Lower-Cost Mesothelioma Drug May Be as Effective as Gold Standard
A new study suggests that the lower cost chemotherapy drug Gemzar (gemcitabine) combined with a platinum based agent (cisplatin or carboplatin) may be just as effective at treating advanced pleural mesothelioma as the gold standard mesothelioma drug Alimta (pemetrexed) . Doctors in Turkey, a country with one of the world’s highest rates of mesothelioma, tracked 116 mesothelioma patients who were treated with a combination of Alimta and a platinum drug between 1999 and 2012. During the same period, 30 mesothelioma patients received the alternative combination of Gemzar and a platinum drug. There were no differences between the two groups in terms of age, gender, asbestos exposure, histological subtype, cancer stage or other characteristics. The mean age of the patients was…