Chemotherapy for malignant pleural mesothelioma.

This paper covers the outcome of previously conducted clinical trials on chemotherapy for malignant pleural mesothelioma and presents data from recent phase II and phase III trials. In contrast to conventional cytotoxic drugs, which have barely produced response rates exceeding 30%, recently introduced chemotherapeutic agents and their combinations promise to be more effective. Especially pemetrexed has yielded response rates of up to 45% in combination with platinum compounds. Furthermore, raltitrexed-oxaliplatin has shown promising activity and gemcitabine was found to improve quality of life in patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma when applied as a single agent or in combination with cisplatin. Based on robust phase III study results, pemetrexed-cisplatin may soon be considered with chemotherapy for this aggressive disease.