Mesothelioma gene ratio test predicts disease progression post-surgery

May 6, 2009

Doctors at the International Mesothelioma Program (IMP) recently completed a study of the effectiveness of a gene ratio test in predicting the course of a patient’s disease after surgery. The gene ratio test was previously developed by physicians at the IMP, a project of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.

The study participants included 120 patients with pleural mesothelioma who were scheduled for surgery to remove the tumor mass (called “debulking surgery”). Samples of the tumor were obtained either during surgery or through a biopsy. The researchers collected gene expression data for four different genes and determined three gene expression ratios. Doctors then assigned each patient to a group based on a predicted good outcome or poor outcome.

Doctors found that the gene ratio test, combined with other prognostic factors, allowed them to distinguish between patients at high risk and patients at low risk, and thus significantly longer expected survival after surgery.

Because participation in the study was limited to patients who were willing and able to undergo an invasive and aggressive surgical treatment, the results may not apply to those who are not candidates for surgery because of age or level of fitness.

In this case, tumor samples were obtained, in many cases, while surgery was being performed. Based on the outcome of this study and the helpfulness of the gene ratio test in predicting survival and disease progression after surgery, the editors of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute have recommended further evaluation of the test from samples taken before treatment begins to determine whether the test can be beneficial in making decisions about the proper course of treatment.

Read the recent scientific article on the gene ratio test in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

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