An ongoing debate about the value of radical surgery divides doctors who treat patients with mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lung and abdomen associated with asbestos exposure.
Some studies suggest that mesothelioma patients who undergo extensive surgery to remove a lung, the lining of the lung and parts of the diaphragm followed up by radiation and chemotherapy do survive longer. But the radical surgery known as an extrapleural pneumonectomy carries risks and is debilitating.
Other physicians suggest the radical surgery for meosthelioma patients is barbaric and its benefits still unproven. One of the physicians in that camp is British thoracic surgeon Dr. Tom Treasure, who will participate in the 1st International Symposium on Lung-Sparing Therapies for Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma on May 21 in Santa Monica, California.
In recent years, Dr. Treasure of Guy’s Hospital in London, has led a small, randomized study comparing the survival of mesothelioma patients who have a combination of radical surgery and radiation with those who have other treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation. The aim of the study is to establish whether extrapleural pneumonectomy increases patients’ survival and adds to their quality of life.
The U.K. Mesothelioma and Radical Surgery Trial (MARS) tracked 50 patients—24 who underwent extrapleural pneumonectomy and 26 patients who did not have radical surgery from 2006 to 2009. According to the preliminary results, 52 percent of the mesothelioma patients who underwent radical surgery lived 12 months, compared to 73 percent of the patients who had treatment that did not involve removal of a lung. The study provided no evidence that extrapleural pneumonectomy benefited mesothelioma patients.
“This well-designed seminal study … while small provides compelling and incontrovertible evidence that supports our long-held position at the Pacific Meso Center that the use of radical lung-removing surgery is completely unsupported by medical data,” said Dr. Robert Cameron, director of Thoracic Surgery at UCLA Medical Center, in a statement. The UCLA Mesothelioma Research Program is sponsoring the symposium.
Cameron compared extrapleural pneumonectomy to the now nearly extinct practice of radical mastectomy to treat breast cancer. Cameron said the recent study is further proof that no one suffering the ravages of mesothelioma should be subjected to the indignity of radical, debilitating and useless surgery based on “selected” data.
Approximately, 3,000 people a year are diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma in the United States. The Early Symptoms Of Mesothelioma has increased in recent decades. Many of people who develop mesothelioma worked in occupations that exposed them to asbestos dust, though the disease symptoms typically don’t appear for 20 to 40 years. http://www.aboutmesothelioma.net/2011/05/study-advocates-lung-sparing-therapy-for-malignant-mesothelioma-patients.asp
