A recent asbestos mesothelioma study presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress found that high-dose radiation therapy adds no survival benefit after chemotherapy and radical surgery in patients with mesothelioma.

The study included 153 patients with surgically-treatable malignant pleural mesothelioma who were first treated with three chemotherapy cycles, followed by surgical removal of affected lung tissue, with the goal of complete removal of the cancerous areas of lung. In a second part of the study, researchers randomly assigned 54 patients to receive either radiation therapy or no further treatment, with the primary endpoint being the duration of relapse-free survival.

While there had been preliminary evidence suggesting that the addition of radiotherapy might improve outcomes, the study failed to find any differences in relapse-free survival between patients treated with the additional mesothelioma radiation therapy and those who were not.

Chemotherapy followed by major surgery and radiation of high volumes of the chest is one of the accepted treatments in fit patients. The study indicated that the contribution of radiation did not improve time to recurrence of the disease.

Additionally, researchers from England recently conducted a clinical trial to evaluate the effectiveness of radiation therapy as a mesothelioma treatment. This trial included 409 patients from 76 medical institutions. Patients were treated with either a combination of steroids, pain relievers, and agents to dilate lung passages or the aforementioned combination along with radiation therapy. The study concluded that no benefit in terms of quality of life for mesothelioma patients was achieved with the addition of radiation.

Mesothelioma is a cancer that develops in the tissue that covers the lungs and lines the interior of the chest. It is mainly caused by chronic exposure to asbestos.

The majority of patients are not diagnosed until the disease has progressed to advanced stage lung cancer. Patients with mesothelioma often experience symptoms such as shortness of breath, cough, pain, fatigue, and an inability to eat, which lessen their quality of life. Mesothelioma treatment is fairly resistant to most therapies, including surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy.

Radiation therapy is one of the oldest forms of mesothelioma treatment available. For mesothelioma patients, radiation may be used after a form of surgery that is designed to remove as much of the cancer as possible. It may also be employed to relieve some of the symptoms of mesothelioma disease and make the patient more comfortable.

Mesothelioma Lawsuits

Mesothelioma lawsuits are the longest-running mass tort in U.S. history, with more than 600,000 people having filed a case against more than 6,000 defendants after being diagnosed with asbestos lung cancer that was allegedly caused by inhaling asbestos fibers.

In addition to mesothelioma lawsuits for workers suffering from asbestos exposure, in recent years there have been a growing number of secondary exposure mesothelioma cases, with wives, children and other family members alleging they developed the disease after breathing asbestos fibers brought home in the hair or on the clothing of individuals who worked directly with the material.