Xu LL, et al. - Medical thoracoscopy (MT) was assessed as a tool to diagnose malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM). Researchers also looked for the prognostic factors for MPM patients. MT was found to be safe with a high positive rate in the diagnosis of MPM. MT-detected pleural adhesion and plaques may be the adverse prognostic factors for MPM. Other poor prognostic factors for MPM included old age, male gender, smoking history, histological type, poor staging, no treatment, low total protein level in pleural fluid, and computed tomographic findings such as pulmonary consolidation or infiltration, mediastinal lymphopathy, pulmonary mass or nodules, and pleural nodularity. Overall, the patient survival could be influenced by multiple clinical characteristics.