| | | |

New Mesothelioma Immunotherapy Trial Now Underway at Baylor

ByAlex Strauss
mesothelioma immunotherapy trial

Cancer researchers at Baylor College of Medicine have launched a new mesothelioma immunotherapy trial. The trial combines the cancer drug Opdivo (nivolumab) with injections of a modified virus called MTG201.

Baylor scientists are hoping to recruit 12 pleural mesothelioma patients whose cancer has come back after chemotherapy. 

The treatment combination appeared to work well in mice with mesothelioma. If it works as well in people, this new mesothelioma immunotherapy trial could change the outlook for many people with malignant mesothelioma. 

How the New Mesothelioma Immunotherapy Trial Will Work

Opdivo is the brand name for nivolumab. It blocks a protein called PD-1 in cancer cells. PD-1 is one of the ways that mesothelioma cells evade the immune system. Opdivo is often used to treat lung cancer. 

Opdivo was once considered a “rising star” treatment for mesothelioma, too. But a mesothelioma immunotherapy trial showed that it did not work well by itself. 

The idea behind the new trial is that MTG201 may make Opdivo more effective against pleural mesothelioma. 

MGT201 is made out of a modified adenovirus. It targets and kills cancer cells. Baylor researchers say the dying cells release tumor antigens, which helps the immunotherapy drug find them. The antigens also draw immune system cells to the tumor.

In the new mesothelioma immunotherapy trial, patients receive four injections of MTG201 directly into the tumor. Then they will undergo infusions of Opdivo once a month. The approach was very successful in lab animals. 

“This therapy eradicates mouse mesothelioma tumors, rapidly and consistently in an aggressive mouse model of mesothelioma,” says Dr. Bryan Burt, principal investigator of this study and associate professor of surgery at Baylor.

How is the New Treatment DIfferent?

Malignant pleural mesothelioma is one of the most aggressive types of cancer. Many people who are diagnosed with this type of cancer do not survive more than 18 months after diagnosis. 

Unless they are involved in a mesothelioma immunotherapy trial, patients usually receive a combination of chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation. But these treatments are only moderately effective. 

The new drug combination is unlikely to be a cure for mesothelioma. But researchers say it may be an additional treatment option for patients who do not respond to standard therapy. 

“I suspect that an array of therapeutic options will be necessary to provide effective therapies for all patients,” says Robert Taylor Ripley, director of the Mesothelioma Treatment Center at Baylor. 

He says a mesothelioma immunotherapy trial like this one will help define which patients are most likely to benefit from this new approach. It will also help keep doctors from wasting time on a mesothelioma treatment that is unlikely to work for their patient.

Click here for detailed information about the new study. 

Sources:

Chu, Molly, “Clinical trial uses immunotherapy to treat mesothelioma”, July 23, 2019, Baylor College of Medicine website, https://www.bcm.edu/news/cancer/clinical-trial-immunotherapy-mesothelioma

Inacio, P, “Upcoming Phase 2 Trial Will Test Opdivo-MTG201 Combo for Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma”, August 9, 2019, Immuno-Oncology News, https://immuno-oncologynews.com/2019/08/09/upcoming-phase-2-trial-will-test-opdivo-mtg201-combo-refractory-malignant-pleural-mesothelioma/

Similar Posts

  • | |

    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?

    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

    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

    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?

    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

    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…