Chemotherapy for Mesothelioma Tested in Greece
The standard chemotherapy treatment for malignant pleural mesothelioma is cisplatin and pemetrexed. Another chemo regimen used in the U.S. and other countries is the combination of cisplatin and gemcitabine. A recent study performed at the Athens University School of Medicine in Greece examined if the chemotherapy combination – gemcitabine plus docetaxel – were more or less effective than the two standard regimens. The reason for the study, according to the authors, was that this combination has not been investigated in mesothelioma before. Gemcitabine (marketed as Gemzar) is used in various cancers including: non-small cell lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, bladder cancer and breast cancer. Docetaxel (marketed under the name Taxotere) is an anti-mitotic chemotherapy used mainly for the treatment of breast,…