Unveiling New Frontiers in Cancer Treatment: Exploring Immunotherapy
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Unveiling New Frontiers in Cancer Treatment: Exploring Immunotherapy

ByHolly Zink

Doctors have found new ways to fight cancer that use our body’s natural defenses. These new treatments are exploring immunotherapy. They help our immune system, which is like our body’s defense team, to fight cancers like mesothelioma. Understanding Special Proteins In our bodies, there are proteins called checkpoints. They help our immune system know when to attack harmful cells like cancer and when to leave healthy cells alone. But sometimes, cancer tricks these checkpoints and hides from our immune system. Scientists made special medicines called immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). These medicines help our immune system work better against cancers like mesothelioma. They stop the tricks that cancer uses to hide from our body’s defenses. Finding New Helpers Even though these…

The Immune System in Fighting Cancer: A Key Player
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The Immune System in Fighting Cancer: A Key Player

ByHolly Zink

In the fight against cancer, our body’s defense system, the immune system, plays a huge role. As cancer grows, there’s a phase where the bad cells dodge the immune system’s control. Different treatments like immunotherapies, chemotherapy, targeted drugs, and radiation aim to fix this or slow down cancer growth. Understanding how the immune system controls cancer, known as immunosurveillance, is super important in how doctors manage cancer today. How Immunosurveillance Helps Treatments We used to think cancer only affected cells, but now we know it affects the whole body’s system, including the immune system and other parts. Immunosurveillance is how our body’s defense system stops cancer from growing. For tumors to become a big problem, the changed cells must hide…

Immunotherapy’s Impact on the Mesothelioma Immune System
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Immunotherapy’s Impact on the Mesothelioma Immune System

ByHolly Zink

The battle against mesothelioma has seen significant developments in recent years. Many developments are with the introduction of immunotherapy as a treatment option. This cancer, caused by asbestos exposure, has been an enduring puzzle due to its rarity and lengthy latency period. Brazilian researchers studied the complex relationship between mesothelin and the immune system. The findings provide fresh insights into how mesothelin influences cancer aggressiveness. And it has a few implications for patient treatment decisions. The Mesothelioma Puzzle Mesothelioma is a tough-to-treat cancer linked to asbestos exposure. It has long challenged doctors and scientists because it is so rare and takes decades for symptoms to appear. In the last decade, a special kind of treatment called immunotherapy has been used…

Revolutionizing Mesothelioma Treatment: Harnessing the Power of Immune Proteins
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Revolutionizing Mesothelioma Treatment: Harnessing the Power of Immune Proteins

ByHolly Zink

Scientists found that a combination of special agents that boost our immune system and immune proteins. These act like “checkpoints” and can be a powerful treatment for mesothelioma. Mesothelioma is a serious cancer affecting the lining of organs. When it grows in the lining of the lungs, it is called pleural mesothelioma. Mesothelioma is caused by breathing in tiny asbestos fibers. This can happen if you are exposed to old buildings or products containing asbestos. Scientists have been working hard to find better ways to treat this disease and may have made an important discovery.The conventional treatment for mesothelioma is a combination of surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation. Doctors might also recommend immunotherapy for their patients. This is a type of…

Unleashing the Immune System: How ONCOS-102 Enhances Mesothelioma Therapy
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Unleashing the Immune System: How ONCOS-102 Enhances Mesothelioma Therapy

ByHolly Zink

An international team of scientists looked at adding a special kind of virus called ONCOS-102 to chemotherapy drugs. They found that adding ONCOS-102 can help mesothelioma patients live a bit longer during treatment. Mesothelioma is an aggressive cancer caused by asbestos exposure. Treatment for this disease can include surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. The Promising Treatment Partnership ONCOS-102 is a type of virus that can help the body’s immune system attack cancer cells. Scientists wanted to see if using ONCOS-102 with chemotherapy could make this treatment work better. The current FDA-approved chemotherapy drugs for mesothelioma are pemetrexed with cisplatin. These drugs target rapidly growing cancer cells, but they can also affect healthy cells that grow rapidly such as blood cells. To…

The Power of the Immune System in Mesothelioma Therapy
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The Power of the Immune System in Mesothelioma Therapy

ByHolly Zink

Pembrolizumab is a type of immunotherapy treatment for mesothelioma. A newly published study looks at how pembrolizumab is being used to treat this disease. Harnessing the Power of the Immune System Mesothelioma is a type of cancer caused by asbestos. When it grows in the lungs, it is called pleural mesothelioma. There are about 2,000 cases of pleural mesothelioma in the United States each year. It can often take around 40 years for symptoms of pleural mesothelioma to begin. These may include shortness of breath due to fluid around the lung, chest pain, cough, and fatigue. Conventional treatment may include surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy. According to medical studies, the median survival with conventional treatment is little more than a…

Mesothelioma Update: Could New Form of Immunotherapy Help?
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Mesothelioma Update: Could New Form of Immunotherapy Help?

ByAlex Strauss

A new form of immunotherapy using a patient’s own cells is making headlines this month after a new study shows it may help some people with advanced lung cancer.  Like pleural mesothelioma, non-small cell lung cancer is a virulent form of cancer that is hard to treat. Even the newest immunotherapy drugs have had only moderate success.  The new form of immunotherapy is the subject of an article in the journal Nature Medicine. It details the hopeful results of patients in a small Phase I pilot trial of the treatment. If it is proven to work for lung cancer, it could be good news for mesothelioma patients, too.  Giving Immune Cells a Boost Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) are immune cells. They…

Study May Lead to Safer Immunotherapy for Mesothelioma
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Study May Lead to Safer Immunotherapy for Mesothelioma

ByAlex Strauss

New research conducted in Europe and at Harvard University may open the door to safer immunotherapy for mesothelioma patients.  Immunotherapy is one of the most promising approaches to fight malignant mesothelioma. But the potential side effects can be devastating.  Now, new data suggests there are ways to reduce the complications of immunotherapy for mesothelioma. The key is to target some of the white blood cells that trigger inflammation. Inflammation is the driver behind most of the serious side effects of immunotherapy.  Why Harness the Immune System? No one ever expects to contract mesothelioma. It is an extremely rare cancer. Most people who get it have spent time living or working around asbestos. Even among asbestos-exposed people, mesothelioma is rare. Scientists…

Treatment with Dendritic Cells Leads to Long-Term Mesothelioma Survival in Small Studies
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Treatment with Dendritic Cells Leads to Long-Term Mesothelioma Survival in Small Studies

ByAlex Strauss

Three small studies suggest that dendritic cells may offer a new, more promising way to fight malignant pleural mesothelioma.  Dendritic cells are immune system cells that function as messengers. They are supposed to signal T-cells to attack cancers like malignant mesothelioma. But mesothelioma cells can keep dendritic cells from doing their job. The result is that the number of activated T-cells around mesothelioma tumors stays low and the tumors keep growing.   Now, Dutch researchers studying the problem say a vaccine made from dendritic cells may hold the answer. They analyzed the results of three small dendritic cell studies. These studies included a total of 29 mesothelioma patients.  Some of the patients in these studies lived much longer than mesothelioma patients normally…

Different Mesothelioma Subtypes: Gene Study Could Lead to Targeted Treatments
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Different Mesothelioma Subtypes: Gene Study Could Lead to Targeted Treatments

ByAlex Strauss

A group of European pathologists say the different mesothelioma subtypes have significant differences in their pattern of gene expression. Exploiting these differences could help scientists craft more effective mesothelioma treatments.  Asbestos exposure is the primary cause of mesothelioma. But doctors know that genetics play a role, too. Newly-approved immunotherapy drugs target proteins expressed by specific genes. But these drugs work much better in some mesothelioma patients than they do in others.  The new study suggests that differences in the genetic profiles of different mesothelioma subtypes could help explain why.  Immunotherapy Drugs for Mesothelioma Immunotherapy is an up-and-coming treatment approach for mesothelioma and other cancers. It harnesses the power of the person’s immune system to fight cancer.  In people with mesothelioma,…