This document discusses mesothelioma, including its etiology, pathogenesis, clinical presentation, diagnosis, staging, treatment, and prognosis. Some key points: - Asbestos exposure is the main risk factor and there is a long latency period of 20-40 years between exposure and tumor development. - Symptoms include chest pain, dyspnea, and chest wall masses in about 25% of patients. Median survival is only 1 year without treatment. - Tissue biopsy is needed for diagnosis and immunohistochemistry can help distinguish mesothelioma from other tumors. - Surgery such as extrapleural pneumonectomy or pleurectomy/decortication may provide a survival benefit when combined with

1. MESOTHELIOMAs
Dr Dharma Ram poonia
RGCI RC
18.06.16

2. • Rare
• Pleura MC site
• Peritoneum, Pericardium, Tunica Vaginalis
• 72 year
• most advance stage
• Median OS 1 year, Cure Rare.
2

3. ETIOLOGY
• 1. Asbestos exposure.
• 20 -40 yr of exposure latency.
• it also cause benign pleural disease.
• Reduced use of Asbestos in USA, incidence on plateau
• incidence on Rise, Russia, china, india
• Smoking Increase risk of malig in Asbestos exposed one.
• In animal studies Dose Response relation is exist, but in
Human studies, no clear dose-response curve to
asbestos,
• <5% of asbestos miners exposed to high levels of
asbestos develop mesothelioma.
• Threshold level below which mesotheliomas do not
develop has not been determined.
3

4. MECHANISMOF ASBESTOSCARCINOGENESIS.
• Asbestos Exposure 
• Human mesothelial cell
death  HMGB1 released in
EC space.
• 1. Activation of Nalp3
inflammasome and
interleukin (IL)-1β secretion
• 2.Macrophage accumulation
 Inflammatory response
and tumor necrosis factor–α
secretion
• These effects increase
damaged cell survival.
• At same time asbestos
induced genetic changes
accumulated in these
cells.(INK4a/ARF gene)
• Which coz mesothelioma.
4

5. OTHER ETIOLOGICAL FACTORS.
• Radiation exposure In childhood
• Erlonite (industrial Mineral fiber)
• Carbon and nickel Nanoparticles
• Simian Virus 40
• Gentic factors
• A TSG, BAP1, mutated in higher frequency in
turkey population and implicated as causative
factor.
• 60-70% mesothelioma has mutated BAP1
gene.
5

6. PATHOLOGY
• Epitheloid 60%
• Tubular structures and malignant mesothelioma cells showing a
hobnail morphology with bland nuclei and abundant cytoplasm.
• Sarcomatoid 10%
• Mixed(Biphasic) rest.
• Diagnosis is usually straight forward.
• IHC may be used to r/o mimics (mets and sarcomas).
• IHC —>
• +ve Calretinin, WT1, D2-40, CK5/6 (pankeratin)
• -ve —> epithelial markers (CEA, CD15, Ber-EP4, Moc 31), TTF1, &
B72.3
• Practically  Ck+, Calretinin+, and Epithelial –ve, makes Dx. 6

7. CLINICAL PRESENTATION
• often high symptom burden.
• Right > left 60;40% (right more volume).
• 60% nonpleuritic chest pain that classically is
located posterolaterally.
• Dyspnea 50-60%.
• 5% and 25% of metastatic at presentation.
• A chest wall mass occurs in up to 25% of
patients, often at the site(s) of prior
thoracoentesis, thoracotomy site 7

8. NATURAL HISTORY OF
DISEASE
• Majority of untreated patients died due to local disease
complications.
• Bulk of disease compressing and cause respiratory & cardiac
dysfunctions.
• Pain  narcotics use  cachexia
• Dysphagia  Cachexia.
• Extrathoracic metastases occur late in the course of disease
and are not usually the direct cause of the patient’s death.
• liver, adrenal gland, kidney, and contralateral lung.
• 3% brain mets, (sarcomatoid type) 8

9. INITIAL EVALUATION
• CXR
• Pleural effusion, diffuse pleural thickening, and nodularity
• Large opacity with Mediastinal shift. (50%)
• Presumed mesothelioma means —>
• Large recurrent unexplained pleural effusion
• pleural thickeing
• specially in asbestos exposed/ family H, needs initial evaluation for
Dx.
• Thoracocentasis
• CECT chest
• Extent, Stage n Resectability
• Recently CT Volumetric assessment —> Prognostic marker. 9

10. • MRI
• Better detect diaphragmatic and endothoracic fascia.
• PET CT
• Indicated before Sx, to see N stage and Distant mets.
• High FP, so prove Positive finding before decision making.
• CT abdomen, if PET CT not done, to rule out peritoneal
disease.
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11. TISSUE DIAGNOSIS
• Thoracocentasis
• Cytology and cell block & IHC  84% sensitivity.
• CT guided bx
• VATS Bx
• If above method failed.
• Under vision, adequate tissue can be taken.
• Open Biopsy
• Rarely needed these days.
• For subtype classification (needs good amount of tissue.)
• Open Bx  83% accuracy
• Thoracoscopy  74%
• Image Guided Bx  44%
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12. TUMOR MARKER
• Serum mesothelioma related protein (SMRP)
• Sn 83%, Sp 95%.
• Correlate with disease burden.
• Not useful for early disease.
• Optional.
• Osteopontin (OPN)
• Correlate with asbestos exposure, but not correlated with
Mesothelioma.
• Megakaryocyte potentiating factor
• Pleural effusion fibulin 3
12

13. STAGING 7TH EDITION AJCC
• IMIG (international mesothelioma interest
group) proposed TNM and this is being accepted
by AJCC.
• Survival Stage 1 through 4
• 51m, 26m, 15m and 8m.
• Staging is surgical, so without Sx, it may be
inaccurate.
• PET is part of staging.
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14. T1 —> tumor limited to Ipsilateral parietal pleura with or
without involvment of Mediastinal pleura and
Diaphragmatic pleura.
a —> Visceral pleura not involved.
b. Visceral pleura involved.
T2 —> when each surface of ipsilateral PP involved with
atleast one of the following invasion
* Diaghragmatic muscle
* Lung parenchyma
14

15. • T3 —> locally advanced, potentially resectable, tumor
involving ipsilateral Pleura with atleast one
• 1. Involvement of the endothoracic fascia
2. Extension into the mediastinal fat
3. Solitary, completely resectable focus extending into
the soft tissues of the chest wall
4. Non transmural involvement of the pericardium.
• T4  locally advanced, technically unresectable,
1. multifocal/diffuse chest wall with rib distruction
2. transdiaphragmatic Peritoneal involvment.
3. contralateral pleura
4. mediastinal organ
5. internal surface of pericardium or myocardium
6. spine.
15

16. • N1 " ipsilateral bronchopulmonary or hilar lymph nodes
• N2 " subcarinal or the ipsilateral mediastinal lymph nodes,
• including the ipsilateral internal mammary nodes
• N3 " contralateral mediastinal, contralateral internal
mammary, ipsilateral, or contralateral supraclavicular lymph
nodes
• Stage I"T1, no LN or mets. 52m
• StageII"T2 26m
• Stage III"T3 or N1 or N2 16m
• StageIV"T4orN3orM1 8m
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17. 17

18. 18

19. ROLE OF SURGERY
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1. DIAGNOSTIC
To identify subtype
2. PALLIATIVE
3. MCR – MACROSCOPIC COMPLETE RESECTION
• R0/1
• Cardiopulmonary evaluation and performance status to be
considered before surgery as pt may req pneumonectomy

20. Mesotheliomadomainof IASLC
• P/D  Parietal and visceral pleurectomy to remove all gross
tumor without diaphragm or pericardial resection.
• EPP  en bloc resection of the parietal and visceral
pleura with the ipsilateral lung, pericardium, and
diaphragm.
• In cases where the pericardium and/or diaphragm are not
involved by tumor, these structures may be left intact
• Extended P/D 
(resection of the diaphragm and pericardium in
addition to total pleurectomy.
MCR " macroscopic complete resection/ R0 or R1 is Goal. 20

21. • EPP : initial Sx defined for Mesothelioma
5-11.8% mortality
22-82% morbidity
Median OS  9.4 to 27m
• AF, MI, Epicarditis, Respiratory failure, Thrombosis, Empyema,
herniation of heart, RLN injury, BPF.
• Owing to high sx mortality, EPP alone was not shown to prolong
OS,
• Phase 2 studies in 2004 to 2010, used trimodality.
• Induction chemotherapy  EPP  Hemithorax RT.
• 3.1% mortality
• 60% completed Rx
• 27.7 month overall survival
• They also advised patient selection, which do better with TMT.
• ! younger < 65 with good PS,
! has pure epitheloid histology,
! an absence of lymph node involvement, and is
! physiologically able to tolerate pneumonectomy.
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22. MARS * 2011 criticisms of the study
includes (6 flaws)
• 1.18% operative
mortality
• 2. Lack of power of the
study.
• 3. The crossover of
individuals from one
arm to the other in six
instances
• 4. Only one-third of the
individuals received
the full TMT.
• 5. Preoperative
chemotherapy was not
standardized.
Conclusions
• Median survival of 14.4
months versus 19.5
months, respectively
• So Sx, not adding they
said.
• First RCT to evaluate EPP
as a part of multimodality
therapy
• 50 patients randomised
• Induction chemo - EPP -
RT
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23. P/D & Ext P/D
LUNG PRESERVING APPROACH
• Recent 4 publications in 2012.
• P/D seems to have less mortality, less morbidity, and a
comparable overall survival to EPP, so A Phase 3 RCTs
started.
• MARS-2 trial  Survival and/or QoL benefits.
• 2x pem+Cis  if stable or no progression, Either 
• Ext P/D  4 chemo
• or 4 more cycle of CT.
• Primary outcome  OS@ 5 years. May 2017, expected.
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24. BETWEEN ...., EPP OR P/D ?
• Flores and colleagues , 2007,MSKCC experience
• 945 patients with mesothelioma, over 20 years
• 22% underwent EPP and
• 19% underwent P/D
• Rest no surgery.
• MCR, surgical experience, addition of pem+ cis based CT, Stage of
disease, histology and symptom burden affected survival.
• Survival without Sx was inferior than with Sx.
• Type of surgery, not affected Survival.
• EPP a/w better local control with cost of increase morbidity.
24

25. • a significantly higher proportion of short-term deaths in the
EPP group versus the P/D group (percent mortality meta
estimate; 4.5% vs 1.7%; p < 0.05).
• There was no statistically significant difference in 2-year
mortality between the 2 groups
• P/D should be preferred when technically possible.
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NCCN  EPP and P/D both are reasonable option
P/D is safer than EPP, but Oncological superiority not known.

26. FEW MORE SURGICAL
ISSUES.
• Do MLND in all patients.
• If MCR not feasible, surgery should be differed.
• Recent studies, if even if R2 resection can be done
without adding surgical morbidity, one should proceed
with Sx, as it is best palliation of symptom control and ?
Survival advantage.
• Partial pleurectomy is palliative procedure for Intractable
pl effusion.
26

27. • NCCN  stage 1-3, chemotherapy should be part of MMRx.
• Stage 4 & medically unresectable CT only is an option.
• Pem 500mg/m2 + Cisplatin 75mg/m2, 3 weekly regimen.
• Vogelzang et al landmark study: pem became Rx part.
• An EORTC trial investigate the timing of the chemotherapy in
combination with extended P/D.
• MAPS trial  adding Avastin in unresectable good PS patients, 
2.7 m OS benefit, but role in surgical patients ?
• Pem + carbo
• Gem + Cis
• Gem + Vinorelbine
• Intra operative, Hyper thermic intrapleural CT are investigational
CHEMOTHERAPY
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28. RADIATION
• Definitive RT  need of Large dose and vital organs
• Definitive CTRT
• Few retrospective series  88% RR, 12% durable CR . Chen et al
• So may an option for nonsurgical candidates, but robust data
lacking.  investigational
• Adjuvant RT, post EPP
• MSKCC, Rusch et al, survival benefit shown.
• IMRT and RT planning with PET CT scan, reduce toxicity and
improve tolerance.
• 50-60Gy/1.8-2#
• Hemithorax RT  entire hemithorax, incisions and drain sites.
• NCCN  Post EPP, RT should be given if one can tolerate. 28

29. • Adjuvant RT post P/D
• Its highly toxic and not found to improve Survival, hence not
indicated. MSKCC series.
• Still some centers use it, NCCN says No.
• Brachytherpay or intraop RT too are not indicated.
• Palliation
• Pain  30-40Gy with each # > than 4 gy, excellent pain control.
• Bronchial and esophageal obstruction.
• Brain mets , Painful bone mets.
• Prevention of scar recurrence
• 20-50% chance
• Data conflicting
• 21Gy/ 3Gy x 7 29

30. SUPPORTIVE CARE
• To control pleural effusion
• Repeated thoracentesis
• Talc pleurodesis
• Pleur X catheter
• Pleurectomy - better survival, Qol
• Pain –
• narcotics,
• epidural,
• local Rt

31. NOVEL TREATMENT
APPROACHES
• Angiogenesis Inhibition – Bevacizumab, thalidomide, sunitinib
and sorafenib .
• Ribonuclease Inhibitors – Ranpirnase
• Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors - vorinostat
• Mesothelin directed therapy - amatuximab

32. 32
SURGICAL STEPS

33. 33

34. SUMMARY
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• Highly aggressive disease - 51 months ,26 months , 15
months and 8 months
• Trimodality therapy – 60 % have 30 month of median survival
• Surgery - EPP vs P/D
• Prevention is the key to success in fighting against
mesothelioma

35. • Thanking you..
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