Platinum Drug Beats Antibiotic for Peritoneal Mesothelioma Treatment
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Platinum Drug Beats Antibiotic for Peritoneal Mesothelioma Treatment

ByAlex Strauss

A team of surgeons in Nebraska have determined what they say is the best chemotherapy drug to pair with surgery in patients with peritoneal mesothelioma. Peritoneal mesothelioma is a rare form of the asbestos cancer that affects the lining of the abdomen. A treatment approach that involves removing as much of the cancer as possible with cytoreductive surgery (CRS) and then rinsing the abdomen with heated chemotherapy drugs (HIPEC) seems to produce better outcomes than systemic chemotherapy. But there is debate over the best drug to use in CRS/HIPEC treatment. Surgeons at Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha conducted a retrospective study of peritoneal mesothelioma patients that spanned from 2003 to 2010. A total of 44 patients were treated with…

Trial Drug May Boost Mesothelioma Chemotherapy Success
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Trial Drug May Boost Mesothelioma Chemotherapy Success

ByAlex Strauss

There’s more evidence that experimental mesothelioma drugs that inhibit focal adhesion kinase (FAK) may have the ability to dramatically improve the effectiveness of chemotherapy for thousands of mesothelioma patients. Verastem, Inc., the developer of the FAK inhibitors VS-6063 and VS-4718, has just published a new paper on the mechanism by which these drugs work in the medical journal Science Translational Medicine. The research describes how FAK inhibitors make certain mesothelioma cells more susceptible to common chemotherapy drugs like Alimta (pemetrexed) and cisplatin. About half of mesothelioma patients are missing a tumor suppressor called merlin, which can be both good and bad news. Unfortunately, cancers that demonstrate merlin loss tend to be particularly aggressive and mesothelioma is known for its aggressiveness….

Immunotherapy Drug May Be Option for Advanced Mesothelioma

Immunotherapy Drug May Be Option for Advanced Mesothelioma

ByAlex Strauss

Advanced malignant mesothelioma patients who have not responded to standard chemotherapy may have an alternative in a new drug called tremelimumab. An open-label, single-arm, phase 2 trial of the drug has found it to be safe and tolerable and to have “encouraging clinical activity” in advanced malignant mesothelioma that cannot be surgically removed. Tremelimumab is a monoclonal antibody that acts on a particular downregulator of the immune system called cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA4). The goal of tremelimumab is to inhibit the immune system tolerance to tumors, which tends to allow them to grow unchecked. When CTLA4 is reactivated with a drug like tremelimumab, it regains its ability to attack tumors. The new published study on tremelimumab for mesothelioma was…

Human Trials Planned for Promising New Mesothelioma Drug
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Human Trials Planned for Promising New Mesothelioma Drug

ByAlex Strauss

The Australian Asbestos Diseases Research Institute says it is ready to begin human trials on what its lead researcher calls the first significant advance in mesothelioma treatment in a decade. More than three years in development, TargomiRs utilizes a unique ‘minicell’ delivery system to insert a synthetic form of missing genetic material into mesothelioma cells. Like a number of other types of cancer, mesothelioma cells are missing a family of microRNAs critical to regulating the cellular life cycle. TargomiRs restores these microRNAs. In mice with human-derived mesothelioma, TargomiRs produced a “remarkable inhibition of tumour growth”, according to the Asbestos Diseases Research Institute. “The last significant development in the treatment of mesothelioma occurred ten years ago,” ADRI director Nico van Zandwijk…

Scientists Test New Skin Delivery for Mesothelioma Drug
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Scientists Test New Skin Delivery for Mesothelioma Drug

ByAlex Strauss

Researchers at Griffith University are working on a new kind of mesothelioma treatment – one that could be delivered through the skin. The report in the Courier Mail makes reference to animal research on “certain small molecules” that reportedly have the potential to penetrate the skin and target the mitochondria of mesothelioma cells. Mitochondria are one of the most important power sources for cells, producing adenosine triphosphate, a source of chemical energy. The Griffith University project, under the leadership of Medical Professor Jiri Neuzil, is focusing on a drug that would be applied to the skin as a patch or cream. The drug would enter the blood stream through the skin and would target only mesothelioma cells. Studies of the…

FDA Approval Could Mean New Choice for Mesothelioma Patients
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FDA Approval Could Mean New Choice for Mesothelioma Patients

ByAlex Strauss

A newly-approved drug for late-stage lung cancer may have implications for people with malignant mesothelioma, as well. The FDA recently announced its approval of afatinib, a drug which blocks epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) expression in cancer cells. Many types of cancer, including about half mesothelioma cases, express a specific type of mutation on the EGFR gene that causes tumors to grow even faster. Because of this, EGFR has been a focus for biomarker research in mesothelioma, as well as in a number of other cancers. In clinical trials, afatinib (brand name Gilotrif), significantly extended progression-free survival in non-small cell lung cancer patients versus the more common pemetrexed/cisplatin chemotherapy combination. Over a 12-month period, the progression-free survival of lung cancer…

Studies Confirm Success Factors for Mesothelioma Surgery
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Studies Confirm Success Factors for Mesothelioma Surgery

ByAlex Strauss

Completeness of surgery, tumor grade, and the use of the chemotherapy drug cisplatin all have an impact on survival after peritoneal mesothelioma surgery and heated intraoperative chemotherapy, according to recent studies. Peritoneal mesothelioma is a cancer of the abdominal wall. This type of mesothelioma is often treated by surgery to remove as much of the cancer as possible (Cytoreductive surgery or CRS) followed by a wash of heated chemotherapy drugs through the open body cavity (HIPEC). Two recent studies – one conducted in the U.S. and one in Singapore – have independently confirmed a list of factors that contribute to survival after CRS and HIPEC for peritoneal mesothelioma. The first study included 211 peritoneal mesothelioma patients treated with CRS and HIPEC at…

New Drug Combo May Fight Mesothelioma
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New Drug Combo May Fight Mesothelioma

ByAlex Strauss

A new study finds that the combination of a naturally occurring protein and a drug used to treat multiple myeloma may offer a promising new approach to treating mesothelioma. Malignant pleural mesothelioma, a cancer of the lung lining caused by asbestos exposure, is known to be difficult to treat using standard cancer therapies. The newly-tested combination of TNFalpha-Related Apoptosis Inducing Ligand (TRAIL) and the cancer drug bortezomib appears to kill mesothelioma cells by triggering “robust apoptosis” (programmed cell death). Both compounds have been studied on their own for their cancer-killing properties. The protein TRAIL is a part of the immune system secreted by most normal tissue cells. It triggers apoptosis in tumor cells by binding to what are called ‘death receptors’ in…

Doctors Test New Intra-Pleural Mesothelioma Drug
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Doctors Test New Intra-Pleural Mesothelioma Drug

ByAlex Strauss

Doctors at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York have treated the first patient in a new trial that could offer hope to people with malignant mesothelioma and one of its most common complications. The trial is a dose-escalation test of a new drug called GL-ONC1, a genetically modified vaccinia virus produced by the California biopharmaceutical company Genelux Corporation. GL-ONC1 is designed to be both therapeutic – actually treating the cancer – and diagnostic (via green fluorescent proteins) in people with mesothelioma and non-small cell lung cancer who have a buildup of lung fluid called malignant pleural effusion. In the new mesothelioma trial, which is sponsored by Memorial Sloan Kettering in collaboration with Genelux, GL-ONC1 will be administered in a single…

Biomarker Test Next Step for New Mesothelioma Drug
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Biomarker Test Next Step for New Mesothelioma Drug

ByAlex Strauss

A company that makes stem cell-focused treatments for cancer has taken an important step closer to testing a promising new mesothelioma drug. The biopharmaceutical company Verastem, Inc. specializes in agents that destroy cancer by killing cancer stem cells. One of its lead medicines is VS-6063, a focal adhesion kinase inhibitor scheduled to be the subject of a mesothelioma study later this year. In a Phase I safety study of 36 patients conducted by Pfizer (original developers of VS-6063), the drug was “well-tolerated” and showed enough efficacy to warrant further, larger studies. A focal adhesion kinase (FAK) inhibitor is an agent that regulates the growth and spread of tumor cells by inhibited a crucial signaling pathway. In preclinical cancer models, when this…