Event

The last five years, but particularly in the past 24 months, we have seen a significant number of multicentered clinical trials completed in pleural diseases. Their results have direct and immediate impact on day-to-day clinical practice of pleural disease management. Most of these studies have been published in high impact journals: including trials on malignant effusions, e.g. the Therapeutic Intervention in Malignant Effusion (TIME)-1 and -2 trials (both in JAMA), on mesothelioma including the SMART trial (in Lancet Oncology), the MAPPs and Meso-VATS trials (both in Lancet), and on pleural infection e.g. the Multicentre Intrapleural Sepsis Trial (MIST)-2 (in NEJM), and on pneumothorax, e.g. the minocycline trial (in Lancet). Several large trials including the Australasian Malignant Pleural Effusion (AMPLE)-1, ASAP and MIST-3 have just been completed.