dulanermin

Cancer researchers in Italy are working on a way to use the body’s own cancer-fighting tools to help boost the effectiveness of chemotherapy for mesothelioma. They are concentrating their efforts on a protein called TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand, also known as TRAIL. TRAIL is a cytokine that is produced by most normal tissue cells but causes apoptosis (programmed cell death) in tumor cells. TRAIL is one of the ways the body helps keeps cancers like mesothelioma from gaining a foothold. Recently, doctors at the University of Padua ran a test combining a form of TRAIL made from human cells with standard chemotherapy drugs to help fight malignant pleural mesothelioma. The lab-produced TRAIL, called dulanermin, was administered along with pemetrexed and carboplatin…