| |

Hope for Mesothelioma Patients with Genetic Predisposition (Germline PVs) for Cancer

ByHolly Zink

Mesothelioma Patients with Genetic Predisposition for Cancer are Candidates for Personalized MedicineMalignant pleural mesothelioma is a tumor caused by asbestos exposure. Recently, the United States Food and Drug Administration approved immunotherapy treatment for mesothelioma. But the efficacy of available treatments is still limited.

Researchers are still evaluating these new therapeutic approaches. They are also working to identify subgroups of patients who could benefit from precision medicine. Precision medicine uses information about a person’s tumor to find out how well a treatment is working.

One of these groups could be represented by patients with an inherited cancer syndrome. These are caused by germline pathogenic variants (PVs) in DNA repair genes.

A germline pathogenic variant is a gene variant (or mutation) that is passed from parent to child. These germline PVs are hereditary. This means that someone can have an inherited predisposition for cancer.

A new Italian study is the first to confirm that 10% of patients with malignant mesothelioma carry a germline pathogenic variant (PV).

This discovery has many implications. First, it may help to explain why some people develop mesothelioma after asbestos exposure. It is possible that people with this PV are more sensitive to asbestos-mediated cancers.

According to their analysis, patients carrying PVs were more susceptible to asbestos-induced mesothelioma. They need less asbestos exposure to develop mesothelioma.

But more importantly, patients with this PV are perfect candidates for precision medicine. This scenario may be exploited for the development of tailored treatment.

Exploiting Gene-Predisposition for Tailored Treatment

Patients with this inherited germline PVs are evident in other cancers. Other cancer studies have shown that PV patients have an increased sensitivity to drugs.

Patients with mesothelioma carrying germline PVs may benefit from a specific treatment. This treatment uses drugs to create synthetic lethality. Synthetic lethality attacks two genes together to cause cancer cell death.

In conclusion, this new study identifies a subgroup of patients with germline PVs. They are more prone to asbestos-induced cancers. But, they may respond to personalized medicine better.

Source

Sculco, Marika, Marta La Vecchia, Anna Aspesi, Giulia Pinton, Michela G. Clavenna, Elisabetta Casalone, Alessandra Allione et al. “Malignant pleural mesothelioma: Germline variants in DNA repair genes may steer tailored treatment.” European Journal of Cancer 163 (2022): 44-54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejca.2021.12.023

Similar Posts

  • |

    Mesothelioma Still Rising Despite Ban in Ireland

    ByAlex Strauss

    A study in Ireland confirms that it can take many years for a ban on asbestos to have a measurable impact on a country’s rates of malignant mesothelioma. Mesothelioma is the most serious of a list of diseases – including lung cancer, pleural plaques, asbestosis, and others – linked with exposure to asbestos dust. Affecting the linings around the lungs and other organs, mesothelioma is often resistant to most cancer treatments and may be fatal within a year of diagnosis. According to the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat, Ireland is one of 55 countries that have enacted some type of asbestos ban. However, although Ireland banned asbestos in 2000, a new study published in Cancer Epidemiology shows that incidence of the…

  • |

    Website Aims to Protect Homeowners from Mesothelioma

    ByAlex Strauss

    Australia’s Cancer Council is trying to educate home renovators about their risk for mesothelioma with a new e-learning course. Australia has one of the highest per capita rates of mesothelioma in the world, largely because of several asbestos mining operations that were once located there. Although asbestos has been banned from building products in Australia since 1989, asbestos-linked diseases like mesothelioma, lung cancer, and asbestosis continue to pose a serious health concern. While mesothelioma has traditionally occurred among people exposed to asbestos on the job, Australia is now bracing for another “wave” of mesothelioma victims among homeowners who encounter asbestos while doing their own renovation projects. Cancer Council Australia has launched “kNOw asbestos in your home” in an effort to…

  • | | |

    Mesothelioma Nurses Ready for New Cases in Australia

    ByAlex Strauss

    Australia is bracing for an expected new wave of mesothelioma cases in the next decade and the Lung Foundation of Australia is taking action now to get ready. The Foundation has paid for ten nurses from around the country to receive specialized training in helping patients and families cope with mesothelioma. The nurses, who have recently completed the training, are now equipped to lead treatment planning for these complex cancer patients and to help other nurses do the same. Pleural mesothelioma is an aggressive cancer that occurs in the lining around the lungs. It is caused by exposure to asbestos dust, a toxin that was once alarmingly prevalent in Australia where it was mined and heavily used in construction. Because…

  • |

    Mesothelioma Blood Test May Be Possible

    ByAlex Strauss

    An international team of researchers is studying the proteins found on the surface of cancer cells in an effort to improve mesothelioma diagnosis. The team, made up of scientists from the US, Switzerland, Italy and Chile, has just published their findings on a new kind of test to identify protein-derived mesothelioma biomarkers in blood serum. Mesothelioma is an aggressive cancer of the membranes around organs. Because the most common mesothelioma biomarker, mesothelin, is also overproduced by other kinds of cancer cells, it has only limited diagnostic value. A test to identify a set of proteins produced specifically by mesothelioma cells could greatly improve diagnostic accuracy. Led by Ferdinando Cerciello and Bernd Wollscheid of the Institute of Molecular Systems Biology in…

  • | |

    Spanish Mesothelioma Deaths Likely to Continue for Decades

    ByAlex Strauss

    New research in Spain suggests that mesothelioma deaths will continue in the country until the “last surviving member” of the group of people exposed to occupational asbestos succumbs to the disease. Like many countries, Spain used asbestos heavily in the first half of the 20th century, especially in construction, where the mineral was prized for its durability, low cost, and resistance to fire and corrosion.  Asbestos was banned in Spain in 2002. Observing that more than 2.5 million metric tons of asbestos were imported into Spain from 1906 to 2002, researchers say deaths from mesothelioma have risen steadily. Between 1976 and 1980, a total of 491 Spanish people died of mesothelioma. By the 5-year period from 2006 to 2010, that…

  • | |

    Micro-RNAs May Offer New Way to Fight Mesothelioma

    ByAlex Strauss

    Scientists at one of the world’s top mesothelioma research centers, the Asbestos Diseases Research institute in Sydney, Australia, say that restoring the expression of certain micro RNAs in the cells of mesothelioma patients may offer a new way to fight the disease. A microRNA is a small RNA molecule which is involved in the regulation of gene expression. According to a new report in the Annals of Oncology, the Australian scientists found reduced expression of the micro RNA-15 family (miR-15/16) in the cells of mice with mesothelioma. “When malignant pleural mesothelioma cell lines were compared with the normal mesothelial cell line MeT-5A, the downregulation of miR-15/16 was 2- to 10-fold,” they report. This finding is consistent with previous cancer research…