Characteristics of Malignant Pleural Effusion Patients from a Single Oncology Center

Abstract

Malignant pleural effusion is defined as an effusion containing neoplastic cells. Despite the advances made, its treatments are palliative, with a low average survival rate. Prognosis varies depending on many factors. As a result of this difference, it is difficult to predict the prognosis. Therefore, following patients in terms of survival rates and their correlation with these factors enables us to draw results that serve future research related to diagnostic and therapeutic methods. This is an observational, prospective study on patients with malignant and semi-malignant pleural effusions from a single oncology center between January and June 2020. The patients' complete characteristics were recorded. Survival time was calculated from the diagnosis of pleural effusion until death or the passing of a year, whichever happened first. The final patient population was 89. We relied upon the IBM SPSS Statistics Version 20 program to calculate the statistical parameters and analyze the results. Men patients predominated our study and so did the patients younger than 60. Lung tumors were the most common cause. Histologically, adenocarcinoma occupied the largest percentage. The effect of adenocarcinoma on survival was statistically (P < 0.001) and clinically significant, greatly reducing these rates. Finally, pleurodesis was a statistically significant factor (P = 0.04) in improving survival. Malignant pleural effusion is associated with low survival rates. Lung tumors are the most common cause, while adenocarcinoma is the most common histological type, and it is of great statistical importance in reducing the survival rates. Finally, pleurodesis was associated with significantly better survival time.