Intraperitoneal cisplatin and etoposide in peritoneal mesothelioma: favorable outcome with a multimodality approach

Ten patients with histologically documented peritoneal mesothelioma were treated with intraperitoneal cisplatin 200 mg/m2, sodium thiosulfate rescue and etoposide 65–290 mg/m2 every 4 weeks for a maximum of six cycles. All had epithelial or mixed epithelial-fibrous histology. Toxicity was tolerable, with 50% sustaining grade 3 or 4 granulocytopenia. There was one episode of neutropenic fever. Grade 2 peripheral neuropathy occurred in one patient, grade 1 in five patients. Complete remission occurred in one of five patients with measurable disease. Median survival for patients whose tumors were surgically debulked to <2 cm residua prior to treatment was 22 months, while it was 5 months for those with measurable, surgically inaccessible disease (P=0.0731 by Cox regression proportional hazard model). These data suggest that patients who present with resectable disease may benefit from an aggressive adjuvant approach. This possibility warrants prospective testing in a randomized clinical trial.