| | | |

New Mesothelioma Drug Trial Begins

ByAlex Strauss

mesothelioma drug trialA new mesothelioma drug trial is now underway. The trial will test a brand new type of immunotherapy medication called CA-170.

CA-170 is designed to block an immune system suppressor called VISTA. It is the only VISTA-blocking medication currently in clinical trial.

“CA-170 has demonstrated favorable safety and tolerability as well as preliminary anti-tumor activity in patients across multiple tumor types,” the company said in a statement.

Mesothelioma Drug Trial Focuses on VISTA

Malignant mesothelioma is highly resistant to standard cancer treatments. Many top researchers believe that immunotherapy drugs offer the best promise for curing mesothelioma.

That is because cancers like malignant mesothelioma survive in part by evading detection by the immune system. They do this in a variety ways that doctors are just beginning to understand.

One way that mesothelioma cells protect themselves from attack is by releasing the protein VISTA. VISTA stands for V-domain Ig-containing Suppressor of T cell Activation.

VISTA overexpression is a resistance tool used by several types of cancer including mesothelioma, ovarian cancer, gastric cancer and non-small cell lung cancer. It is the focus of the new mesothelioma drug trial because about 90 percent of mesothelioma cells express high levels of VISTA.

Another tumor-protecting protein is PD-L1. PD-L1 is the protein targeted by the immunotherapy drug Keytruda (pembrolizumab).

Some research suggests that VISTA may be one of the reasons why Keytruda does not always work.

CA-170 blocks both VISTA and PD-L1, making it a promising focus for the new mesothelioma drug trial.

Early Start for the Mesothelioma Drug Trial

The new mesothelioma drug trial is the first to target a cancer that highly expresses VISTA.

Curis, the company that makes CA-170, originally planned to start the mesothelioma drug trial later this year.

But company President James Dentzer says strong first quarter earnings made it possible to start early. Curis now expects to to have initial results from the mesothelioma drug trial by the second half of 2019.

Mesothelioma patients in the trial will take CA-170 by mouth. Different groups of patients will take different doses.  

Researchers will evaluate each dosing level. Their goal is to see what dose of CA-170 offers the most benefits to mesothelioma patients with the fewest side effects.

Source:

“First Mesothelioma Patient Dosed in CA-170 Study”, January 31, 2019, News Release, Curis, Inc., https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/first-mesothelioma-patient-dosed-in-ca-170-study-300783484.html

Similar Posts

Doctors Describe "Concrete Therapeutic Approach" for Mesothelioma
| |

Doctors Describe "Concrete Therapeutic Approach" for Mesothelioma

ByAlex Strauss

A team of medical researchers in Italy have achieved what they are calling “excellent” tumor control and survival results in malignant pleural mesothelioma patients using a combination of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. Caused by exposure to asbestos, mesothelioma typically spreads quickly across the lung-encasing membrane called the pleura. There is no known cure but treatments are improving. In the current prospective study, 20 malignant pleural mesothelioma patients underwent radical pleurectomy/decortication followed by high doses of radiation. After surgeons removed as much of the visible mesothelioma tumor and surrounding tissue as possible, patients received 50Gy of radiation to the effected side of their chest, delivered in 25 fractions. Regions of particular concern for mesothelioma regrowth got an extra radiation “boost” to…

Does Radiotherapy Reduce Mesothelioma Pain?
| |

Does Radiotherapy Reduce Mesothelioma Pain?

ByAlex Strauss

A new study says there is not enough evidence to support the use of radiotherapy for the treatment of pain associated with malignant pleural mesothelioma. Researchers at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland reviewed a range of past studies on mesothelioma pain and radiotherapy by searching databases that date back as far as 1974. To be eligible to be included in their review, the study had to focus on malignant pleural mesothelioma and radiotherapy given “with the intent of improving pain”. The study also had to report doses and fractionation of the radiotherapy and how the pain responded. In all, the researchers found eight studies on mesothelioma pain and radiotherapy that met the criteria. Two of the studies were prospective…

Ape Virus Shrinks Mesothelioma Tumors in Lab
|

Ape Virus Shrinks Mesothelioma Tumors in Lab

ByAlex Strauss

A virus that causes leukemia in gibbon apes may have the power to help fight malignant mesothelioma in people. Gibbon ape leukemia virus (GALV) has been tested for years as a viral vector, a carrier of therapeutic genetic information, in the treatment of various human illnesses, including cancer. A new study in Japan compared GALV with a leukemia virus derived from mice to see which carrier communicated most efficiently with mesothelioma cells. While both types of viruses replicated in most of the mesothelioma cell lines tested, the mouse-derived virus was not effective in a mesothelioma cell line called ACC-MESO-1. In this cell line, only the GALV spread efficiently both in culture and in mice that had been given human mesothelioma…

Radiotherapy for Mesothelioma: Better But Still Limited
| |

Radiotherapy for Mesothelioma: Better But Still Limited

ByAlex Strauss

A form of highly-targeted radiation therapy for mesothelioma is better than it used to be, but is still risky. That is the message of a recent article on intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) in Seminars in Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery. Author Kenneth E. Rosenzweig, MD, a Radiation Oncologist with Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, reviewed recent studies on IMRT and mesothelioma. He concludes that, while the “troubling toxicity” associated with IMRT when it was first introduced has not been entirely eliminated, the fact that clinicians now have more experience with it is making a positive difference for mesothelioma patients. Before targeted therapies like IMRT were available, high-dose radiation was not usually a feasible option for mesothelioma since the irregular shape…

A Second-Line Option for Mesothelioma?
| |

A Second-Line Option for Mesothelioma?

ByAlex Strauss

Although survival was not significantly extended, the chemotherapy drug vinorelbine might be a treatment option for mesothelioma patients whose cancer has returned after first-line chemotherapy with pemetrexed. A new study on vinorelbine as a second-line treatment finds that the drug is “moderately active” in mesothelioma patients who were initially treated with pemetrexed-based chemotherapy. Pemetrexed (Alimta), along with a platinum-based drug like cisplatin, is the primary first-line drug therapy for mesothelioma. But vinorelbine is gaining attention as a possible option for mesothelioma, in part because it is available in a less expensive generic form. In “Vinorelbine in pemetrexed-pretreated patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma”, the Italian authors detail the results of their study on 59 patients with unresectable pleural mesothelioma.  These patients…

Repeat HIPEC Improves Mesothelioma Survival
| |

Repeat HIPEC Improves Mesothelioma Survival

ByAlex Strauss

If one cytoreductive surgery and HIPEC procedure for mesothelioma is good, subsequent treatments may be even better. That is the central message of research conducted at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Florida. The study’s aim was to assess overall survival among peritoneal mesothelioma patients who had not just one, but two or more rounds of heated intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) after cytoreductive surgery. The cytoreduction/HIPEC approach has become popular for peritoneal mesothelioma, a treatment-resistant cancer of abdominal membranes caused by asbestos. Cytoreductive surgery involves removing as much of the mesothelioma tumor as possible from the abdomen. Because the shape and spreading pattern of mesothelioma tumors make complete cytoreduction difficult, the surgery is often followed by a rinse with a heated solution…