Blood Biomarkers Could Revolutionize Mesothelioma Treatment Monitoring
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Blood Biomarkers Could Revolutionize Mesothelioma Treatment Monitoring

ByHolly Zink

Researchers from Turkey think that biomarkers in the blood can help doctors find out if their mesothelioma patients are responding well to chemotherapy. This new study was published in the journal Cancer Biomarkers. Precision Medicine in Mesothelioma Mesothelioma is a rare and aggressive cancer that is caused by asbestos. It develops in the think layer of tissue that covers many of the body’s internal organs. Most cases of mesothelioma occur in the lungs or the abdomen. The standard treatment for mesothelioma includes a combination of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. The exact treatment plan is unique to each patient. Their doctor will consider the type of mesothelioma, how far it has spread, and the health of the patient. Chemotherapy is the…

New Mesothelioma Biomarker May Also Improve Treatment
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New Mesothelioma Biomarker May Also Improve Treatment

ByAlex Strauss

A study conducted by a group of San Francisco researchers suggests that a new biomarker may help make chemotherapy drugs more effective for mesothelioma patients. A biomarker is a substance present in tumor cells that can help doctors identify cancer.  Biomarkers are especially important in mesothelioma, a virulent cancer of the mesothelium, because it can be so difficult to diagnose.  Now, medical researchers at the University of California who have been studying melanoma cell adhesion molecule (MCAM) have found it to be an even more precise biomarker than mesothelin, the most common biomarker used to diagnose mesothelioma. MCAM is already being used to help identify other types of cancer including ovarian cancer and certain skin cancers. Unlike mesothelin, which is present in…

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…