mesothelioma treatments

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    New Agents May Enhance Mesothelioma Therapy

    ByAlex Strauss

    Mesothelioma is a deadly cancer of the internal membranes that line the chest and abdomen and encase the heart. Once cancer has started on these membranes, it is extremely difficult to keep it from spreading to nearby organs. Conventional therapies, including chemotherapy and radiotherapy, have little effect on mesothelioma. Now, two new studies out of Japan say there may be a way to change that. One study reports on an agent that may improve the cancer-killing power of radiotherapy. The other focused on the use of viruses to enhance the power of standard chemotherapy. For the radiotherapy study, researchers in the Department of Thoracic Surgery at Okyama University examined the impact of manipulating microRNA molecules inside cells. In a previous study,…

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    New Radiotherapy Preserves Healthy Lung in Mesothelioma

    ByAlex Strauss

    A method for targeted delivery of radiotherapy may be safer than conventional radiotherapy for slowing the spread of malignant pleural mesothelioma in patients who have had surgery. Mesothelioma is a virulent cancer caused by exposure to asbestos. Although it can take up to 40 year to develop, when it does, it often spreads quickly across the mesothelium which surrounds the lungs. For most patients, prognosis is poor unless the spread of mesothelioma can be slowed down or stopped. Some patients undergo a surgical procedure called pleurectomy/decortication to remove the diseased pleural lining and as much of the cancerous tissue as possible from the lungs or chest wall. The concern following any cancer surgery is that the cancer can re-grow from cells that…

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    New Orphan Drug Approved for Mesothelioma

    ByAlex Strauss

    Patients suffering from malignant pleural mesothelioma, a virulent asbestos-linked cancer, now have another drug option to choose from. Amatuximab, an investigational cancer drug made by Morphotek, has been granted orphan drug status by the FDA. The Orphan Drug Act allows the FDA to designate a drug as an orphan drug if it is used to treat fewer than 200,000 people in the U.S. Any illness that affects fewer than 200,000 people is considered a rare disease. Mesothelioma is one of the rarest of rare diseases, claiming the lives of about 2,500 Americans annually. Without the Orphan Drug Act, there is less incentive for a company like Morphotek to even work to develop drugs for a disease like mesothelioma. Mesothelioma is a…

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    Medicinal Plant for Mesothelioma?

    ByAlex Strauss

    A new study suggests that a plant used for centuries in Indian Ayurvedic medicine may be a powerful weapon in the fight against deadly malignant mesothelioma. The bioactive compound Withaferin A (WA) is isolated from the root of Withania somnifera, a plant in the nightshade family also known as Indian ginseng.  A number of previous scientific studies have found evidence to suggest that WA has anti-inflammatory, immuno-modulatory, anti-angiogenic, and anti-cancer properties. In the latest study, published online in the open-access peer-reviewed journal PLos One, researchers at the Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit tested the compound in live mice (in vivo) as well as in mesothelioma cells taken from human patients (in vitro). Their objective was to determine whether WA would have…

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    Mesothelioma Study Suggests Trimodal Falls Short

    ByAlex Strauss

    A team of Swiss doctors have added their names to the list mesothelioma experts who believe that the intense trimodal treatment approach including extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP) is not the best choice for most patients. Malignant mesothelioma is a cancer that starts in the membranes around organs, most often the lungs. Extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP) is a radical surgical approach for pleural mesothelioma that includes removing not only the diseased mesothelium but also the nearest lung, other body linings, and all or part of the diaphragm. It is often preceded by chemotherapy and followed by radiotherapy.  Although this trimodal approach carries a high risk of serious complications and even death, it has resulted in long term survival for some mesothelioma patients. Even with aggressive…

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    Mesothelioma Study: QOL Impact Not Enough to Deny Surgery

    ByAlex Strauss

    The risk of reduced quality of life should not be used as an argument against a new surgical technique for peritoneal mesothelioma. That is the conclusion of a team of German doctors studying the combination of cytoreductive surgery (CRS) and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) for a variety of abdominal cancers. Peritoneal mesothelioma is a rare form of a rare disease. Arising in the peritoneum, the membrane that forms the lining of the abdominal cavity, it tends to spread quickly. The proximity of the peritoneum to other internal organs increases the chance that mesothelioma will spread. During cytoreductive mesothelioma surgery, surgeons remove as much of the diseased tissue as possible. In a growing number of centers, the procedure is followed by…

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    Measles May Help Fight Mesothelioma

    ByAlex Strauss

    A new mesothelioma clinical trial being conducted at the Mayo Clinic uses an altered version of the measles virus to combat the deadly cancer. The potential of the measles virus to kill cancers like mesothelioma was noticed many years ago, before vaccination curtailed the spread of measles. In several cases, cancer patients who contracted natural measles experienced shrinkage of their tumors. Today, advanced molecular science has made it possible to insert a new gene into the measles virus that can further increase its specificity and potency against mesothelioma tumor cells. Because malignant pleural mesothelioma (the most common type) arises on the mesothelial membrane around the lungs, Mayo Clinic researchers administer the altered measles virus directly into the pleural space, between the lungs…

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    Cancer Drug May Improve Long-Term Mesothelioma Survival

    ByAlex Strauss

    The case of a German man who has lived more than 9 years with malignant mesothelioma is bringing attention to the drug that may have helped him defy the odds. Mesothelioma is an aggressive malignancy of the pleural, peritoneal or pericardial membranes. It is most closely associated with occupational or environmental exposure to the toxic mineral asbestos and has a median survival of just 12 months after diagnosis. But the 67-year-old former German asbestos worker who is the subject of a new published report has stable mesothelioma, almost a decade after his initial examination. Writing on the case in the medical journal Onco Targets and Therapy, doctors at the University of Essen say the patient was diagnosed with mesothelioma after a CT…

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    New Criteria May Help Doctors Predict Mesothelioma Survival

    ByAlex Strauss

    A new study suggests that mesothelioma doctors may be at a disadvantage when it comes to accurately assessing how well patients are responding to treatment. To correct the problem, they are proposing changes in the standards by which mesothelioma tumors are measured. A team of medical researchers in the U.S. and Australia examined the accuracy of the standard image-based method for assessing tumor progression and treatment response in mesothelioma. What they found is that the standard method may be off by as much as 34% when it comes to evaluating response and as much as 30% when assessing disease progression. Currently, to decide what it means when a mesothelioma tumor grows or shrinks, doctors measure it using computed tomography (CT) scanning…

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    Inhibitor May Reduce Mesothelioma Fluid and Prolong Survival

    ByAlex Strauss

    A drug based on a naturally-occurring cell growth inhibitor may boost the effectiveness of chemotherapy against mesothelioma fluid buildup. The drug, called Endostar, is based on endostatin, a compound derived from human collagen. In the body, endostatin acts as an anti-angiogenic agent, preventing the kind of vascular development that cancer cells need to grow and thrive. By effectively choking off the natural formation of tumor-feeding blood vessels, Endostar aims to ‘starve’ mesothelioma cells and shrink tumors. In an article detailing a recent Endostar case study, researchers in China report on its ability to relieve one of the most life-limiting symptoms of mesothelioma – excessive fluid buildup. As mesothelioma cells spread across internal membranes, such as the pleura (around the lungs) or peritoneum…