ABSTRACT
<p><b>BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE</b>This retrospective study was designed to evaluate the response and survival of malignant pleural mesothelioma to radiotherapy when delivered with surgery and chemotherapy and when delivered alone or with chemotherapy.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A study for 110 patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma who presented to radiotherapy department, National Cancer Institute, Cairo and received radiation therapy in the period fromJanuary 1999 to July 2007.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Forty-six patients (41.8%) received trimodality therapy (surgery & adjuvant or neoadjuvant chemotherapy & adjuvant radiotherapy), while bimodality therapy (chemotherapy & radiotherapy) in 38 patients (34.5%), while 26 patients (23.6%) received single modality therapy (palliative radiotherapy), 22 patients (20%) developed local recurrence, 22 patients (20%) developed distant metastases months, 14 patients (12.7%) developed local disease progression, 25 patients (22.7%) are still alive and free of disease at time of reporting. The median survival for all patients was 16 months, while 12 and 18 months overall survival were 63.6% & 31.8% respectively while median survival for stage II, III, IV patients was 16.5, 12.5 and 8 months respectively.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Multimodality approach involving surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy have been evaluated and proved its superiority in improving survival, especially in stages II.</p>