Kidney Risk May be Unavoidable with Top Mesothelioma Drug
| | |

Kidney Risk May be Unavoidable with Top Mesothelioma Drug

ByAlex Strauss

Italian scientists studying the popular mesothelioma chemotherapy drug pemetrexed (Alimta) have some sobering news for patients: Kidney damage remains a risk, even in patients whose kidney function tests are on the low end of normal. Doctors in the nephrology and dialysis unit at St. Andrea Hospital in La Spezia, Italy, performed a retrospective evaluation of 38 patients with non-small cell lung cancer who developed kidney injuries after being treated with pemetrexed. Twenty nine of the study participants had no other risks for renal damage. The guidelines for administering pemetrexed to patients with mesothelioma, NSCLC, and other types of cancer say that the patient’s eGFR, a measure of kidney function, should be higher than 45. Although all of the patients in…

A Second-Line Option for Mesothelioma?
| |

A Second-Line Option for Mesothelioma?

ByAlex Strauss

Although survival was not significantly extended, the chemotherapy drug vinorelbine might be a treatment option for mesothelioma patients whose cancer has returned after first-line chemotherapy with pemetrexed. A new study on vinorelbine as a second-line treatment finds that the drug is “moderately active” in mesothelioma patients who were initially treated with pemetrexed-based chemotherapy. Pemetrexed (Alimta), along with a platinum-based drug like cisplatin, is the primary first-line drug therapy for mesothelioma. But vinorelbine is gaining attention as a possible option for mesothelioma, in part because it is available in a less expensive generic form. In “Vinorelbine in pemetrexed-pretreated patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma”, the Italian authors detail the results of their study on 59 patients with unresectable pleural mesothelioma.  These patients…

Chemotherapy “Bath” May Stop Mesothelioma Spread
| |

Chemotherapy “Bath” May Stop Mesothelioma Spread

ByAlex Strauss

There is more evidence that washing heated chemotherapy drugs through the open body cavity after mesothelioma surgery may help stop the cancer from spreading. A team at the Washington Cancer Institute followed the movement and absorption of these drugs – known as pharmacokinetics – to assess their potential for effectively killing spreading mesothelioma cells without harming healthy tissues.  Specifically, they were studying people who had one of the rarest forms of mesothelioma, called peritoneal mesothelioma. In these patients, mesothelioma in the membrane around their abdominal organs can progress up into the pleural space around the lungs. During a surgery called pleurectomy and decortication (P/D), the surgeon may remove all or part of the diseased pleural membrane and scrape cancer cells off the…