Author: Alex Strauss

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    Doctors Test New Intra-Pleural Mesothelioma Drug

    ByAlex Strauss

    Doctors at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York have treated the first patient in a new trial that could offer hope to people with malignant mesothelioma and one of its most common complications. The trial is a dose-escalation test of a new drug called GL-ONC1, a genetically modified vaccinia virus produced by the California biopharmaceutical company Genelux Corporation. GL-ONC1 is designed to be both therapeutic – actually treating the cancer – and diagnostic (via green fluorescent proteins) in people with mesothelioma and non-small cell lung cancer who have a buildup of lung fluid called malignant pleural effusion. In the new mesothelioma trial, which is sponsored by Memorial Sloan Kettering in collaboration with Genelux, GL-ONC1 will be administered in a single…

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    Can Chest X-rays Help Prevent Mesothelioma?

    ByAlex Strauss

    A mesothelioma doctor believes that lives might be saved if people exposed to asbestos in the workplace received annual chest X-rays. Asbestos is the cause of malignant mesothelioma, an aggressive cancer that affects the membranes around the lungs, heart or abdomen. Asbestos is still used in some industrial applications and is present in the insulation, floor tiles and shingles of tens of thousands of older homes and buildings. People who work or live around asbestos are at significantly higher risk of eventually developing mesothelioma. There is, as yet, no way of predicting which asbestos exposed individuals will develop mesothelioma, but, as with many cancers, early detection improves the odds of survival. Because mesothelioma usually does not cause many symptoms until in its…

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    Mesothelioma Study Suggests Iron Makes Asbestos Toxic

    ByAlex Strauss

    An Italian study is shedding some light on exactly what makes asbestos so toxic to people and can eventually lead to mesothelioma. Asbestos, which was used for decades as an insulator and building material, is the mineral most closely associated with malignant mesothelioma, a virulent cancer. Asbestos has also been linked to lung cancer, asbestosis and disabling lung scarring. Although its toxicity is well known, the reasons for that toxicity are still unclear. Some scientists believe that iron, which is toxic in the body in large amounts, may be partially to blame. They have shown that iron can alter the production of cancer-preventing enzymes by changing DNA, and have suggested that ridding the body of excess iron may be one way…

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    Chicken Virus Key to Experimental Mesothelioma Treatment

    ByAlex Strauss

    An experimental treatment using a modified bird virus may hold promise for people with advanced malignant mesothelioma. Fowlpox is a viral infection that primarily affects chickens and turkeys. It is caused by an avipoxvirus from the Poxviridae family.  Recently, some of the world’s top mesothelioma researchers at the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii used an altered form of the Fowlpox virus to successfully stimulate an anti-tumor immune response in mice with mesothelioma cancer. The treatment focused on a protein called survivin which is overexpressed by most human cancers, including mesothelioma, but rarely found in healthy tissues. In an effort to jump-start the immune systems of lab mice into targeting and attacking survivin-producing mesothelioma cells, the…

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    Localized Mesothelioma May Provide Longer Survival

    ByAlex Strauss

    Patients with a rare, localized form of pleural mesothelioma may have a better survival outlook than patients with the more common, diffuse variety. That conclusion comes from a team of thoracic surgeons at Cambridge University. Their goal was to determine what, if any, difference in survival could be expected between people with localized malignant mesothelioma (LMM) of the pleura and those with standard pleural mesothelioma. Most pleural mesothelioma patients have a type of cancer that tends to spread quickly in a sheet across the thin membrane that surrounds the lungs. While patients with LMM have identical mesothelioma cells, from a histological perspective, the growth pattern exhibited by these cells is distinctly different. Instead of spreading across the mesothelium, LMM presents as…

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    Biomarker Test Next Step for New Mesothelioma Drug

    ByAlex Strauss

    A company that makes stem cell-focused treatments for cancer has taken an important step closer to testing a promising new mesothelioma drug. The biopharmaceutical company Verastem, Inc. specializes in agents that destroy cancer by killing cancer stem cells. One of its lead medicines is VS-6063, a focal adhesion kinase inhibitor scheduled to be the subject of a mesothelioma study later this year. In a Phase I safety study of 36 patients conducted by Pfizer (original developers of VS-6063), the drug was “well-tolerated” and showed enough efficacy to warrant further, larger studies. A focal adhesion kinase (FAK) inhibitor is an agent that regulates the growth and spread of tumor cells by inhibited a crucial signaling pathway. In preclinical cancer models, when this…

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    Pakistan May Ban Asbestos to Reduce Mesothelioma

    ByAlex Strauss

    Pakistan may be on the brink of banning the leading cause of mesothelioma. The mineral asbestos, used for decades in various industries, is believed to be responsible for nearly all cases of mesothelioma, an intractable cancer of the linings around organs. Now, the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Human Resource Development in Pakistan is recommending that the use and importation of asbestos be permanently banned in the country. The committee made the recommendation after a series of hearings on asbestos and its link to mesothelioma. Federal Human Resource Secretary Raja Ahsan told the committee that asbestos presents a “major threat” for mesothelioma and cancer among Pakistan’s industrial workers. Asbestos consumption continues to rise in Pakistan; One study shows that the figure…

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    Pleurodesis for Mesothelioma: Hard to Predict Success

    ByAlex Strauss

    Pleurodesis is a procedure often used to help relieve some of the symptoms of pleural mesothelioma, but there is still no way to predict how effective it will be in any individual patient. That is the conclusion of Australian researchers who performed a retrospective study on 390 mesothelioma patients enrolled in the Western Australian Mesothelioma Registry over 5 years. Just over 42% of those patients underwent pleurodesis. The procedure is used to reduce pleural effusions, the buildup of fluid between the layers of lung lining that can cause shortness of breath, cough, and chest pain. Pleurodesis for mesothelioma can be performed either surgically or chemically. Surgical pleurodesis involves mechanically irritating the parietal pleura, causing it to swell and adhere to the visceral…

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    Mesothelioma Researcher to Be Honored for Service to Society

    ByAlex Strauss

    A researcher whose work led to the development of the only drug approved specifically for the treatment of mesothelioma is being honored by the National Academy of Sciences. The NAS has announced that it will honor Edward C. Taylor, the A. Barton Hepburn Professor of Organic Chemistry Emeritus at Princeton University with the Chemistry in Service to Society award. Taylor’s contributions to a branch of chemistry known as heterocyclic chemistry helped lead to the development of the new-generation antifolate, pemetrexed (brand name Alimta). Pemetrexed is FDA-approved for the treatment of mesothelioma and non-small cell lung cancer but is also in clinical trials for a number of other types of cancer. Pemetrexed was first approved for mesothelioma in February 2004, the first drug…

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    Orphan Drugs Increase for Mesothelioma

    ByAlex Strauss

    There is some good news for mesothelioma sufferers in a recent report from Thomson Reuters on the orphan drug market. According to Reuters, rare diseases like mesothelioma are “winning unprecedented attention” from drug manufacturers. More than a quarter of the 39 new drugs approved by the FDA in 2012 were granted orphan drug status because they were designed to treat diseases (such as mesothelioma) that affect fewer than 200,000 people a year. Mesothelioma is an aggressive asbestos-linked cancer of internal membranes. It is considered an orphan disease because it claims the lives of about 2,500 Americans annually. The Reuters report on orphan drugs is good news for mesothelioma patients because few treatment options currently exist for them and their prognosis is…