Effect of intraoperative hyperthermic intrathoracic chemotherapy after pleurectomy decortication for treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma: a comparative study.

Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is an aggressive malignancy with few long-term survivors. Despite the dismal prognosis, hyperthermic intrathoracic chemoperfusion (HITOC) was shown to improve survival in a selective group of patients. We analyzed the influence of HITOC following pleurectomy and decortication on postoperative morbidity and overall survival for patients suffering from localized mesothelioma.