HITHOC Treatment Deemed Safe for Some Pleural Mesothelioma Patients
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HITHOC Treatment Deemed Safe for Some Pleural Mesothelioma Patients

German doctors testing the HITHOC treatment for pleural mesothelioma say it is a “safe therapeutic option”. The key to success is careful patient selection. Pleural mesothelioma is a rare cancer linked to asbestos. Tumors grow on the membrane that surrounds the lungs. Doctors have not yet found a cure for mesothelioma.  HITHOC treatment involves rinsing heated chemotherapy drugs through the chest after mesothelioma surgery. The new study suggests that this advanced approach may help certain mesothelioma patients live longer.  Understanding Pleural Mesothelioma Tumors To understand how HITHOC treatment works, it is important to understand how and where mesothelioma tumors grow.  Pleural mesothelioma tumors start on the lining around the lungs called the pleura. As tumors grow, the pleura thickens and…

Gel-Based Mesothelioma Treatment: A Novel Approach to Pleural Mesothelioma
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Gel-Based Mesothelioma Treatment: A Novel Approach to Pleural Mesothelioma

Swiss scientists are developing a novel gel-based mesothelioma treatment for people with pleural disease. Early studies suggest it may be a safer way to deliver cancer-fighting drugs with fewer side effects. The gel-based mesothelioma treatment combines the chemotherapy drug cisplatin with a natural “glue” called fibrin. When the gel is applied during surgery, it can keep fighting tumors for months. Why Develop a Gel-Based Treatment? Cisplatin is a platinum-based drug. Together with pemetrexed (Alimta), it is one of the most common chemotherapy drugs for mesothelioma. In the past decade, doctors came up with a way to increase the effectiveness of cisplatin in people with peritoneal mesothelioma. These patients get chemotherapy the usual way. But they also get a rinse of…

When Pleural and Peritoneal Mesothelioma Occur Together
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When Pleural and Peritoneal Mesothelioma Occur Together

Pleural and peritoneal mesothelioma rarely occur at the same time. But when they do, there is still hope for treatment. That message comes from a new study conducted at Columbia University and published in the Annals of Surgical Oncology. The researchers analyzed cases of patients diagnosed with both pleural and peritoneal mesothelioma at Columbia. They were looking for the factors that impacted their survival and the most effective ways to treat them. Comparing Pleural and Peritoneal Mesothelioma There are two primary types of malignant mesothelioma, the type of cancer most closely associated with asbestos exposure. The most common type is pleural mesothelioma. With this type, the first tumors show up on the membrane that surrounds the lungs (pleura). Chest pain,…

Mesothelioma Growth Slowed by Breast Cancer Drug
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Mesothelioma Growth Slowed by Breast Cancer Drug

A drug most often associated with the treatment and prevention of breast cancer may offer a new way to treat pleural mesothelioma, too. A new study conducted by Ireland’s Royal College of Surgeons and published in the medical journal Anticancer Research focuses on tamoxifen as a novel mesothelioma therapy. How Tamoxifen Works Tamoxifen helps fight breast cancer and protect high-risk women from getting it by blocking cancer cells from using the estrogen they need to grow. Given that some types of mesothelioma tumors also appear to rely on estrogen to fuel their growth, the Irish scientists theorized that a drug like tamoxifen, which modulates estrogen receptors, could be used to enhance mesothelioma therapy. Testing Tamoxifen on Mesothelioma Cells The researchers…

Trimodal Mesothelioma Treatment May Not Be Worth the Risk
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Trimodal Mesothelioma Treatment May Not Be Worth the Risk

Japanese researchers say trimodality treatment for mesothelioma that includes chemotherapy, extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP), and post-surgical radiation may not be beneficial enough to justify the risk. Pleural mesothelioma is one of the most difficult cancers to treat because it grows quickly and is resistant to most conventional therapies. Most mesothelioma patients have to have a combination of treatments. The question for researchers is, which treatment combination will provide the best mesothelioma survival outcomes. Trimodality Treatment for Mesothelioma In the newest study on trimodality treatment for mesothelioma, the Japanese team enrolled newly-diagnosed pleural mesothelioma patients who had not yet had any treatment. Study participants were given a chemotherapy combination of pemetrexed and cisplatin to shrink their mesothelioma tumors. This was followed by EPP…

Lower-Cost Mesothelioma Drug May Be as Effective as Gold Standard
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Lower-Cost Mesothelioma Drug May Be as Effective as Gold Standard

A new study suggests that the lower cost chemotherapy drug Gemzar (gemcitabine) combined with a platinum based agent (cisplatin or carboplatin) may be just as effective at treating advanced pleural mesothelioma as the gold standard mesothelioma drug Alimta (pemetrexed) . Doctors in Turkey, a country with one of the world’s highest rates of mesothelioma, tracked 116 mesothelioma patients who were treated with a combination of Alimta and a platinum drug between 1999 and 2012. During the same period, 30 mesothelioma patients received the alternative combination of Gemzar and a platinum drug. There were no differences between the two groups in terms of age, gender, asbestos exposure, histological subtype, cancer stage or other characteristics.  The mean age of the patients was…

Nuclear Workers Face Higher Mesothelioma Risk
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Nuclear Workers Face Higher Mesothelioma Risk

Pleural mesothelioma is most often associated with asbestos exposure, but a new study suggests that nuclear workers may also be at higher risk for the cancer because of long-term, low-level radiation. A new National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) study pooled a group of 119,195 US nuclear workers. The workers were employed at one of four Department of Energy nuclear weapons facilities or at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. They were followed from the start of their radiation work, between 1944 and 1952, though 2005. Their risk of death from mesothelioma and other cancers was then compared to that of the general population. “For most outcomes, mortality was below expectation compared to the general population, but mesothelioma and pleural…

Genetic Mutation Improves Mesothelioma Survival Odds
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Genetic Mutation Improves Mesothelioma Survival Odds

Another new study has been released that supports the idea that mesothelioma patients who are missing the tumor suppressor called BAP1 are more likely to survive longer than those who have intact BAP1 genes. The BRCA-1-associated protein 1 (BAP1) gene is located on the chromosome 3p21. Because the job of BAP1 is to help suppress cancer, a mutation that causes this gene to be inactive raises the risk that a person could get mesothelioma or another cancer. BAP1 loss has also been associated with increased risk of skin cancer, renal cell cancer and some lung and breast cancers. But there appears to be an upside to BAP1 loss. Data published in the journal Pathology suggests that mesothelioma patients with BAP1…

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

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…

Experimental Drug May Offer “Brilliant Hope” for Mesothelioma Treatment
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Experimental Drug May Offer “Brilliant Hope” for Mesothelioma Treatment

HUHS1015 is a newly-synthesized analogue (chemically similar compound) of the blood pressure drug naftopidil. In the U.S., naftopidil is sold under the brand name Flivas and is also used to treat certain prostate conditions and Raynaud’s disease. In 2014, another Japanese research team published their findings on the anticancer properties of naftopidil, which appears to increase the expression of certain microRNAs associated with programmed cell death (apoptosis). In their new report on HUHS1015, scientists with the Hyogo College of Medicine and the Hyogo University of Health Sciences say the drug not only induced apoptosis in mesothelioma cells as well as naftopidil, but it also triggered necrosis, the premature death of cancer cells. According to author Tomoyuki Nishizaki and colleagues, HUHS1015…