High dose doxorubicin plus cisplatin in the treatment of unresectable mesotheliomas: report of four cases

Only a very small proportion of all patients with mesotheliomas can be cured surgically. Both radiotherapy and standard chemotherapy are generally considered to be of only limited usefulness. In this paper, we report four patients with unresectable mesotheliomas treated with the combination of cisplatin 105-120 mg/m2 plus doxorubicin 90 mg/m2. Toxicity was substantial, in that all four patients developed neutropenic sepsis and other grade 3 toxicity, but there were no treatment-related deaths. There were two patients with complete remissions (one persisting at > 4 years), one partial remission, and one stable disease with marked symptomatic improvement. This combination is toxic, but the anecdotal evidence of efficacy is suggestive that it may possibly be more active than lower doses of chemotherapy. It warrants further study in good performance status patients with unresectable mesotheliomas.