Brigham and Women's Study Shows Benefits of EPP Mesothelioma Surgery

This study indicates that if you have the surgery in a center that does a lot of them, it's not the gloom and doom scenario that you may hear about with high operative mortality and short survival," Richards said. "The five- and 10-year survival rates are significant." Under Sugarbaker's guidance, Brigham and Women's has been a long-time leader in mesothelioma care. During the study period, there were 1,258 major mesothelioma surgeries at the hospital. Within that total were 832 EPPs, including 528 with the epithelioid sub-type. The remaining cases were P/D or partial pleurectomy surgeries. Revision to Staging of Lymph Nodes Although the overall median survival rate was just 18 months, it was 26 months for those who had no lymph node involvement. It was 17 and 16 months, respectively, for those with metastasis in lymph node stations 1 and 2. The median survival was just seven months for those with lymph node involvement in station 3, the most distant from the diseased lung. The preoperative surgical staging changed throughout the study period, resulting in improved survival rates for patients in the later years. Although lymph node involvement has been part of the staging process, the study's authors have encouraged a revision in the future. "We should be looking at ways in which the staging system might be modified to separate patients better for treatment decisions or clinical trial eligibility based on lymph node status, tumor volume, histologic subtype and other prognos...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - Category: Environmental Health Authors: Tags: Treatment & Doctors Source Type: news