title: Multimodal treatment for resectable epithelial type malignant pleural mesothelioma.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Malignant pleural mesothelioma is a rare malignancy. The outcome remains poor despite complete surgical resection.
  
  
  METHODS
  Eleven patients with histologicaly proven epithelial type malignant pleural mesothelioma undergoing extrapleural pneumonectomy with systemic chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy before and after surgical resection were retrospectively reviewed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Ten out of 11 patients underwent complete surgical resection, of these 7 patients had stage I disease. Of these 7 patients, 5 are alive without any recurrence, a 2-year survival rate of 80% was observed in this group. There was no operative mortality or morbidity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Extrapleural pneumonectomy with perioperative adjuvant treatment is safe and effective procedure for epithelial type malignant pleural mesothelioma.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery and Science, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka 812-8582, Japan. iyoshino@surg2.med.kyushu-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Ichiro
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Yoshino
authors.forename: Masafumi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yamaguchi
authors.forename: Tatsuro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Okamoto
authors.forename: Chie
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ushijima
authors.forename: Yasuro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fukuyama
authors.forename: Yukito
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ichinose
authors.forename: Yoshihiko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Maehara