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WEDNESDAY, May 1, 2019 (HealthDay News) — For patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM), overall survival (OS) is significantly improved with radical hemithoracic radiotherapy (RHR) versus palliative radiotherapy (PR), according to a study presented at ESTRO 38, the annual meeting of the European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology, held from April 26 to 30 in Milan.<\/p>\n
Emilio Minatel, M.D., from the Centro di Riferimento Oncologico in Aviano, Italy, and colleagues compared OS for MPM patients treated with RHR versus PR after nonradical lung-sparing surgery and chemotherapy. A total of 108 patients were randomly assigned to receive either radiotherapy to the entire hemithorax excluding the intact lung plus a simultaneous boost to areas of gross disease or to PR to thoracotomy scars or the gross disease only.<\/p>\n
After 64 events, the researchers found two-year OS rates of 58 and 28 percent in the RHR and PR arms, respectively, in the intention-to-treat analysis (P = 0.003). In multivariate analysis, factors associated with increased survival were RHR and epithelioid histology (hazard ratios, 0.46 and 0.33, respectively). Documented toxicities in the RHR arm included grade 5 pneumonitis (one patient), grade 3 pneumonitis (four patients), pulmonary embolism (four patients), and pericardial effusion (two patients). Four patients had late respiratory failure requiring oxygen.<\/p>\n
“This research shows a clear survival benefit in using this type of radiotherapy for mesothelioma patients whose tumors can only partially be removed by surgery,” a coauthor said in a statement. “We believe that this should be considered the new standard of care for these patients.”<\/p>\n
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