Doctors Find Lower Treatment Response in Those with Rare Type of Mesothelioma, According to Surviving Mesothelioma
Raleigh, NC (PRWEB) September 17, 2014 -- Researchers say patients with the rarest and most deadly subtype of mesothelioma are least likely to have good outcomes with chemotherapy treatment. Surviving Mesothelioma has just posted an article on the findings. Click here to read it now.
Scientists with Minnesota’s Mayo Clinic and the Levine Cancer Institute in North Carolina analyzed 30 published studies that included 1,475 mesothelioma patients. They found that the 137 patients with sarcomatoid mesothelioma had a significantly lower response to systemic chemotherapy.
“Partial and complete responses to systemic therapies appear to be less common among patients with sarcomatoid tumors,” concludes Mayo Clinic oncologist Dr. Aaron Mansfield, lead author on the newly-published study.
The study published in Lung Cancer found that only 13.9 percent of sarcomatoid mesothelioma patients responded to treatment – 8 percent lower than the overall mesothelioma response rate of 21.9 percent.
“While this news may seem disheartening for patients with sarcomatoid mesothelioma and their families, the study focused only on one type of treatment,” says Alex Strauss, Managing Editor of Surviving Mesothelioma. “But the best mesothelioma responses consistently come from a multi-modality approach and new therapies are continually being investigated.”
To better understand the study and its implications for patients with all types of malignant pleural mesothelioma, see Rare Mesothelioma Subtype Less Likely to Respond to Treatment, now available on the Surviving Mesothelioma website.
Mansfield, AS, et al, “Systematic review of response rates o sarcomatoid malignant pleural mesotheliomas in clinical trials”, September 1, 2014, Lung Cancer, Epub ahead of print, http://www.lungcancerjournal.info/article/S0169-5002(14)00362-6/abstract
For nearly ten years, Surviving Mesothelioma has brought readers the most important and ground-breaking news on the causes, diagnosis and treatment of mesothelioma. All Surviving Mesothelioma news is gathered and reported directly from the peer-reviewed medical literature. Written for patients and their loved ones, Surviving Mesothelioma news helps families make more informed decisions.
Michael Ellis, Cancer Monthy, http://www.survivingmesothelioma.com, +1 (919) 570-8595, [email protected]
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