Patients at the International Mesothelioma Program (IMP) at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts who have a confirmed diagnosis of malignant pleural mesothelioma routinely undergo a series of tests to determine the type of surgery they need. One of these tests is called a “cervical mediastinoscopy,” which is used to biopsy the patient’s lymph nodes. This test helps assess how far the cancer has spread. This information, in conjunction with other test results, is used to help determine if the patient is a candidate for either a pleurectomy or an extrapleural pneumonectomy.
Cervical Mediastinoscopy Used to Biopsy Lymph Nodes
The International Mesothelioma Program is one of the leading treatment centers for malignant pleural mesothelioma. According to Dr. David Sugarbaker, who is Chief of Thoracic Surgery at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the founder and Director of the International Mesothelioma Program, the IMP consulted with over 300 malignant pleural mesothelioma patients last year and performed over 160 surgeries. As part of the screening process for surgical candidates, a cervical mediastinoscopy is performed at the hospital to determine if the cancer has spread to the mediastinal lymph nodes.
A cervical mediastinoscopy is a hospital procedure performed under general anesthesia used to biopsy lymph nodes in patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma. The surgeon makes an incision in the patient’s neck at the top of the sternum. The mediastinoscope, which is a thin tube with a light and surgical instruments, is then placed through the incision where tissue samples are taken from the mediastinal lymph nodes. The patient’s biopsied tissue is analyzed by a pathologist to determine if the malignant mesothelioma has spread to the mediastinal lymph nodes. The IMP’s surgical team, led by Dr. Sugarbaker, uses this information to determine whether the patient is a surgical candidate and if so, the type of surgery that will be performed.
Published Research on Importance of Cervical Mediastinoscopy
In 1999, Dr. Sugarbaker and his colleagues published an article entitled, “Resection Margins, Extrapleural Nodal Status, and Cell Type Determine Postoperative Long-Term Survival In Trimodality Therapy of Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma: Results in 183 Patients” in the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery. Dr. Sugarbaker described the importance of mediastinoscopy as a staging tool for patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma. A similar conclusion concerning the importance of cervical mediastinoscopy was reached by British physicians in a published article entitled, “The Case for Routine Cervical Mediastinoscopy Prior to Radical Surgery for Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma” in the European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery in 2004.
