new look at an old agent for pleurodesis

ABSTRACT

Background and objective: Malignant pleural effusion [MPE] is a common problem in patients with malignancies. Chemical pleurodesis is the most commonly used palliative option. Parenteral tetracycline [TET] and doxycycline [DOX] are cost-effective and safe in producing pleurodesis but mostly unavailable currently. We investigated whether oral doxycycline could produce an efficient and safe pleurodesis as does parenteral doxycycline, which is currently unavailable in many countries