Recent Advancements in Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma: Diagnosis, Treatment, and Molecular Mechanisms

Dear Colleagues,

Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is a dismal and rare disease caused by asbestos exposure. Since asbestos use peaked around 1980 and the latency time to develop MPM is around 20 to 50 years, the number of deaths from MPM in Europe is expected to peak in 2020–2025.

The optimal treatment for mesothelioma remains under debate; moreover, there is no international agreement on the role of surgery with curative intent.

Two trials have defined the past and present of surgery in MPM:

• PAST: The role of Extra-Pleural-Pneumonectomy (EPP) as an appropriate surgical treatment was widely discussed after the publication of the MARS1 trial, a prospective RCT that compared outcomes of patients who were randomly assigned to Chemo/EPP or to chemotherapy alone. The trial exposed that EPP within tri-modality therapy tendered no survival benefits and could be detrimental for treated patients.
• PRESENT: The role of extended pleurectomy decortication (EPD) was discussed in the MARS2 trial, a RCT that compared chemo/EPD versus chemotherapy alone. The preliminary results showed that multimodality therapy including surgery significantly extended the OS of MPM patients compared with multimodal treatment without surgery in selected cases.

FUTURE: We need to address some open questions:

• What is the role of neoadjuvant treatment?
• Does the immunotherapy revolutionize the approach to MPM as with what happened to NSCLC?
• Which is the best timing for surgery in multimodal treatment?
• Can Artificial Intelligence predict the outcomes of MPM patients?

The aim of this Special Issue is debating and answering the most important controversies about this cruel disease.

Dr. Sara Ricciardi
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Current Oncology is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• malignant pleural mesothelioma
• surgical treatment
• chemotherapy
• neoadjuvant treatment
• immunotherapy
• multimodal treatment
• artificial intelligence predict