Hyponatremia May Be Negative Prognostic Parameter for Malignant Mesothelioma

the Cancer Therapy Advisor take:

Hyponatremia may be a negative prognostic parameter in patients with malignant mesothelioma, according to a recent study published in Supportive Care in Cancer.

Italian researchers led by Rossana Berardi, MD, at the Marche Polytechnic University in Ancona looked  at 62 consecutive patients with histologically or cytologically proven advanced malignant pleural mesothelioma. All patients were undergoing first-line pemetrexed-based chemotherapy between January 2003 and September 2013. Second-line chemotherapy was administered to 29 patients.

They found that the onset of hyponatremia during treatment was significantly associated with worsened overall survival. Hyponatremia occurrence during first- and second-line chemotherapy was significantly associated with shorter median progression-free survival.

Furthermore, upon multivariate analysis, they found that only hyponatremia was an independent factor as well as a predictive factor for poorer response to first- and second-line pemetrexed-based chemotherapy treatment.

“To our knowledge, this is the first study to evaluate the association of hyponatremia with the outcome of malignant pleural mesothelioma patients,” the authors concluded.