The Efficacy of the Frontline Platinum-based Combination Chemotherapy in Malignant Peritoneal Mesothelioma

Objective: Malignant peritoneal mesothelioma is a rare neoplasm that accounts for 1 per 1 million has limited data regarding its frontline therapy. We investigated the treatment out-comes in patients with malignant peritoneal mesothelioma receiving frontline cisplatin-based combination chemotherapy. Methods: We analyzed 14 patients with malignant peritoneal mesothelioma who had been treated by frontline cisplatin-based combination chemotherapy between January 2005 and March 2009. The chemotherapeutic agent added to platinum was gemcitabine in one patient, cyclophosphamide–doxorubicin in three patients and pemetrexed in 10 patients. Results: The confirmed overall response rate was 35.7 % and the disease control rate was 71.4%. In all patients, two complete responses and three partial responses were observed (overall response rate, 35.7%). Stable disease was observed in five patients (35.7%). The median progression free survival was 4.4 months (95 % CI, 0.6–9.0) and the median overall survival was 20.1 months (95 % CI, 12.7–28.5). There was significant differences for progression free survival (P 0.031) according to the different chemothera