Special Issue on Mechanisms of Mesothelioma Heterogeneity: Highlights and Open Questions

Our plain-English summary of Special Issue on Mechanisms of Mesothelioma Heterogeneity: Highlights and Open Questions, by E. Felley-Bosco (International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 2018).

The study

• Author: E. Felley-Bosco
• Journal: International Journal of Molecular Sciences
• Published: 2018;19(11)
• Type of article: Editorial
• Cited by: 4 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

Abstract

This editorial aims to synthesize the eleven papers that have contributed to this special issue, where the mechanisms of mesothelioma heterogeneity have been tackled from different angles.

In plain English

This article was an editorial, not a research study. The author summarized the eleven papers in a journal special issue on mesothelioma heterogeneity, the ways these tumors vary, including differences in tumor cells' genetic changes and changes over time as tumors progress, and pointed out open questions. As the editorial describes them, those papers covered genetic changes in tumor cells (especially in the NF2/Hippo and BAP1 pathways), non-coding RNA molecules, immune cells around the tumor, and laboratory mouse models, including mice exposed to asbestos fibers. The editorial noted a case, reported by Serio et al., of a long-surviving patient with peritoneal mesothelioma whose tumor showed none of the mutations in BAP1, CDKN2A or NF2. The author also presented graphs made with a public web-based tool that uses tumors analyzed in TCGA. They showed that the share of white blood cells (leukocytes) in mesothelioma tumors was more closely linked to a "macrophage regulation" gene signature than to an "IFN-gamma response" signature. The author concluded that these observations point to macrophages, a type of immune cell, as a major regulator of the immune system in mesothelioma.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Editorial summarizing the eleven papers in a journal special issue on mechanisms of mesothelioma heterogeneity
• Who was studied: No study population; the editorial discusses the eleven papers in the special issue, which addressed differences in genetic alterations in tumor cells and differences over time during tumor progression
• Exposure: No exposure was studied by the author; asbestos exposure appears only in other studies the editorial discusses (mouse models exposed to asbestos fibers)
• Main results:
  • In graphs the author made with a public web-based tool, the leukocyte fraction in mesothelioma tumors was more closely correlated with the "macrophage regulation" signature than with the IFN-gamma response signature (no numbers given in the text)
  • The editorial noted that a case of long-surviving peritoneal mesothelioma reported by Serio et al. (another paper in the issue) showed none of the mutations in BAP1, CDKN2A or NF2 and had been treated with oxaliplatin
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that the observations point to the macrophage population as a major regulator of the immune system in mesothelioma

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Mesothelioma.

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Mesothelioma.

Related studies

• Multi-site tumor sampling highlights molecular intra-tumor heterogeneity in malignant pleural mesothelioma — C. Meiller, F. Montagne, et al. (2021)
• Mesothelioma cell heterogeneity identified by single cell RNA sequencing — L. Wu, Z. Wang, et al. (2025)
• Genetic alterations of malignant pleural mesothelioma: association with tumor heterogeneity and overall survival — L. Quetel, C. Meiller, et al. (2020)
• Non-Coding Transcript Heterogeneity in Mesothelioma: Insights from Asbestos-Exposed Mice — E. Felley-Bosco, H. Rehrauer (2018)
• Immune checkpoint inhibitors in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC): Approaches on special subgroups and unresolved burning questions — J. Remon, N. Vilariño, et al. (2018)
• To seed or not to seed: the open question of mesothelioma intervention tract metastases — L. Bertolaccini, A. Viti, et al. (2014)

Browse more research in International Journal of Molecular Sciences, or return to medical research.