The International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer Pleural Mesothelioma Staging Project: Expanded Database to Inform Revisions in the Ninth Edition of the TNM Classification of Pleural Mesothelioma.

The International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer collaborated with the International Mesothelioma Interest Group to propose the first TNM stage classification system for diffuse pleural mesothelioma in 1995, accepted by the Union for International Cancer Control and the American Joint Committee on Cancer for the sixth and seventh edition stage classification manuals. The International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer Staging and Prognostic Factors Committee Mesothelioma Domain developed and analyzed an international registry of patients with pleural mesothelioma and updated TNM descriptors for the eighth edition of the stage classification system. To inform revisions for the forthcoming ninth edition of the TNM stage classification system, data submission was solicited for patients diagnosed between 2013 and 2022 with expanded data elements on the basis of the first project's exploratory analyses, including pleural thickness measurements, updated surgical nomenclature, and molecular markers. The resulting database consisted of a total of 3598 analyzable cases from Europe, Australia, Asia, North America, and South America, with a median age of 71 years (range: 18-99 y), 2775 (77.1%) of whom were men. With only 1310 patients (36.4%) undergoing curative-intent operations, this iteration of the database includes far more patients treated nonsurgically compared with prior. Four separate manuscripts on T, N, M, and stage groupings submitted to this journal will summarize analyses of these data and will serve collectively as the primary source of the proposed changes to the upcoming ninth edition of the pleural mesothelioma stage classification system.
Competing Interests: Disclosure Dr. Hasegawa received an endowed course from Kubota Corporation. Dr. Opitz has relationships with Roche (institutional grant and speakers bureau), AstraZeneca (advisory board and speakers bureau), Merck Sharp & Dohme (advisory board), Bristol-Myers Squibb (advisory board), Medtronic (institutional grant), and Intuitive (proctorship). Dr. Pass has relationships with Roche (steering committee and speakers bureau) and AstraZeneca (advisory board). Dr. Ripley receives institutional clinical trial funding from AstraZeneca and serves on the speakers bureau of Merck. Dr. Rusch receives institutional clinical trial funding from Genentech; receives meeting prep and travel reimbursement from NIH/NCI Thoracic Malignancy Steering Committee; is an unpaid member of DSMC Committee and MARS II Trial (Cancer Research UK). The remaining authors declare no conflict of interest.
(Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Inc.)