Fennell Dean A, Gaudino Giovanni, O'Byrne Kenneth J, Mutti Luciano, van Meerbeeck Jan
Centre for Cancer Research and Cell Biology, Queen's University Belfast, 97 Liburn Road, Belfast BT9 7BL, Northern Ireland, UK.
Nat Clin Pract Oncol. 2008 Mar;5(3):136-47. doi: 10.1038/ncponc1039.
Malignant pleural mesothelioma is an aggressive thoracic malignancy associated with exposure to asbestos, and its incidence is anticipated to increase during the first half of this century. Chemotherapy is the mainstay of treatment, yet sufficiently robust evidence to substantiate the current standard of care has emerged only in the past 5 years. This Review summarizes the evidence supporting the clinical activity of chemotherapy, discusses the use of end points for its assessment and examines the influence of clinical and biochemical prognostic factors on the natural history of malignant pleural mesothelioma. Early-phase clinical trials of second-line and novel agents are emerging from an increased understanding of mesothelioma cell biology. Coupled with high-quality translational research, such developments have real potential to improve the outlook of patients at a time of increasing incidence.
恶性胸膜间皮瘤是一种与接触石棉相关的侵袭性胸部恶性肿瘤，预计其发病率在本世纪上半叶将会上升。化疗是主要的治疗方法，但仅在过去5年才出现足够有力的证据来证实当前的治疗标准。本综述总结了支持化疗临床活性的证据，讨论了评估化疗的终点指标的使用，并研究了临床和生化预后因素对恶性胸膜间皮瘤自然病程的影响。随着对间皮瘤细胞生物学认识的增加，二线药物和新型药物的早期临床试验不断涌现。再加上高质量的转化研究，在发病率不断上升的情况下，这些进展确实有可能改善患者的预后。
