Faculty Bibliography

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Mesothelioma is an aggressive malignancy of the pleura with poor survival. There will be approximately 3000 cases of mesothelioma in the United States annually. Multimodality treatment including neoadjuvant chemotherapy in selected individuals followed by extrapleural pneumonectomy and radiation has been studied in recent trials for its effects on disease free and overall survival This review provides a general overview of malignant mesothelioma with a summary of the most significant articles from within the past year as well as from the past. RECENT FINDINGS: Areas of recent interest include the evaluation of osteopontin and mesothelin as new tumor markers for mesothelioma. New phase III trials have been performed to evaluate the use of combined chemotherapy regimens. SUMMARY: Malignant mesothelioma is a very difficult malignancy to treat. Patients with the disease usually have an occupational asbestos exposure, and in some, viral exposure with SV40. There have been many historical treatments including combinations of local control with surgery and radiation as well as attempts to prevent systemic failure with chemotherapy. Novel therapies including intrapleural chemotherapy, photodynamic therapy and hyperthermic perfusion have also been used with some success. Finally there are several attempts at immunomodulating and targeted treatments, which are in phase I/II trials

According to the American Cancer Society, there will be an estimated 14,520 new cases of esophageal cancer and 174,470 new cases of lung cancer in 2005. Close to 60% of these patients with esophageal cancer will present at an advanced stage not amenable to cure, but still will require palliation of their dysphagia. Conventional plastic stents (CPS) were used initially, and with continuous improvement in technology, insertion of self-expanding metal stents (SEMS) has become the palliative treatment of choice in the majority of these patients. SEMS are effective in palliating malignant dysphagia in 85%-100% of patients. More recently, a new self-expanding plastic stent (SEPS) has been designed which in early studies has been very effective in palliating dysphagia. Similarly, the majority of patients with lung cancer will present at an advanced stage and approximately 20% of these patients will have an endobronchial component requiring some form of palliation for relief of airway obstruction. Currently airway stents are either made of self-expanding metal for more permanent use, orl silicone if a more temporary solution is needed. Complications similar to the esophageal stents may arise. The purpose of this article is to provide an evidence based review of stents in the palliative setting for esophageal and lung cancer and briefly explore their potential use and expanding indications in the neoadjuvant setting

Localized pericardial hematomas after cardiac surgery may have atypical clinical presentations due to regional alterations in cardiac function and hemodynamics. We report a case of extravascular thrombus that compressed the main pulmonary artery and produced acute hypoxemia due to right-to-left shunting across a patent foramen ovale. We review the pathophysiology leading to this finding and the echocardiographic studies that established the diagnosis