Peritoneal mesothelioma

This review provides an overview of articles about peritoneal mesothelioma (PM) to analyze the effect of treatment modalities on response rates, post-treatment side effects, morbidity and mortality, and survival. Median survival in months following systemic chemotherapy (SC) ranged from 8.7 to 26.8 months. However, no patient was reported to have survived for more than five years with SC alone. In contrast, comprehensive treatment that included cytoreductive surgery (CRS) + perioperative chemotherapy (POC) showed a significantly longer median survival time than SC alone. Additionally, CRS + POC demonstrated 10-year survival rates of 12%-35%. Accordingly, CRS + POC is an innovative treatment that provides long-term survival in selected patients with PM. Selection criteria are performance status (ECOG PS ≤ 1), the absence of extraperitoneal metastasis, PCI less than cutoff levels (from < 10 to < 28), MIB-1 index (< 10), and histologic type (epithelioid type). Postoperative morbidity and mortality rates after CRS + POC were significantly higher than with more conventional operations. Accordingly, CRS and POC should be done at the specialized peritoneal surface malignancy centers.