mesothelioma Panel. µ To demonstrate that the treatment of MPM is palliative in most instances, chemotherapy with cisplatin plus pemetrexed being the standard of care in good performance status patients with surgery being reserved for highly selected patients.

Need for randomized clinical trials testing targeted therapies in malignant pleural mesothelioma

“…The main cause of this disease is known to be asbestos, although there are some studies pointing at the involvement of Simian virus 40 in its pathogenesis [2][3][4]. Other factors that may be involved in the pathogenesis include environmental exposure to erionite, fluoro-edenite and ionizing radiation as well as exposure to ceramic fibres [1,5]. The current standard treatment is the combination of cisplatin with pemetrexed [6,7].…”