Background: Pleural mesothelioma (PM) is a rare, highly lethal tumor. A definite consensus on its management has yet to be established.
Objectives: To assess management, overall survival (OS), and their predictors in a cohort of patients from Lombardy, the largest Italian region (about 10 million inhabitants).
Methods: Through a record linkage between Lombardy health care administrative databases, we identified patients diagnosed with PM in 2006–2011 without history of cancer, evaluating their management. OS from PM diagnosis was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Predictors of OS and of treatment were assessed using Cox regression models with time-dependent covariates when appropriate.
Conclusions: Management of PM varied widely in clinical practice, and significant predictors of treatment were younger age and recent diagnosis, though a high proportion of patients were not treated. Patients were treated in various hospitals, indicating the importance of concentrating serious rare neoplasms in Comprehensive Cancer Centers (as recognized by the Italian Health Ministry).
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