Preoperative assessment and therapeutic options for patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma.

Prompt medical evaluation and aggressive treatment can lead to prolonged survival or successful palliation of symptoms for patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma, but the window for implementing treatment is short. Clinical recognition of the cancer is confounded by numerous factors, including long latency between exposure to asbestos and expression of the disease, nonspecific nature of the presenting symptoms, rarity of the disease, a lack of experience in clinical diagnosis, and rapidly deteriorating clinical course after diagnosis. Heightened clinical suspicion and proper patient selection through accurate staging and pathologic identification are paramount to defining and delivering therapy for this rare, lethal cancer.