Second-Line Treatment with Ramucirumab Improves Mesothelioma Survival
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Second-Line Treatment with Ramucirumab Improves Mesothelioma Survival

ByAlex Strauss

New evidence suggests that second-line treatment with ramucirumab after first-line chemotherapy may lead to longer survival in people with pleural mesothelioma.  Researchers in Italy recently published results of a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of the drug. Ramucirumab inhibits a protein mesothelioma tumors need to form new blood vessels.  The study included 161 pleural mesothelioma patients from across Italy. Researchers gave half of them second-line treatment with ramucirumab and another drug called gemcitabine. The other half had second-line treatment with gemcitabine alone.  Results showed the ramucirumab group lived more than six months longer than those who got only gemcitabine.  Few Options for Recurrent Mesothelioma Pleural mesothelioma is an aggressive cancer with few good treatment options. Most patients start with chemotherapy with Alimta….

Maintenance Therapy with Gemcitabine Extends Mesothelioma Survival in Dutch Study
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Maintenance Therapy with Gemcitabine Extends Mesothelioma Survival in Dutch Study

ByAlex Strauss

Dutch researchers say administering maintenance therapy with gemcitabine after chemotherapy may help mesothelioma patients live longer than supportive care alone.  Gemcitabine is an antimetabolite sold under the brand name Gemzar. Oncologists use it to treat several other types of cancer. When cancer cells absorb gemcitabine, they can no longer divide into new cancer cells.  Most mesothelioma patients have chemotherapy as their first-line treatment. If they are healthy enough, they may also have mesothelioma surgery. A maintenance therapy is a treatment that follows the main treatment. It is an effort to maintain the effects of the treatment.  The new Dutch study shows gemcitabine may be a safe and effective choice for maintenance therapy. What Does Maintenance Therapy Mean? Right now, there…

Second-Line Mesothelioma Treatment with Ramucirumab
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Second-Line Mesothelioma Treatment with Ramucirumab

ByAlex Strauss

A combination of ramucirumab (CYRAMZA) and gemcitabine creates a promising second-line mesothelioma treatment. New research shows the combination nearly doubled survival in a group of patients whose tumors kept growing with standard therapy.  Italian researchers shared their findings at the virtual annual meeting of ASCO. ASCO is one of the largest gatherings of cancer doctors in the US. First-Line Mesothelioma Treatment Failure For most mesothelioma patients, chemotherapy with Alimta is the first-line treatment. This does keep the cancer in check for some patients. But after a while, mesothelioma tumors almost always come back. Chemotherapy only extends survival by about four months.  Doctors have tested many different approaches to second-line mesothelioma treatment.  Some of the therapies tested are: Additional rounds of…

Second Line Mesothelioma Treatment Shot Down in New Study
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Second Line Mesothelioma Treatment Shot Down in New Study

ByAlex Strauss

Italian researchers say there is good news and bad news about a proposed second line mesothelioma treatment.  The good news is that the treatment did not cause major side effects in the patients who tried it. The bad news is that it also did not help them live any longer.  The treatment is a mixture of gemcitabine and imatinib. Animal studies suggested that the combination might improve mesothelioma survival.  The newly-published study shows the second line mesothelioma treatment did help control the disease in most patients. But the 23 patients who tried it only lived for a median of 5.7 months. That was not enough for doctors to recommend the combination. Mesothelioma Chemotherapy and Survival The most common first line…

Combination Mesothelioma Therapy Begins Pivotal Trial
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Combination Mesothelioma Therapy Begins Pivotal Trial

ByAlex Strauss

A combination mesothelioma therapy that showed promise in early trials is finally being studied on a larger scale. The power-packed chemo-immuno-gene therapy known as TR002 has the potential to change the outlook for thousands of malignant mesothelioma patients. A small trial of the combination mesothelioma therapy in 2016 produced “significantly higher” mesothelioma survival rates than most patients are told to expect. Drug company Trizell announced last month that the combination will now be tested on 300 patients at sites in the US, Europe, Australia and Russia. Combination Mesothelioma Therapy Starts with Gene Therapy TR002 is an investigational gene therapy for mesothelioma patients who have failed first-line chemotherapy. This combination mesothelioma therapy is based on the human interferon-alpha 2b gene. The…

Overall Survival “Significantly Higher” After Second-Line Chemotherapy
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Overall Survival “Significantly Higher” After Second-Line Chemotherapy

ByAlex Strauss

Researchers in a country especially prone to mesothelioma say second-line chemotherapy with a drug called gemcitabine can significantly improve survival. Turkey is home to several cities with some of the highest rates of mesothelioma in the world. It is also the site of aggressive mesothelioma research. Doctors in the Department of Medical Oncology at Acibadem Kayseri Hospital in Kayseri, Turkey, have just released their findings on second-line treatment with gemcitabine (Gemzar) and the results contain some encouraging news for patients struggling with malignant pleural mesothelioma. A total of 73 mesothelioma patients from four different Turkish institutions were evaluated based on whether or not they had second-line chemotherapy with gemcitabine, an antimetabolite that prevents cancer cells from making new DNA and…

Genes Key to Mesothelioma Chemotherapy Response
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Genes Key to Mesothelioma Chemotherapy Response

ByMatt Clarke

Research being performed in Eastern Europe may eventually help doctors around the world predict which mesothelioma patients will respond best to a particular type of chemotherapy. Mesothelioma is a fast-growing cancer triggered by exposure to asbestos.  It is often treated with multiple modalities, including chemotherapy.  As more is understood about the impact of genetics on medication response, chemotherapy for cancers like mesothelioma is moving away from a “one-size-fits-all” approach to a more tailored approach based on individual cellular characteristics. Now, a team of biochemists in Slovenia are studying genetically-linked responses to the chemotherapy drug gemcitabine, a nucleoside analog that some studies have found to be a promising alternative to the more conventional cisplatin-pemetrexed combination for mesothelioma.  In a phase II trial involving 78 mesothelioma…

Chemotherapy for Mesothelioma Tested in Greece
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Chemotherapy for Mesothelioma Tested in Greece

ByAlex Strauss

The standard chemotherapy treatment for malignant pleural mesothelioma is cisplatin and pemetrexed. Another chemo regimen used in the U.S. and other countries is the combination of cisplatin and gemcitabine. A recent study performed at the Athens University School of Medicine in Greece examined if the chemotherapy combination – gemcitabine plus docetaxel – were more or less effective than the two standard regimens. The reason for the study, according to the authors, was that this combination has not been investigated in mesothelioma before. Gemcitabine (marketed as Gemzar) is used in various cancers including: non-small cell lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, bladder cancer and breast cancer. Docetaxel (marketed under the name Taxotere) is an anti-mitotic chemotherapy used mainly for the treatment of breast,…