Inhaling Mesothelioma Drug Soon Ready for Patient Trials
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Inhaling Mesothelioma Drug Soon Ready for Patient Trials

ByAlex Strauss

Mesothelioma patients may eventually be inhaling their treatment medications instead of receiving them intravenously if current research in Scotland goes according to plan. Scientists at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow are experimenting with a method for delivering chemotherapy medicine directly into the lungs where mesothelioma is triggered. Although mesothelioma is not a lung cancer, it is usually the result of inhalation or ingestion of airborne asbestos fibers.  In pleural mesothelioma, inhaled fibers lodge deep in the lung tissue, setting up a cycle of chronic irritation and inflammation that eventually affects the membrane around the lungs. As mesothelioma spreads over the pleural membrane, it can impede the lungs’ ability to expand and may eventually spread into the lungs or other organs….

Drug May Improve Chemotherapy for Mesothelioma
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Drug May Improve Chemotherapy for Mesothelioma

ByAlex Strauss

A medication used to slow the growth of kidney cancer may help improve the effectiveness of chemotherapy for mesothelioma. Temsirolimus is a kinase inhibitor, which works by blocking the action of the abnormal protein that signals replication in cancer cells. It is often used to treat advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC), a cancer that begins in the kidney. But a team of researchers in Vienna has found that the drug also appears to inhibit the growth of malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) cells, both in cell cultures and in animal models. The researchers used temsirolimus to ‘turn off’ the gene pathway known as mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) in mesothelioma cells. The mTOR pathway is responsible for signaling the growth and…