Persistent lung expansion after pleural talc poudrage in non-surgically resected malignant pleural mesothelioma.

Background: To investigate the prognostic effect of persistent lung expansion after pleural talcage and other variables in non-surgically resected malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) patients.

Methods: All consecutive patients submitted to video-assisted thoracoscopic (VAT) pleurodesis by talc poudrage for MPM between 2006 and 2011 were studied. The following parameters were prospectively recorded: age; sex; smoking history; asbestos exposure; C-reactive protein (CRP) levels; platelet (PLT) count; Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status (ECOG PS); histologic subtype; clinical stage (cStage); chemotherapy; pleural fluid volume; and persistence of lung expansion at 3 months follow-up. Survival was assessed in June 2013.

Results: A total of 172 patients were considered; 146 of 172 patients demonstrated a complete lung expansion at discharge, whereas only 85 of 172 patients had persistent expanded lung on the affected side at the 3-month follow-up chest x-ray. Median survival was 11.5 months (95% confidence interval [CI], 10% to 14%) and 2-year disease-specific survival was 13% (95% CI, 7% to 24%) for the entire cohort. Multivariate analysis showed that non-epithelioid histology (hazard ratio [HR], 2.81; 95% CI, 1.82% to 5.09%), pleural fluid recurrence (HR 2.54; 95% CI, 1.73% to 4.40%), cStage greater than II (HR 2.36; 95% CI, 1.50% to 4.32%), ECOG PS greater than 1 (HR 2.19; 95% CI, 1.26% to 4.23%), CRP greater than 5 mg/L (HR 2.01; 95% CI, 1.18% to 4.12%), and PLT count greater than 400,000 (HR 1.76; 95% CI 1.14% to 3.92%) were independent predictors of poor prognosis.

Conclusions: Persistent lung expansion after pleural talc poudrage and absence of fluid recurrence is demonstrated to be a stronger factor in predicting survival rather than clinical stage and other clinical variables in not surgically resected MPM patients.