Immunotherapy as Effective Second-Line Treatment for Mesothelioma
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Immunotherapy as Effective Second-Line Treatment for Mesothelioma

ByHolly Zink

A study from Taiwan has identified an effective second-line treatment for malignant pleural mesothelioma. When a patient is diagnosed with mesothelioma and begins treatment, the first treatment is called the “first-line treatment.” If that treatment does not work or stops working, a “second-line treatment” is given to the patient. For mesothelioma, treatment usually consists of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. The exact treatment plan will depend on many factors. Doctors will consider the type of mesothelioma, the condition of the patient, and how much the cancer has spread. A common first-line treatment for mesothelioma patients is chemotherapy with drugs called pemetrexed and cisplatin. When this treatment works properly, it stops cancer cells from growing and multiplying. It is for patients whose…

Defactinib Fails Again as a Maintenance Therapy for Mesothelioma
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Defactinib Fails Again as a Maintenance Therapy for Mesothelioma

ByAlex Strauss

There has been another setback for a drug that showed promise as a maintenance therapy for mesothelioma. Defactinib is a focal adhesion kinase (FAK) inhibitor. FAK is a signaling pathway that allows stem cells to give rise to new cancer cells. The developers of defactinib hoped that FAK inhibition would help keep mesothelioma tumors from growing back after chemotherapy. But a team of international researchers has once again concluded that the drug does not work as a maintenance therapy for mesothelioma. In Search of a Maintenance Therapy for Mesothelioma Malignant pleural mesothelioma is an aggressive cancer that is very hard to treat. Standard chemotherapy drugs like pemetrexed, cisplatin, gemcitabine and vinorelbine can sometimes shrink tumors, but they usually come back. Doctors…