New Drug Combination May Improve Mesothelioma Treatment
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New Drug Combination May Improve Mesothelioma Treatment

ByAlex Strauss

A mesothelioma drug approved for use in several European countries has received the backing of the international scientific community. The drug called raltitrexed, whose brand name is Tomudex, was the subject of discussion at the 35th annual European Society for Medical Oncology congress in Milan, Italy. When combined with the chemotherapy drug cisplatin, Tomudex appears to increase the survival rates of mesothelioma patients. That conclusion was backed by studies conducted in 2003 and 2005 by the Netherlands Cancer Institute, the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer, the Lung Cancer Group and the National Cancer Institute of Canada. Malignant pleural mesothelioma is the most common form of an aggressive lung cancer caused by exposure to asbestos. It can take…

Mesothelioma Triple Therapy Found Safe and Effective
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Mesothelioma Triple Therapy Found Safe and Effective

ByAlex Strauss

An aggressive treatment strategy that begins with chemotherapy, followed by surgery, and then radiation is a safe and effective option for many mesothelioma patients, according to a recent study in The Annals of Thoracic Surgery. Mesothelioma traditionally hasn’t responded well to just one treatment (surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation). In the early 1990s, Dr. David Sugarbaker of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston reported on the use of combining therapies. When he treated mesothelioma patients with extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP—surgery to remove the diseased lung, as well as the diaphragm and the membrane covering the heart and lung), followed by chemotherapy and radiation, the results were promising. Researchers at the Swedish Cancer Institute in Seattle, Washington, tried to replicate this triple-treatment…

Turning Up the Heat on Mesothelioma
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Turning Up the Heat on Mesothelioma

ByAlex Strauss

Researchers have discovered that mesothelioma cancer cells release certain proteins in response to heat, which help them survive when they are treated with heat-based chemotherapy. Suppressing the release of these protective proteins might improve the effectiveness of heat-based treatments, according to a recent study in the Journal of Biomedicine and Biotechnology. Hyperthermal chemotherapy (using heated chemotherapy drugs to kill cancer cells) has been used in mesothelioma patients, but with very little success. In part, the lack of effectiveness is due to the late stage at which mesothelioma is typically diagnosed. It also has to do with protective mechanisms in the cancer cells. When mesothelioma cells are under stress from heat, they produce heat-shock proteins. These proteins both protect cancer cells…

Future Mesothelioma Treatment
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Future Mesothelioma Treatment

ByAlex Strauss

A combination of immunotherapy and traditional  may be more effective than either treatment alone against mesothelioma, according to a recent analysis published in the journal, Tissue Antigens. Mesothelioma is one of the most difficult cancers to treat, and the prognosis is often poor. Surgery and chemotherapy are the standard mesothelioma treatments, but even with these therapies many patients do not live more than a year after their diagnosis. A newer treatment option is immunotherapy, which enhances the immune system response to help the body attack cancer cells. Because mesothelioma engages the immune system, immunotherapy would appear to be a promising treatment strategy for this cancer. However, studies conducted so far on immunotherapy for mesothelioma have yielded disappointing results. Combining immunotherapy…

Mesothelioma and Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy
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Mesothelioma and Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy

ByAlex Strauss

Combining aggressive surgery with chemotherapy delivered directly into the abdominal cavity may significantly extend survival in patients with peritoneal mesothelioma, according to a consensus statement of peritoneal mesothelioma specialists published in the September 15 issue of the Journal of Surgical Oncology. Reaching a consensus on the treatment of peritoneal mesothelioma—a cancer that affects the abdominal lining—has been difficult for doctors, because the disease progresses so quickly and conventional treatments such as surgery and chemotherapy have done little in the past to stall its progress and improve survival. However, new therapies are showing great promise, and are vastly improving the outlook for patients with this cancer. Among the most promising of these therapies is combining aggressive surgery to remove as much…

Mesothelioma Treatment Research
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Mesothelioma Treatment Research

ByAlex Strauss

Mesothelioma treatment today is basically made up three options: surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation. More targeted therapies that address the biological factors triggering mesothelioma growth might be a much more precise and effective way to combat this difficult-to-treat cancer, according to a recent article in Connective Tissue Research. Mesothelioma is so challenging to treat because it is often diagnosed at a late stage, and because it can take many biological forms. Current mesothelioma treatments were originally designed for other types of cancers, without considering factors that may be specific to mesothelioma. That may be why many patients only partially respond to treatment, and the average survival is just 12 months after diagnosis. The key to prolonging the lives of mesothelioma patients…

Mesothelioma and Chemo Results
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Mesothelioma and Chemo Results

ByAlex Strauss

Patients who have already undergone chemotherapy for mesothelioma without success may benefit from a second round of treatment with the chemotherapy drug, vinorelbine, according to a study in the May 15 issue of the journal, Lung Cancer. Mesothelioma has historically been a very difficult cancer to treat. The “gold standard” therapy has been the antifolate chemotherapy drug, pemetrexed, typically combined with the platinum-based drug, cisplatin. Though some patients undergo another round of chemotherapy if their disease continues to progress, there isn’t much research to guide doctors in treating patients who don’t respond to first-line therapy. “Mesothelioma is often rapidly progressive, so patients often sadly don’t reach the second-line setting,” says Justin Stebbing MA, MRCP, MRCPath, PhD, consultant medical oncologist and…

Mesothelioma and Chemotherapy
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Mesothelioma and Chemotherapy

ByAlex Strauss

Adding a second round of chemotherapy with the drug pemetrexed can slow cancer progression in patients with pleural mesothelioma, according to a recent study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Malignant pleural mesothelioma, which affects the lining of the lungs (pleura), is one of the toughest cancers for doctors to combat. “The tumor itself is the challenge, as it is practically incurable and hardly treatable,” says Jacek Jassem, MD, PhD, professor of Medicine at the Medical University of Gdansk in Poland. Surgery isn’t appropriate for most patients, and radiation has limited effectiveness. One of the most effective treatments discovered so far is the combination of an anti-metabolite (a class of chemotherapy drugs that interfere with DNA production to halt tumor…