The Role of Real-World Evidence to Support Treatment Choices in Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma

Our plain-English summary of The Role of Real-World Evidence to Support Treatment Choices in Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma, by P. Wheatley-Price, S. Moore, C.W. Lee (JTO Clinical and Research Reports, 2022).

The study

• Authors: P. Wheatley-Price, S. Moore, C.W. Lee
• Journal: JTO Clinical and Research Reports
• Published: 2022;3(4):100300
• Type of article: Editorial, Comment
• Cited by: 2 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

In plain English

This article is an editorial, not an original study. The authors commented on a separate study by Kerrigan et al., published in the same journal issue. That study used the Flatiron real-world health records database to look at 787 patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma treated with platinum-based chemotherapy, with data from January 2011 to July 2019. As the editorial describes it, that study found no difference between cisplatin and carboplatin given with pemetrexed as first treatment. It did not find that maintenance pemetrexed prolonged survival. It found no statistically significant difference between immunotherapy and chemotherapy in later lines of treatment. The authors noted that the study lacked high-quality data on factors that could bias its results, and that stage of disease was missing from its analysis. They wrote that its findings supported a 2018 American Society of Clinical Oncology treatment guideline. The authors concluded that the Kerrigan study showed care in line with current guidelines but could not shed extra light on questions still open despite randomized trials. The editorial did not address asbestos exposure.

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 commenting on another study (Kerrigan et al.) and on the role of real-world evidence; not original research
• Who was studied: No patients of its own. The study it discusses (Kerrigan et al.) used Flatiron database records of patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma treated with pemetrexed-based or platinum-based chemotherapy in the United States, January 2011 to July 2019.
• Exposure: Not an asbestos exposure study. The treatments discussed in the Kerrigan et al. study were pemetrexed-based chemotherapy, cisplatin versus carboplatin, maintenance pemetrexed, and immunotherapy versus chemotherapy in later lines.
• Main results:
  • The editorial states that the Kerrigan et al. study included 787 patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma treated with platinum-based chemotherapy.
  • As described by the editorial, the Kerrigan et al. study observed no difference between cisplatin and carboplatin combined with pemetrexed as first-line treatment.
  • As described by the editorial, the Kerrigan et al. study did not observe that maintenance pemetrexed prolonged survival.
  • As described by the editorial, for patients who received later lines of therapy, the Kerrigan et al. study found no statistically significant difference between immunotherapy and chemotherapy.
  • The editorial authors criticized the Kerrigan et al. study for lacking high-quality data on confounding factors, including stage of disease.
  • The editorial authors wrote that the Kerrigan et al. findings support the 2018 American Society of Clinical Oncology guideline for treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that the Kerrigan et al. article showed care for these patients in line with current guidelines, but could not cast extra light on questions that remain open despite randomized trials. They wrote that real-world evidence will not replace meta-analyses and randomized trials but can complement them.

Topics

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

Related studies

• Real-World Outcomes of Patients With Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma Receiving a Combination of Ipilimumab and Nivolumab as First- or Later-Line Treatment — S. Schmid, L. Holer, et al. (2024)
• Multimodal Treatment of Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma: Real-World Experience with 112 Patients — A. Holzknecht, O. Illini, et al. (2022)
• Real-world outcomes of multimodal treatment for pleural mesothelioma: A retrospective study in a high-volume integrated regional center — A.S. Baskin, K. Levine, et al. (2026)
• Nivolumab in pre-treated malignant pleural mesothelioma: real-world data from the Dutch expanded access program — L. Cantini, R.A. Belderbos, et al. (2020)
• I-O Optimise: a novel multinational real-world research platform in thoracic malignancies — S. Ekman, F. Griesinger, et al. (2019)
• A Real-World Analysis of the Use of Systemic Therapy in Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma and the Differential Impacts on Overall Survival by Practice Pattern — K. Kerrigan, Y. Jo, et al. (2022)

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