Gene Screening Proves Effective in Screening for Mesothelioma Survival

A molecular profiling technique has proven to be helpful in accurately predicting the survival of patients with malignant mesothelioma, based on a report in the May 6th Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

The report details the findings of Dr. Raphael Bueno and fellow researchers at Harvard Medical School. Based on their research, the team concluded that a 4-gene expression ratio test was remarkably effective in predicting survival length of 120 patients following surgery for malignant pleural mesothelioma.

Based on the gene test, patients were either placed in an expected "good" outcome group or "poor" outcome group. The results of the study showed that the good outcome group's overall median survival time was 16.8 months and median cancer-specific survival was 21.9 months. The poor outcome group, in contrast, displayed 9.5 months and 15.9 months, respectively.

Just as important, the ability to reproduce successful predictions was highly accurate. Specifically, the repeatability of the gene screening was found to be 88.5 percent for tumor specimen analysis and 93.4 percent for specimens taken from pleural biopsy.

The new finding has the potential to dramatically influence the suggested course of treatment for patients diagnosed with malignant pleural mesothelioma. As surgery is unlikely to be effective for patients with a predictive poor outcome, a palliative care program may be the most beneficial course of therapy.

In contrast, patients who are at a higher probability to respond well to surgery will likely find value in pursuing such invasive procedures.

Though the gene test has only been verified as an effective predictor for mesothelioma, the Harvard team believes it may also be useful for lung, bladder, breast and other types of cancer.

Source: University of Pennsylvania's Oncolink

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