NIH Grant May Help Validate Light-Based Therapy for Mesothelioma
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NIH Grant May Help Validate Light-Based Therapy for Mesothelioma

ByAlex Strauss

University of Pennsylvania researchers studying a promising mesothelioma treatment that kills cancer cells with light will get the opportunity to take their research to the next level thanks to a significant new grant. Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine has received $8 million from the National Cancer Institute to delve deeper into the effects of photodynamic therapy (PDT) in patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma. The team has been researching and using the treatment in patients for several years, but the grant will allow them to conduct a larger clinical trial to further validate their good results. “This trial represents a major step in understanding the combination of treatment modalities that will offer patients the best hope for survival and extended remission,”…

New Mesothelioma Treatment Boosts Chemotherapy Response
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New Mesothelioma Treatment Boosts Chemotherapy Response

ByAlex Strauss

An important new study from one of the country’s top mesothelioma research labs has found a way to significantly boost the impact of chemotherapy on mesothelioma patients who are not eligible for surgery. Dr. Raffit Hassan and his colleagues at the National Cancer Institute have been focusing their efforts on an immunotoxin – a potent toxin inked to an antibody – to selectively target mesothelioma cells. The immunotoxin, called SS1P, is designed to target a protein called mesothelin, which is overexpressed in mesothelioma cells. While previous studies have shown some promise in SS1P treatment by itself, especially when the immune system is suppressed, the newest study tests the value of SS1P in combination with the most popular mesothelioma chemotherapy drugs,…

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…

Monoclonal Antibody a ‘Novel Treatment’ for Mesothelioma?
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Monoclonal Antibody a ‘Novel Treatment’ for Mesothelioma?

ByAlex Strauss

A drug currently used to treat colorectal cancer and some types of head and neck cancer may also offer a new way to combat mesothelioma. Malignant pleural mesothelioma is an asbestos-linked cancer that spreads across the mesothelial tissue surrounding the lungs. The disease is highly resistant to most conventional therapies and is often fatal within a year of diagnosis.  As the number of mesothelioma cases continues to increase in many developing counties, scientists around the world are studying mesothelioma cells for clues that could help them develop more effective treatments. One clue is the overexpression of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). EGFR is overexpressed by mesothelioma cells and several other types of cancer cells. The monoclonal antibody cetuximab, which is derived…

Perifosine May Offer New Mesothelioma Treatment
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Perifosine May Offer New Mesothelioma Treatment

ByAlex Strauss

The makers of the anti-cancer drug perifosine say new research suggests the drug may offer a new way to fight malignant mesothelioma. The research article entitled “Perifosine as a Potential Novel Anti-Cancer Agent Inhibits EGFR/MET-AKT Axis in Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma” was recently published in the peer-reviewed online medical journal Plos One. The announcement has been picked up by other news outlets because of the rarity of new treatments for mesothelioma, the asbestos-linked cancer that is diagnosed in about 2,500 Americans every year. In the new study, perifosine was tested on human mesothelial cells and a variety of mesothelioma cell lines to demonstrate its effectiveness alone or in combination with other mesothelioma treatments. When given at a high enough dose, perifosine interfered…

Rare Form of Mesothelioma Appears after Multimodal Treatment
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Rare Form of Mesothelioma Appears after Multimodal Treatment

ByAlex Strauss

Advanced mesothelioma treatment approaches like multimodal therapy may not only prolong survival in some patients; they may also cause fundamental changes in the way the disease presents itself. Pleural mesothelioma is a malignancy of the thin lining that encases the lungs. It is caused by exposure to asbestos. Typically, the prognosis is poor. But a multinational study in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology finds that more efficient chemotherapy protocols and aggressive management strategies are resulting in more longer-living patients. The researchers single out the powerful trimodal combination of induction chemotherapy, extrapleural pneumonectomy surgery, and adjuvant high-dose hemithoracic radiation for its impact on survival. Although this therapy combination may hold mesothelioma at bay in some cases, it usually returns eventually. The…

Multi-Modality Mesothelioma Treatment Well Tolerated
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Multi-Modality Mesothelioma Treatment Well Tolerated

ByAlex Strauss

The combination of pleurectomy/decortication, hyperthermic pleural lavage and adjuvant chemotherapy is an effective alternative to more traditional mesothelioma treatment combinations. So say the London scientists who tested the method on 36 mesothelioma patients over a five-and-a-half year period. The mesothelioma patients were all treated at a London hospital between October 2004 and May 2010. Each patient first underwent pleurectomy/decortication, a surgical method for removing as many malignant mesothelioma tumor cells as possible. The method is considered by many to be a safer alternative to the more extensive surgery called extrapleural pneumonectomy, which involves removing a lung and part of the diaphragm. Before their surgical wounds were closed, each patient’s chest cavity was rinsed with a warmed povidone-iodine solution, designed to…

Genes May be Targets for Mesothelioma Treatment
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Genes May be Targets for Mesothelioma Treatment

ByAlex Strauss

The same genes that can help predict which mesothelioma patients will do well after surgery, might also be good targets for gene therapy to combat the disease. That’s the conclusion of one of the nation’s top mesothelioma experts, Dr. David Sugarbaker, and his colleagues at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston. After publishing research showing that certain genes can affect patients’ post-surgical prognosis, the team looked further into the genes themselves and how they relate to mesothelioma. Mesothelioma is highly resistant to standard treatments. Gene therapy, which harnesses and uses the body’s own nature defense system, is being studied as a promising alternative. Starting with lung tissue from both healthy patients and those with malignant pleural mesothelioma, the researchers used…

German Mesothelioma Treatment Keeps U.K. Man Alive
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German Mesothelioma Treatment Keeps U.K. Man Alive

ByAlex Strauss

An advanced new mesothelioma treatment developed in Germany is credited for keeping a British man alive – four times longer than he was expected to live. Sixty-five year old Keith Turnbull of Hertfordshire contracted mesothelioma in 2008 because of asbestos from his father’s worth clothes. Mesothelioma is an aggressive cancer that is highly resistant to traditional treatments. At the time of his diagnosis, doctors did not expect Turnbull to live beyond six months. But after 13 trips to Germany to received transarterial chemoembolization, Turnbull is still alive, two and a half years later. Transarterial chemoembolization, pioneered by German Professor Thomas Vogl of the J.W. Goethe University Hospital in Frankfurt, attacks tumors from two directions – simultaneously cutting off their blood…

Mesothelioma Treatment Becoming More Individualized
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Mesothelioma Treatment Becoming More Individualized

ByAlex Strauss

A respected team of mesothelioma experts predicts that treatment for this aggressive cancer will become increasingly personalized in the next five to ten years. A malignancy in the lining around the lungs and other organs, mesothelioma is caused almost exclusively by asbestos exposure. Although its occurrence in the U.S. is believed to have leveled out at about 3,000 cases per year, the number of cases around the world is continuing to increase. Because the disease is so difficult to treat, many patients succumb within a year of diagnosis, even with the best therapies now available. For this reason, researches continue to look for ways to predict which treatments are most likely to work for which patients. In a recent article…