Cell Types Were Not Balanced Between Groups
Dr. Ugalde Figueroa made important points about this study. But one other issue may have affected survival outcomes. The surgery group included about 2.6 times as many sarcomatoid patients as the chemo group.
Sarcomatoid tumors treated with chemo generally have significantly worse survival than other cell types. If one group had twice as many sarcomatoid patients, that factor alone might bring down the median survival.
Mesothelioma Survivor Points Out Cross-Pond Differences
We asked pleural mesothelioma survivor Heather Von St. James about Dr. Lim’s proposal. As someone who underwent aggressive surgery-based treatment, she had some thoughts.
“There has long been an agreement [between Americans and Brits] to disagree about the role of surgery for pleural mesothelioma,” she said. According to Heather, American mesothelioma specialists tend to value surgery, and their British counterparts do not. Her assertion lines up well with the interaction between Dr. Lim and Dr. Ugalde Figueroa.
What Does It Mean for Mesothelioma Patients?
The MARS2 trial is just one study with debatable results. So it is too soon to tell how this research may affect patients. For now, medical literature supports surgery-based treatment for operable cases of mesothelioma. Given the volume of studies that take this stance, it seems unlikely to change any time soon.
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