Kidney Cancer Drug Slows Mesothelioma Growth in Mice
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Kidney Cancer Drug Slows Mesothelioma Growth in Mice

ByAlex Strauss

A drug that has been shown to slow the growth of renal cell carcinoma may have moved a step closer to becoming a viable addition to the arsenal of patients fighting malignant mesothelioma. Temsirolimus is a kinase inhibitor that appears to work against mesothelioma, in part, by blocking the action of a protein that tells cancer cells to replicate. In laboratory tests on isolated tumor cells, temsirolimus effectively blocked the gene pathway known as mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) that is responsible for signaling the growth and division of all types of mesothelioma. Now, a new study conducted by scientists in Greece and the UK suggests that the compound may do the same thing in living patients. The doctors induced…

Drug May Improve Chemotherapy for Mesothelioma
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Drug May Improve Chemotherapy for Mesothelioma

ByAlex Strauss

A medication used to slow the growth of kidney cancer may help improve the effectiveness of chemotherapy for mesothelioma. Temsirolimus is a kinase inhibitor, which works by blocking the action of the abnormal protein that signals replication in cancer cells. It is often used to treat advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC), a cancer that begins in the kidney. But a team of researchers in Vienna has found that the drug also appears to inhibit the growth of malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) cells, both in cell cultures and in animal models. The researchers used temsirolimus to ‘turn off’ the gene pathway known as mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) in mesothelioma cells. The mTOR pathway is responsible for signaling the growth and…