Analysis of the efficacy of treating malignant pleural effusions caused by lung cancer with pleurodesis

Objective To retrospectively analyse the efficacy and the influencing factors of the treatment on lung cancer patients with malignant pleural effusions(MPE) by injecting cisplatin, highly agglutinative staphylococcin, pingyangmycin, nocardia rubra cell wall skeleton and tumor necrosis factor into pleural cavity. Methods The clinical data of 125 lung cancer patients with MPE who were hospitalized in our hospital from 2002 to 2009 was analysed. Results The efficacy of the five kinds of drugs were 81.82%, 61.90%, 60.53%, 55.56% and 46.67% respectively. Except the highly agglutinative staphylococcin group, the efficacy was significantly higher in cisplatin group than in the other three groups(P0.05). The efficacy was affected by systemic corticosteroids, the method of drainage of pleural effusions and the location of MPE according to univariate analysis. Conclusion Pleurodesis is an effective method to treat MPE caused by lung cancer. The efficacy of cisplatin is the best. The efficacy in the closed drainage group is higher than in the group that is drained by thoracentesis. The efficacy of the patients with unilateral pleural effusions is higher than that of the ones with bilateral pleural effusions(P0.05). Systemic corticosteroids will decrease the efficacy(P0.05).