Study: Majority of Peritoneal Mesothelioma Patients Avoid Surgery, Despite Benefits to Survival

Peritoneal mesothelioma patients are neglecting surgery as a therapeutic option - for a variety of reasons - and needlessly losing out on years of survival time, a recently published study from the Medical College of Wisconsin shows. Even though the benefits are clear, surgery is not being performed on 62 percent of peritoneal patients, according to the study using 1973 to 2010 data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database. The Annals of Surgical Oncology published the study in its May journal. "It's unfortunate, but you can see the missed opportunity here," said Kiran Turaga, M.D., one of the study's co-authors and assistant professor in the division of surgical oncology at the Medical College of Wisconsin. "It's a reason to raise awareness. Surgery is a really good option - most patients can benefit - but I think too often, it's not being offered or recommended." The SEER data consisted of 1,591 peritoneal patients with a median age of 74, most of whom had metastatic disease. The overall survival rate of those who underwent cytoreductive surgery was an average of 20 months, compared to just four months for those who did not have surgery. Surgeries Becoming More Advanced Recent advancements in surgery and other therapeutic options have improved everyone's survival rate. Surgical patients, for example, had an overall survival rate of only 15 months from 1991 to 1995, but they survived an average of 38 months from 2006 to 2010. While the most ...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - Category: Environmental Health Authors: Tags: Treatment & Doctors Source Type: news