Follow-up study of 100 malignant pleural mesotheliomas.

One hundred malignant pleural mesotheliomas have been treated in our hospital since 1955. Clinical and autopsy findings are analyzed and compared to X-ray changes. The most common symptoms were dyspnea (49%), pain (40%) and cough (36%). The main initial X-ray signs were pleural effusion (62%), pleural thickening (29%) and solitary nodules (6%). Prior to death a combination of effusion and pleural thickening was the usual finding. Histologically there were 49 biphasic, 32 mesenchymal and 18 epithelial malignant pleural mesotheliomas. At autopsy 82% of the cases had distant metastases, most of which had not been expected clinically. The median survival time was 7.3 months following the first clinical symptoms, and only 4 months after the first radiological signs.