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Posted on Friday, May 1, 2009

Gene Expression and Treatment Prognosis in Malignant Mesothelioma

Even as recent advances in the treatment of malignant mesothelioma have led to a better long-term prognosis for some patients, physicians have not been able to definitely determine which patient classes have the best overall chances at long-term survival. Early diagnosis and epitheloid histology are typically seen as the best prognostic factors, but variations even exist among patients with these factors. In an attempt to learn more this question, physicians and researchers at Boston’s Brigham and Woman’s Hospital have conducted a number of retrospective gene expression studies using tissue samples from prior patients and the results of a recent prospective study involving 120 patients have confirmed many of their previous findings.

The physicians were able to isolate the relationships among four genes (TM4SF1/PKM2, TM4SF1/ARHGDIA, and COBLL1/ARHGDIA) to determine which patients were the likeliest to experience a better prognosis and which were likeliest to experience a more limited one. The authors report their testing predicted both overall survival and cancer-specific survival and the combination of the gene expression tests with traditional prognostic factors allowed them to create separate classifications of a high-risk group and low-risk group with significant accuracy.

The results of this research are quite promising for mesothelioma treatment and the authors call for more study of their testing methodology to determine its regular applicability to mesothelioma patients.