| | | | | |

Multi-Modal Mesothelioma Treatment Leads to Three-Year Survival

ByAlex Strauss

surgeon in scrubs

There has been some encouraging news this month for patients suffering from an aggressive form of lung cancer called malignant pleural mesothelioma. New research suggests that, even in patients with advanced mesothelioma, long-term survival is possible with a strategic multi-modal approach.

The Research

The new mesothelioma study, conducted at several US medical centers and published in the Annals of Thoracic Surgery, analyzed the survival rates of 73 patients diagnosed with the epithelioid form of pleural mesothelioma between 2005 and 2013. All of the patients had been treated with a combination of pleurectomy/decortication (PD) surgery and intraoperative photodynamic therapy (PDT).

PD surgery for malignant mesothelioma treatment involves removal of the diseased pleural membrane, portions of the diaphragm, and other at risk tissues. In contrast to the more radical EPP surgery, PD surgery leaves the lungs in place.

Photodynamic therapy requires that mesothelioma tumor cells be pre-treated with a photosensitizing drug and then exposed to a light source on the end of an endoscope. The goal is to kill any residual mesothelioma cells that the surgeon may have missed.

Most of the mesothelioma patients (92%) analyzed for this study also underwent chemotherapy with pemetrexed (Alimta) after their surgery.

The Results

Although pleural mesothelioma typically carries a life expectancy of just 12 to 18 months, the median overall survival for patients receiving this PD/PDT therapy combination was more than twice that at nearly three years.

The news was even better for the 19 mesothelioma patients whose cancer had not spread to their lymph nodes; These patients had an overall median mesothelioma survival rate of 7.3 years.

“The role for lung-sparing surgery is unclear but this series demonstrates that it is an option, even for advanced cases,” writes study author Joseph S. Friedberg, MD, mesothelioma researcher at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore. “The overall survival of 7.3 years for the node negative subset of patients, still of advanced stage, is encouraging.”  

These node-negative patients experienced longer survival even though their mesothelioma tumors began growing again a median of 2.4 years after surgery. Dr. Friedberg says this disparity between tumor growth and survival may be related to the impact of the PDT, which is currently being studied as part of a randomized mesothelioma clinical trial.

Source:

Friedberg, JS, et al, “Extended Plearectomy-Decortication-based Treatment for Advanced Stage Epithelial Mesothelioma Yielding a Median Survival of Nearly Three Years”, November 4, 2016, The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, Epub ahead of print

Similar Posts

  • | |

    Mesothelioma survivor Paul Kraus, alive and well 19 years after writing “Surviving Mesothelioma and Other Cancers

    ByAlex Strauss

    Paul Kraus is considered the longest documented mesothelioma survivor in the world. He was diagnosed in 1997 with mesothelioma so widespread that he was given little hope of survival. Not willing to give up, he worked with a team of doctors to create his own tailored treatment protocol. This protocol included dramatic life style change, experimental therapies, dietary changes, mind-body medicine, and other modalities. Paul was fortunate. The protocol he and his doctors created helped him keep the mesothelioma in check. His book “Surviving Mesothelioma and Other Cancers: A Patient’s Guide” details his cancer voyage, the decisions he made, and his philosophies about health and healing. This book is now the best-selling mesothelioma book in the world and has inspired…

  • | |

    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…

  • |

    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…

  • | |

    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…

  • |

    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…

  • |

    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…