Current Clinical Trials

Standard treatment options:[1]

1. Solitary mesotheliomas: Surgical resection en bloc including contiguous structures to ensure wide disease-free margins. Sessile polypoid lesions should be treated with surgical resection to ensure maximal potential for cure.[2]



2. Intracavitary mesothelioma:
   • Palliative surgery (i.e., pleurectomy and decortication) with or without postoperative radiation therapy.
   • Extrapleural pneumonectomy.
   • Palliative radiation therapy.

Treatment options under clinical evaluation:

1. Intracavitary chemotherapy following resection.[3,4]
2. Multimodality therapy.[4-6]
3. Other clinical trials.

Check for U.S. clinical trials from NCI's PDQ Cancer Clinical Trials Registry that are now accepting patients with localized malignant mesothelioma. The list of clinical trials can be further narrowed by location, drug, intervention, and other criteria.

General information about clinical trials is also available from the NCI Web site.

References

1. Antman KH, Li FP, Osteen R, et al.: Mesothelioma. Cancer: Principles and Practice of Oncology Updates 3(1): 1-16, 1989. 
   
   
2. Martini N, McCormack PM, Bains MS, et al.: Pleural mesothelioma. Ann Thorac Surg 43 (1): 113-20, 1987.  [PUBMED Abstract]
   
   
3. Markman M, Kelsen D: Efficacy of cisplatin-based intraperitoneal chemotherapy as treatment of malignant peritoneal mesothelioma. J Cancer Res Clin Oncol 118 (7): 547-50, 1992.  [PUBMED Abstract]
   
   
4. Rusch V, Saltz L, Venkatraman E, et al.: A phase II trial of pleurectomy/decortication followed by intrapleural and systemic chemotherapy for malignant pleural mesothelioma. J Clin Oncol 12 (6): 1156-63, 1994.  [PUBMED Abstract]
   
   
5. Sugarbaker DJ, Mentzer SJ, DeCamp M, et al.: Extrapleural pneumonectomy in the setting of a multimodality approach to malignant mesothelioma. Chest 103 (4 Suppl): 377S-381S, 1993.  [PUBMED Abstract]
   
   
6. Vogelzang NJ: Malignant mesothelioma: diagnostic and management strategies for 1992. Semin Oncol 19 (4 Suppl 11): 64-71, 1992.  [PUBMED Abstract]
   
   

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