title: Clinical characteristics and treatment outcomes in 132 patients with malignant mesothelioma.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Our objective is to scrutinize clinical, laboratory, radiological characteristics, treatment regimens, and treatment outcomes of malignant mesothelioma (MM) cases in our hospital.
  
  
  METHODS
  We investigated, retrospectively, the clinical characteristics and treatment outcomes of all 132 MM patients at Dicle University Hospital between January 2006 and April 2010.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 82 (62.1%) patients were male, and 50 (37.9%) female. Median age was 56.0 years. Mean survival time was 9.6±6.9 months. Mean survival time of patients who had received best supportive care was 7.5 months, chemotherapy 10.4 months, and multimodality treatment regimen 12.6 months. Patients in the multimodality treatment group survived longer than did those in the other two groups (P=0.042). A total of 76 patients received chemotherapy, of whom 17 (22.3%) were administered Cisplatin/Carboplatin and Gemcitabine, 58 (76.4%) Cisplatin/Carboplatin and Pemetrexed, and one (1.3%) Cisplatin + Docetaxel. Complete and partial response to treatment in patients receiving Cisplatin/Carboplatin and Gemcitabine was found 47.1% and Cisplatin/Carboplatin and Pemetrexed was found 50.0% (P>0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  MM related to asbestos exposure is seen frequently in Turkey. Patients present with the typical clinical features of dyspnea, weight loss, and chest pain. Survival analysis shows that patients receiving multimodality treatment may be better.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chest Diseases, Medical School of Dicle University, Diyarbakir, Turkey.
authors.forename: Abdurrahman
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Abakay
authors.forename: Abdullah C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Tanrikulu
authors.forename: Muhammet Ali
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Kaplan
authors.forename: Mehmet
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kucukoner
authors.forename: Ozlem
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Abakay
authors.forename: Hadice
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sen
authors.forename: Abdurrahman
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Isikdogan
authors.forename: Abdurrahman
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Senyigit
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