1. Skip to header
  2. Skip to main
  3. Skip to content
  4. Skip to sidebar
  5. Skip to footer
  • Home > Blog > Treatment News > Light-Based Radiation Therapy Shown to Increase Overall Survival of Mesothelioma Patients in Recent Study
Posted on Monday, Jun 20, 2011

Light-Based Radiation Therapy Shown to Increase Overall Survival of Mesothelioma Patients in Recent Study

While experts in the medical field continue to debate the best surgical procedure for extending the lives of malignant pleural mesothelioma patients, another study has been published in favor of the lung-sparing radical pleurectomy/decortication (P/D).  In a study published in the June issue of Annals of Thoracic Surgery, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania report pleural mesothelioma patients who underwent radical P/D in combination with photodynamic therapy (PDT), have shown unusually long overall survival.

Pleural mesothelioma is a rare form cancer that is almost always caused by asbestos exposure and is most commonly found in the outer lining of the lungs called the mesothelium. The cancer often has a complex growth pattern making complete surgical removal of the diseased tissue difficult. The two primary surgical options are the lung-sparing pleurectomy/decortication and the extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP) which is a radical and complex surgery that features the removal of the affected lung and parietal pleura, as well as the possible removal of the diaphragm, the pericardium and other extrapleural tissue.

In the new study, pleural mesothelioma patients who underwent P/D surgery in combination with the experimental light-based cancer treatment PDT have shown improved overall survival compared to those treated with modified EPP.  Most of the patients were older and had advanced stage III and IV cancer.

Researchers, led by Joseph S. Friedberg, M.D., a thoracic surgeon and co-director of the Penn Mesothelioma and Pleural Program at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, compared the treatment outcomes for 14 patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma treated with EPP and PDT and 14 patients treated with P/D and PDT from 2004 to 2008.

The median survival for the patients who underwent the EPP combined with the light therapy was about 8.4 months. Meanwhile, enough of the mesothelioma patients in the second group remained alive at the end of two years that the researchers have yet to be able to calculate their median survival.

“The findings from our study are particularly notable because many of the patients in this study would often be excluded from surgery-based therapy because of their advanced age or unfavorable (cancer) characteristics,” said Freidberg in a press release.

Photodynamic therapy is an emerging cancer treatment that that uses a drug called a photo-sensitizer and a specific type of light to kill cancer cells. The light therapy penetrates the tissue to a depth of several millimeters.

Dr. Robert Cameron, the innovator of the lung-sparing pleurectomy/decortication, believes the P/D approach provides the patient with the best possible quality of life and recently led attendees at the 1st International Symposium on Lung-Sparing Therapies for Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma to unanimous agreement that P/D should be the preferred surgical procedure for sufferers of pleural mesothelioma.

While the size of the study was a limitation, Freidberg said the results were encouraging. The team concluded that “In addition to the inherent advantages of sparing the lung, RP plus PDT yielded a superior overall survival.”  These results offer hope for mesothelioma patients and their families.

A larger study investigating the effectiveness of this treatment approach is currently underway at Penn.