| | |

New Advancements in Personalized Medicine for Mesothelioma

ByHolly Zink

New Advancements in Personalized Medicine for MesotheliomaGenomics is a new branch of medicine that involves using a patient’s genetic information to create personalized treatment. New research has begun looking at genetic personalized medicine for mesothelioma.

Students from the University of Montana are developing personalized medicine for mesothelioma.

Personalized Medicine and Mesothelioma Treatment

Mesothelioma is a rare rare and aggressive cancer often caused by asbestos exposure. Environmental exposure to asbestos often causes a higher incidence of malignant mesothelioma. There are approximately 2,000 cases of mesothelioma diagnosed in the U.S. every year.

Current standard of care involves a multi-targeted drug combination of Pemetrexid and Cisplatin. This is the only FDA approved chemotherapy for mesothelioma.

Chemotherapy is a group of toxic drugs that kill mesothelioma cells by damaging their DNA. This regimen results in regression of tumors in 25% of mesothelioma patients.

Scientists have learned a lot about mesothelioma in the past years through clinical trial research.

They are now looking to develop genetic treatments which target and alter mesothelioma tumor cells. This treatment would be used in combination with other chemotherapies. And it would be tailor-made for the mesothelioma patient.

This treatment would make mesothelioma cancer cells more susceptible to cancer-killing drugs.

Understanding the CRISPR and Genetic Treatments

CRISPR is a method for altering certain genes to help fight cancer. Students from the University of Montana recently used CRISPR to study personalized medicine for mesothelioma. They have taken an important step in targeting mesothelial cells.

It was a small study, but the results are promising. They could have wide-ranging implications for patients fighting malignant mesothelioma.

Associate Professor Dr. Pershouse notes that “the model system will be used to test a small set of front line chemotherapeutic agents.” This study supports using CRISPR-Cas9-based genomics to improve existing mesothelioma treatments.

The CRISPR gene editing technique is still highly experimental. It is not yet available for routine use in the treatment of mesothelioma patients.

Source

Harmon, Abigail, Mark Pershouse, Cooper Parsons, and Caitlin Peaslee. “Investigations of Personalized Medicine in Mesothelioma.” (2022). https://scholarworks.umt.edu/umcur/2022/amposters/18/

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…

  • |

    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…