[Environmental cancer: malignant pleural mesothelioma]

Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) remains an aggressive tumour, but medical interest has recently evolved from almost nihilism to a real interest. Significant advances are observed in the pathologic diagnosis, the staging, the knowledge of the mesothelial carcinogenesis, the identification of biological markers with potential interest in diagnosis or in treatment. Proper management implies the participation of the general population since the implementation of administrative procedures for social and economical compensation. Active and multidisciplinary therapeutic strategies are currently evaluated and the concept of multimodality treatment includes new effective chemotherapies improving survival and quality of life, modern modalities of radiotherapy and pleuropneumonectomy. This advances create hopes and interrogations because it is not currently know whether multimodality treatment will be the standard in MPM.