Identifying the right treatment plan is one of the many challenges faced by mesothelioma patients and their physicians. Those whose tumors are operable need to decide whether to pursue an aggressive form of surgery that removes the affected lung or to go with a less invasive procedure. A report issued today suggests that those who opt for the lung-removing surgery and who also receive chemotherapy may have worse outcomes.
Conference Participants Release Mesothelioma Study
The new mesothelioma research was presented at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) 2023 World Conference on Lung Cancer, being held in Singapore. According to a team participating in the UK Multicentre Randomized Trial known as MARS 2, Patients who underwent extended pleurectomy with decortication combined with surgery had worse outcomes than patients who had chemotherapy alone.
The trial included 335 patients with resectable pleural mesothelioma. Of them, 169 were randomly assigned to have extended pleurectomy decortication with chemotherapy, and 166 underwent chemotherapy alone. The patients were followed for a median of 22.4 months.
Survival Differences Between Mesothelioma Patient Groups Provide Valuable Information
The mesothelioma patients who were randomized to surgery and chemotherapy had a median survival of 19.3 months, while those who had chemotherapy alone survived for 248 months. Notably, there was a 28% increase in the risk of death in the surgery group within the first 42 months and that group also experienced a 3.6 times higher incidence of serious adverse events.
According to study lead Professor Eric Lim from the Royal Brompton Hospital, patients who underwent surgery reported poorer quality of life and well-being on various scales, including physical functioning, social functioning, and role functioning. They also had worse positive symptom scores, leading the group to conclude that the aggressive surgery should not be offered to patients.
