mesothelioma treatments

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    New Mesothelioma Drug Tests to Begin Soon

    ByAlex Strauss

    A spokesman for the makers of a promising new mesothelioma drug says the company plans to begin enrolling its first clinical trial participants this summer. Dr. Joanna Horobin is Chief Medical Officer for Verastem, Inc.,  the developer of a drug that aims to treat malignant mesothelioma by targeting the stem cells that give rise to it. The company’s lead compound, an oral drug called VS-6063, inhibits a crucial signaling pathway inside stem cells called the Focal Adhesion Kinase (FAK) pathway. VS-6063 was approved by the FDA earlier this year as a ‘orphan drug’, a designation given to drugs designed to treat rare illnesses like mesothelioma. “We are moving quickly to bring new treatment options to patients with mesothelioma,” Dr. Horobin said…

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    Mesothelioma Lung-Sparing Proponents Increase

    ByAlex Strauss

    A distinguished group of experts in lung-sparing mesothelioma treatment techniques say there is more reason than ever for patients with this deadly cancer to be hopeful. Robert Cameron, MD, Director of the UCLA Mesothelioma Comprehensive Research Program and Chief of Thoracic Surgery at West Los Angeles VA Medical Center recently led the 3rd annual International Symposium on Lung-Sparing Therapies for Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma in Santa Monica. Hosted by UCLA and the Pacific Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, the symposium made international news two years ago when its participants declared there was “no place” for extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP – a lung-removing surgery) in the treatment of mesothelioma. Despite its high mortality rate, EPP is still supported by some mesothelioma experts for its…

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    Macrophages May Hold Key to Fighting Mesothelioma

    ByAlex Strauss

    Researchers in Western Australia are investigating new ways of bolstering the immune system in an effort to fight cancers like mesothelioma. Like most types of cancer, malignant mesothelioma occurs primarily in people over 65. That is also the time in life when the immune system typically weakens. Researchers from Curtin University and the University of Western Australia say it is no coincidence that people become more susceptible to mesothelioma as their immunity wanes. In addition to age-related immune dysfunction, mesothelioma patients experience a further decline in immunity caused by the growing tumor itself. To better understand the connection between declining immunity and the onset of mesothelioma, the researchers are focusing on a particular type of immune system cell called a macrophage….

  • For Mesothelioma Staging PET/CT Tops PET/MRI

    ByAlex Strauss

    Standard PET/CT beats PET/MRI for diagnosing and staging pleural tumors such as mesothelioma. That is the conclusion reached by a team of radiology researchers in Zurich who evaluated  the two imaging modalities side-by-side for a variety of different cancers, including mesothelioma. Positron emission tomography is a nuclear imaging technique that produces 3D images of functional or metabolic processes in the body. Patients are given a radioactive tracer (usually FDG, a molecule similar to glucose) and the PET machine detects concentrations of the tracer in body tissues. Because FDG is an analog of glucose, it will concentrate where metabolic activity is highest, often in cancer cells. The combination of PET with computed tomography, an X-ray imaging study that produces tomographic images or…

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    NUMB Gene May Suppress Mesothelioma

    ByAlex Strauss

    Researchers at Shandong University in China have pinpointed the connection between low levels of the protein NUMB and a poor mesothelioma prognosis. NUMB is known to act as an anticancer protein in part by binding to the tumor suppressor p53 and preventing its breakdown. Low levels of the NUMB protein have been linked to several types of cancer. In the latest study, published in Oncology Reports, researchers measured the expression of NUMB in 39 tissue samples of epithelioid mesothelioma. The results were compared using immunohistochemistry (protein testing) to 22 normal pleural tissues. NUMB was found to be significantly lower in the mesothelioma cells and the tissue samples with the lowest expression of NUMB were associated with the poorest prognosis. At the…

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    Mesothelioma Symptoms May Benefit from Tuberculosis Drugs

    ByAlex Strauss

    Pleural effusion is the one of most uncomfortable and life-limiting symptoms of pleural mesothelioma. The buildup of fluid in the pleural space around the lungs, which can happen in late stage mesothelioma as well as several other types of cancer, limits breathing and can be painful. Effusion is often one of the primary reasons that mesothelioma patients in the late stages of the disease have trouble taking a full breath and complain of chest pain and fatigue. While pleural fluid can be drained off through thoracentesis or chemically absorbed through pleurodesis, these treatments are painful, risky, and not always effective. Now, a team of researchers in China say they may have discovered a non-invasive method for dealing with pleural effusion caused…

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    Can Robotics Make Mesothelioma Surgery Safer?

    ByAlex Strauss

    A Chandler, Arizona man is recovering after becoming the second person in the world to undergo robotic surgery for mesothelioma. Carlos Tarazon, a 67-year-old former construction worker, was diagnosed with malignant pleural mesothelioma after spending more than 20 years in the construction industry. He had exhausted his treatment options when he was referred to University of Arizona Medical Center thoracic surgeon Farid Gharagozloo, MD, who elected to perform robotic-assisted extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP). Gharagozloo had performed the world’s first robotic EPP just days before. Pleural mesothelioma invades organ membranes, the chest well, and, often, the lungs. EPP involves removing not only the diseased lung lining, but also the lung itself, portions of the chest wall, the membrane around the heart, and all…

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    Nanotechnology for Treatment of Mesothelioma Fluid

    ByAlex Strauss

    A new article on diagnostic advances predicts some good news for mesothelioma patients and their doctors. Mesothelioma is an aggressive malignancy that most often occurs in the membrane around the lungs (pleura) but can also arise in the abdominal wall or around the heart. It is known to be caused by exposure to asbestos, but its long latency period and vague early symptoms can make it difficult to diagnose until in its later stages. At that point, mesothelioma is also less survivable. A pair of Spanish doctors, however, predicts that nanotechnology holds some good news for both diagnosing and treating the symptoms of mesothelioma. Nanotechnology in medicine involves the use of extremely tiny particles to deliver therapeutics and glean information at the…

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    Unusual Chemo Side Effects in One Mesothelioma Patient

    ByAlex Strauss

    Swiss researches are reporting unusual side effects in one patient arising from mesothelioma treatment with the popular chemotherapy drug pemetrexed. One of the side effects is potentially life-threatening. Approved by the FDA in 2004 and sold under the brand name Alimta, pemetrexed was the first drug developed specifically for the treatment of malignant mesothelioma. Four years later, it was also approved for the treatment of lung cancer. Pemetrexed is a folate antimetabolite that inhibits certain key enzymes and prevents the formation of DNA and RNA critical for mesothelioma cells to function and replicate. It is most often combined with a platinum-based drug like cisplatin or carboplatin in the treatment of mesothelioma. In a report in the journal Lung Cancer, doctors from…

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    Mesothelioma Chemotherapy Tested

    ByAlex Strauss

    A clinical trial in Japan is testing the theory that high levels of chemotherapy delivered before other treatments may pave the way for more successful mesothelioma surgery. The administration of very high levels of chemotherapy drugs as a first-line cancer treatment is known as induction chemotherapy. The goal of induction chemotherapy is to kill most of the cancer cells up front, reducing or even eliminating the need for further rounds of chemotherapy or other types of treatment. Because mesothelioma is such a virulent cancer, even induction chemotherapy is not usually enough to kill all of the cancer. But the Japanese researchers believe it may be enough to dramatically improve surgical outcomes. When the 2-year trial, which began in September 2012,…