Objective:

To evaluate diagnostic and treatment results of malignant intraperitoneal mesothelioma in one setting.

Materials and Method:

12 patients treated for malignant peritoneal mesothelioma from January 2007 to June 2009 in Başkent University Ankara Hospital, Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics were evaluated. In a retrospective observational study design tumour stage, grade, differentiation, time from first symptoms, pleural involvement, peritoneal cancer index, surgical cytoreduction, chemotherapeutic regimen, number of cycles, disease free survival and overall survival were evaluated. Disease free survival, overall survival, time until first symptoms were researched.

Results:

The main presenting symptom was abdominal distension. Primary cytoreductive surgery followed by chemotherapy was performed in 9 patients. In 6 patients completeness of cytoreductive score below 2 was achieved. As a first line chemotherapy the most often used was cisplatin in combination with pemetrexed. Themean time from first symptoms until the diagnosis was 1.9 months. Disease free survival of 4.4±1.0 months after completing particular treatment and overall 1-year survival of 85.7 % was observed. No correlations between first symptoms (0.27, p=0.52), time until the diagnosis (-0.29, p=0.44) and overall survival were observed. Similarly, correlations between peritoneal cancer index (0.25, p=0.67), prior surgical score (-.45, p=0.37), completeness of cytoreduction score (0.61, p=0.27) and overall survival were not observed.

Conclusions:

Because of the low number of patients and different treatment approaches data from a particular patient setting are inconclusive, but from the literature there is evidence that patients with malignant intraperitoneal mesothelioma should undergo optimal cytoreduction and receive a combination of cisplatin and pemetrexed as a first line chemotherapy for intravenous or cisplatin in different chemotherapy regimens using the intraperitoneal administration route, if accessible, with even higher overall survival rates.

Keywords: Mesothelioma, intraperitoneal