[Malignant pleural mesothelioma]. 
Malignant pleural mesothelioma carries a poor prognosis, for which no standard therapy has been established.  We report 15 cases of malignant pleural mesothelioma experienced since 2000 focusing on their clinical features.  They included 14 male and 1 female aged 38 to 81 (62.8 on average) years.  All patients were diagnosed by pleural biopsy under thoracoscopic guidance.  Histology of the pleural biopsy specimen showed epithelial mesothelioma in 8 patients, biphasic mesothelioma in 3, sarcomatous mesothelioma in 2 and desmoplastic malignant mesothelioma (DMM) in 2.  Twelve patients received chemotherapy.  Of these, 3 were followed by surgery.  In addition to 2 of these 3 patients, 2 underwent extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP) without adjuvant treatment.  Remaining 1 received palliative treatment only.  As a result, 6 patients are surviving, 7 died of primary diseases and 2 died of other diseases.  The longest survival time with chemotherapy is 41 months in a surviving patient with epithelial mesothelioma and that with EPP is 25 months in a surviving patient with DMM.  The 2-year survival rate of the 14 patients was 44.4% and the median survival time in patients with epithelial mesothelioma was 30.6 months.