mesothelioma treatments

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    Effectiveness of Mesothelioma Drug Improved by Other Compounds

    ByAlex Strauss

    Two new studies suggest that a popular mesothelioma drug becomes more effective when combined with other compounds. Pemetrexed (Alimta) is considered a gold standard chemotherapy treatment for mesothelioma, a cancer of the membrane that surrounds the lungs and other internal organs. For mesothelioma, pemetrexed is frequently combined with the platinum-based agent, cisplatin. Although many drugs interact with each other or trigger drug resistance, there has been little study of the interaction between these two key mesothelioma drugs. To better understand the relationship between pemetrexed and cisplatin, a team of Japanese researchers used the combination to treat mesothelioma cells in the lab. Although the team did find resistance to either pemetrexed or cisplatin in the mesothelioma cell lines they tested, they confirmed…

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    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…

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    Red Wine for Mesothelioma?

    ByAlex Strauss

    Patients battling mesothelioma may want to discuss with their licensed healthcare provider the idea of adding red wine to their treatment strategy. There’s new evidence that the component in red wine that has long been known to fight heart disease and some cancers may help do the same for malignant mesothelioma. Resveratrol is a natural phenol derived from the skin of red grapes.  It has been linked to the “French affect” wherein the French appear to enjoy some cardiovascular protection against dietary fat. In recent years, resveratrol has also been the subject of numerous cancer studies.  The Korean study represents the first time resveratrol has been tested against mesothelioma, an especially virulent and hard-to-treat cancer. To test the impact of resveratrol…

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    “Encouraging” Mesothelioma Approach Combines Surgery and Light

    ByAlex Strauss

    A mesothelioma treatment approach that includes light-activated chemicals and a lung-sparing surgery is being called “safe” and “encouraging” by some of the nation’s top mesothelioma researchers. Radical pleurectomy and decortication (P/D) involves the removal of the thickened pleural membrane around the lungs and separation of the pleura from the chest wall. The goal is to allow the lung to expand more easily.  Because it is less likely to remove all of the mesothelioma cells than the more extensive approach known as Extrapleural Pneumonectomy (EPP), some doctors have only considered P/D for patients who would not tolerate lung removal. The debate among the world’s mesothelioma experts continues. But at the University of Pennsylvania, doctors are achieving notable success in treating mesothelioma with a…

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    ‘Body Clock’ Chemical Could Help Fight Mesothelioma

    ByAlex Strauss

    One of the chemicals responsible for helping establish the body’s circadian rhythms may also help doctors fight mesothelioma. BMAL1 is an important component of the circadian clock, the internal biochemical ‘clock’ that regulates such important body functions as heart rhythm, wake-sleep cycles, and hunger.  Previous studies have found that mesothelioma cells produce more BMAL1 than healthy cells. Now, a group of Japanese doctors is proposing that the extra BMAL1 in mesothelioma cells could serve as a target for anti-cancer drugs. Malignant pleural mesothelioma – the most common form of mesothelioma – is a cancer of the mesothelial lining around the lungs. It is caused by exposure to asbestos and, to date, there is no consistently affective treatment.  The irregular shape of…

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    Mesothelioma Vaccine Jump Starts Immunity

    ByAlex Strauss

    Scientists studying a vaccine for mesothelioma have published some of their most important preliminary data in the respected medical journal Lung Cancer. Mesothelioma, a cancer of the organ linings caused by asbestos exposure, is highly resistant to conventional treatments.  Not only does it grow quickly, but its shape makes detection and removal difficult. Unlike some other types of solid tumors which may grow in a mass, mesothelioma tumors tend to spread out in a sheet-like formation across membranes. The UK scientists have been experimenting with a new method for targeting and destroying mesothelioma tumors, regardless of their shape. 5T4 is an antigen overexpressed by several kinds of cancer cells. The researchers tested for 5T4 in mesothelioma cells taken from 11 lab-grown cell…

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    Mesothelioma Study Reveals Need to Step Up Pain Control

    ByAlex Strauss

    Healthcare providers should make pain control a higher priority for their patients with mesothelioma and other lung-related cancers. That is the message of a recent University of Pennsylvania study on pain management.  The study gathered information on pain and pain control from patients with mesothelioma or lung cancer between 2005 and 2008. Participants were asked to fill out an Internet-based questionnaire that included 22 questions designed to assess their symptoms, evaluate their pain, and appraise their attitudes toward pain medication. Of the ninety people who filled out the survey, nine percent had mesothelioma, a rare cancer of the lining of the chest or abdominal cavity.  The other 91 percent had either small-cell or non-small-cell lung cancer. Most were men and 89 percent…

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    Long-Term Mesothelioma Survival Possible with Tri-Modal Approach

    ByAlex Strauss

    The case of a Peruvian woman treated for mesothelioma in Italy is more evidence that this rare cancer is not only increasingly treatable, but can even be survivable. Mesothelioma is an aggressive malignancy that spreads across the thin membranes that encase internal organs.  The most common type occurs in the pleura, the lining around the lungs. In most cases, the prognosis is poor; many patients are told they are unlikely to live out the year. But as treatment protocols improve, a growing number of mesothelioma patients are defying the odds and living much longer. A tri-modal approach including chemotherapy to shrink the mesothelioma, surgery to remove it, and radiotherapy to prevent its return has proven to be an effective strategy for…

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    Firefly Compound Guides Mesothelioma Treatment

    ByAlex Strauss

    An oxidative enzyme derived from fireflies may help shed light on a new treatment for mesothelioma. Researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering in New York, one of the country’s top cancer centers, have just released their findings on the use of firefly luciferase as a guide for a heat-based treatment of  mesothelioma. Firefly luciferase is an enzyme responsible for the bioluminescence of fireflies.  When the enzyme is isolated and treated, it can be made to bind with certain biomarkers, causing cells with these markers to glow. The technique has opened the door for bioluminescence imaging, a precision imaging method that works at the molecular level. In the new study, mesothelioma cells were treated with a specially-prepared firefly luciferase gene and their level of…

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    Leukemia Drug Fails Mesothelioma Trial

    ByAlex Strauss

    An oral leukemia medicine doctor’s had hoped might help certain mesothelioma patients won’t be moving on to the next level of clinical trials. Phase II drug trials use human subject to determine a drug’s safe dose and measure its effectiveness.  In Phase II trials of dasatinib, a drug currently used for leukemia patients that have failed other treatments,  mesothelioma researchers found the medicine had “no activity” and was too toxic to justify its use. Caused by exposure to asbestos, mesothelioma is challenging to treat and effective therapies are limited.  Because of dasatinib’s success as a second-line treatment for chronic myeloid leukemia, doctors reasoned that it might help patients with inoperable mesothelioma.  In the study to test this hypothesis, 46 mesothelioma patients were…