Malignant pleural mesothelioma—the impact of globalization on rare diseases

Staging in malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) still remains a huge challenge. Accurate staging is the basis of a more customized treatment approach for MPM patients. In this review all relevant steps towards the current staging system based on the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) mesothelioma database are pointed out (1). The effects of international cooperation and the contribution towards global databases are particularly important in rare diseases where even national databases fail to provide sufficient evidence for diagnostic or therapeutic algorithms.