New Hope for Mesothelioma: Understanding Immunotherapy
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How Immunotherapy Transformed a Mesothelioma Patient’s Life

ByHolly Zink

An elderly man went to the hospital for treatment for two different types of cancer, nasopharyngeal carcinoma and mesothelioma. His treatment with immunotherapy was successful and improved his outlook. Unraveling the Complexity of Mesothelioma Mesothelioma is a rare type of cancer that grows in the lining of organs in the body. In this case, the patient had mesothelioma in his abdomen. This cancer is caused by exposure to asbestos. When a person has mesothelioma in their abdomen, the tumors can grow and spread to cover a large area. It can be difficult to diagnose because of its vague symptoms, like abdominal pain, bloating, and weight loss. And it is even harder to treat because it is often diagnosed at a…

Second Treatment Course May Increase Mesothelioma Patient Survival
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New Drug in the Pipeline for Mesothelioma

ByHolly Zink

Researchers in Iran tested the safety of a new version of the drug pemetrexed in patients with non-small cell lung cancer and malignant pleural mesothelioma. This drug is used to treat these patients when they are not able to get surgery for their cancer. The researchers were able to determine that pemetrexed is safe in patients with non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer. Treatment Choices Malignant pleural mesothelioma is a lung-related cancer like non-small cell lung cancer. It is caused by exposure to asbestos. Treatment for mesothelioma usually involves chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and surgery. Patients may receive more than one type of treatment. This is called multimodal therapy. Pemetrexed is a chemotherapy drug that interrupts the cell replication process that helps…

Second Treatment Course May Increase Mesothelioma Patient Survival
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Second Treatment Course May Increase Mesothelioma Patient Survival

ByHolly Zink

Oncologists report that a second treatment course may be a good option for some mesothelioma patients. Almost all mesothelioma patients experience progression after the first treatment. Recommendations for a second treatment are still unclear. There is very limited information available on second and repeat treatments. Pemetrexed combined with platinum-based chemotherapy is a standard first treatment for mesothelioma. A report in BMC Cancer says that a repeat treatment may be good for eligible patients. In this study, patients who received a second treatment of chemotherapy survived longer. Understanding Second Treatments or Retreatments Malignant pleural mesothelioma is a rare, aggressive cancer linked to asbestos exposure. There have been several recent treatment advances. But the mesothelioma prognosis is still poor with an average…

Alimta for mesothelioma is kidney patients
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Patients with Impaired Kidneys Could Still Take Alimta for Mesothelioma, Study Finds

ByAlex Strauss

New research in the Netherlands suggests that patients who would not normally be prescribed Alimta for mesothelioma could still benefit from the gold standard mesothelioma treatment. The key is an alternate dosing strategy. Alimta is a powerful drug that works by blocking a molecule needed for cell replication. Right now, doctors do not recommend Alimta for mesothelioma in people with poor kidney function. But Dutch pharmacology experts now say it is possible to adjust the dosing to make Alimta safer for these mesothelioma patients. Alimta for Mesothelioma: Proper Dosing is Key The FDA approved Alimta for mesothelioma in 2004. Alimta (pemetrexed) is still the only drug approved for the treatment of malignant mesothelioma. It has also been approved to treat…

Understanding Mesothelioma: Clues from Calretinin for Patients
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Chemotherapy with Alimta: Putting More Gold in the Gold Standard

ByAlex Strauss

A new Italian study suggests there may be a more effective way to deliver mesothelioma chemotherapy with Alimta. Chemotherapy with Alimta (pemetrexed) is the gold standard treatment for malignant pleural mesothelioma. But fewer than 40 percent of mesothelioma patients see improvement when they receive the drug by standard infusion. Now, researchers in biotechnology and nanomedicine think they may have found a way around the limits of chemotherapy with Alimta. Tiny particles of gold may be the answer. Why Chemotherapy with Alimta Does Not Always Work Even though most mesothelioma patients receive chemotherapy with Alimta at some point, it is usually only moderately effective. That is because pemetrexed is a highly potent drug that can cause deadly side effects at high doses….

More Support for Novel Mesothelioma Drug Delivery System

More Support for Novel Mesothelioma Drug Delivery System

ByAlex Strauss

Pharmaceutical researchers working on a way to make the most popular mesothelioma drug more effective have found more evidence that fat may be the answer. The team at Zagazig University in Egypt and Tokushima University in Japan have developed a fat-based coating for the antifolate drug pemetrexed (Alimta) that may help improve outcomes for patients. Pemetrexed is currently the only drug approved specifically to treat malignant mesothelioma and most patients will receive it at some point. Even so, like most mesothelioma therapies, pemetrexed is only marginally effective, in part because the dose has to be limited to avoid serious side effects. The new drug delivery system was designed to get around this problem by encapsulating molecules of pemetrexed in tiny…

Doctor holding x-ray film
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Clinical Trial May be Best Second-Line Approach for Mesothelioma

ByAlex Strauss

The best second-line treatment for mesothelioma patients who fail to respond to standard chemotherapy is probably to enroll in a clinical trial. The authors of a newly-published paper on the subject reached that conclusion after reviewing the results of 29 studies on potential second- or third-line mesothelioma treatments. Most patients who are diagnosed with mesothelioma, an aggressive malignancy associated with asbestos exposure, will undergo chemotherapy, either as a stand-alone treatment or as part of a multimodal approach. Unfortunately, only a small percentage of mesothelioma patients treated with standard pemetrexed/cisplatin chemotherapy will show a response. Even those who respond to chemotherapy often relapse again later. Scientists around the world are searching for new drugs and drug combinations to offer mesothelioma patients…

New Delivery System May Make Popular Mesothelioma Drug More Effective
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New Delivery System May Make Popular Mesothelioma Drug More Effective

ByAlex Strauss

There is new evidence that an advanced method of delivering medicine directly into diseased cells could help make the world’s only FDA-approved mesothelioma drug more effective. Pemetrexed (Alimta) was approved for the treatment of pleural mesothelioma in 2004 and remains the only drug specifically for the treatment of this intractable cancer. Because of its toxicity, pemetrexed can’t be given in very high doses and usually has to be combined with another drug, such as cisplatin, when it is given to mesothelioma patients. Unfortunately, even this “gold standard” drug treatment is only effective about 40 percent of the time. But a new drug delivery system may boost the effectiveness of pemetrexed and improve outcomes for pleural mesothelioma patients.  Researchers in Egypt and…

Manage mesothelioma symptoms
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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…

Alimta Reportedly Caused Lung Injury
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Alimta Reportedly Caused Lung Injury

ByAlex Strauss

A Japanese medical journal recently reported a case of pemetrexed-induced acute lung injury in a patient with mesothelioma. In the U.S., Alimta is the brand name for pemetrexed. According to this report a 65-year-old man was admitted to the hospital after complaining of shortness of breath. Doctors ordered a chest x-ray which showed that the patient had excess fluid that had accumulated in the left pleural cavity, the fluid-filled space that surrounds the lungs. A chest CT scan was ordered which revealed multiple pleural masses on the left side. A needle biopsy removed a specimen from one of the masses and pathology tests were performed on the sample. The diagnosis of malignant pleural mesothelioma was subsequently made. The patient was…