Recurrent pleural effusion in patients with advanced cancer is a common problem that causes significant morbidity and can negatively affect patient's quality of life for their remaining months. The necessity for repeated aspiration to relieve dyspnea is both physically and psychologically traumatic to the patient and burden on the physician. Pleurodesis is the optimal therapy for malignant pleural effusions, but the optimal method of pleurodesis and the optimal agent used remain debatable. The optimal agent for pleurodesis should be highly effective, free of significant adverse effects, inexpensive and readily available for the clinician. Thirty patients with malignant pleural effusion were included in this study to compare the efficacy and possible complications of iodopovidone and bleomycin pleurodesis as sclerosing agents that can be used in pleurodesis for malignant pleural effusion. Iodopovidone was used in many studies before this study with satisfactory success rate in all studies. In this study, there were 9 males and 21 females. Their age ranged from 19 to 75 years with a mean of 51.4±13.8 years. 11 patient of the 30 patients were diagnosed by cytological examination of the pleural fluid another 17 patients were diagnosed by closed pleural biopsy and there are 2 patients who were diagnosed by thoracoscopic pleural biopsy. Tube thoracostomy was done to allow slow drainage of the effusion, intrapleural injection of iodopovidone or bleomycin was done after the chest X-ray showed complete lung expansion. Follow up of the patients was done by chest X-ray after 3 months. The efficacy and safety were assessed during the follow up of these patients. Iodopovidone pleurodesis were done on 15 patients, no complications were detected in 11 cases (73%) 3 cases (20%) developed low grade fever (37.5-37.7ºc) ten hours after injection and responded to antipyretics, and one case (7%) developed chest pain and responded to analgesics, fourteen patients (93%) showed complete response and only one patient (7%) showed no response. Bleomycin pleurodesis on 15 patients were done. no complications were detected in 6 patients (40%), four patients (27%) developed low grade fever and responded to antipyretics, two patients (13%) developed mild chest pain and responded to analgesics, two patients (13%) developed empyma on the second day of pleurodesis and one patient (7%) developed cerebrovascular stroke in the third day of pleurodesis, eleven cases (73%) showed complete response and four cases (27%) showed no response. From this study we concluded that iodopovidone pleurodesis is better than bleomycin pleurodsis because iodopovidone pleurodesis is simple, safe, readily available and inexpensive method with greater theraputic efficacy and low complications rate than bleomycin pleurodesis in management of malignant pleural effusion.