title: The MesoVATS trial: is there a future for video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery partial pleurectomy?
abstract: Malignant pleural mesothelioma, a uniformly fatal cancer caused by prior asbestos exposure, places a major burden on society. The MesoVATS trial was a multicenter randomized controlled trial that examined the role of video-assisted thoracoscopic partial pleurectomy (VAT-PP) versus talc pleurodesis in patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma. Overall there was no difference in survival between VAT-PP and talc pleurodesis. VAT-PP resulted in more complications, longer hospital stay and was more expensive. However, there was some evidence that VAT-PP improved EQ5D measured quality of life after 6 months particularly in the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer low-risk subgroup. At present the future role of VAT-PP is uncertain and may merit further investigation but this should be within the context of clinical trials. VAT-PP may also have a role to play in the specific situation of trapped lung.
authors.affiliation: Department of Thoracic Oncology, Papworth Hospital, Cambridge, UK.
authors.forename: Robert C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Rintoul
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008654:Mesothelioma / Q000473:pathology*; D000086002:Mesothelioma, Malignant; D015337:Multicenter Studies as Topic; D010997:Pleural Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D011788:Quality of Life; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D020775:Thoracic Surgery, Video-Assisted / Q000379:methods
keywords: mesothelioma; partial pleurectomy; video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery