%0 Journal Article %A T. Berghmans %T Mesothelioma: an update %D 2011 %R 10.1183/20734735.001011 %J Breathe %P 45-52 %V 8 %N 1 %X Educational aims To show that malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is an increasing incident cancer, affecting mainly men at older age and related in most of the cases to asbestos exposure. To emphasise that histology is the key-point for the diagnosis of mesothelioma and should follow the recommendations of the International Mesothelioma Panel. To demonstrate that the treatment of MPM is palliative in most instances, chemotherapy with cisplatin plus pemetrexed being the standard of care in good performance status patients with surgery being reserved for highly selected patients. Summary Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is a relatively rare neoplasm, the incidence of which is now growing due to the large use of asbestos in the last decades. Although asbestos is banned from most of the industrialised countries, it is still largely used in emerging ones suggesting the persistence of the MPM epidemic. Despite observed advances, MPM is still a difficult disease to be diagnosed and treated. Few active therapeutics are currently available and the role of surgery remains debatable. Outside of clinical trials, there is no definite place for radiotherapy. The combination of cisplatin and pemetrexed is nowadays the standard first-line chemotherapy regimen for good performance status patients. New promising therapeutic approaches are under investigation such as histone deacetylase inhibitors vorinostat and valproate. Guidelines recently developed by a combined European Respiratory Society and European Society of Thoracic Surgery Task Force are now available and can serve the pneumologists and oncologists in their daily practice. %U https://breathe.ersjournals.com/content/breathe/8/1/45.full.pdf