Priority 2 from the Mesothelioma PSP

UNCERTAINTY: Can individualised chemotherapy be given to mesothelioma patients based on predictive factors (e.g. the subtype of mesothelioma (epithelioid, sarcomatoid, or mixed), or thymidine synthase inhibitor status (the protein that drugs like pemetrexed act against), etc)? (JLA PSP Priority 2)
Overall ranking 2
JLA question ID 0025/2 
Explanatory note Not available for this PSP
Evidence No systematic reviews identified.  Ongoing study - A Randomised trial of predictive assay-directed chemotherapy in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and mesothelioma
Health Research Classification System category Cancer
Extra information provided by this PSP
Original uncertainty examples I feel that sometimes the epitheliod variant may do as well without chemotherapy and sarcomatoid variant does badly regardless of chemo so feel that chemotherapy adds little to outcome ~ Epitheliod mesothelioma patients tend to have better response to chemotherapy in extension of life.
Comparison Drug
Submitted by Health professional x 2
Outcomes to be measured Response and survival
PSP information
PSP unique ID 0025
PSP name Mesothelioma
Total number of uncertainties identified by this PSP. 53  (To see a full list of all uncertainties identified, please see the detailed spreadsheet held on the JLA website)
Date of priority setting workshop 16 December 2014