mesothelioma blog

From the National Cancer Institute, I see there is a new clinical trial starting for mesothelioma treatment.  This one uses three of the big chemotherapy drugs in this field: the old standby cisplatin (one of the workhorses of chemotherapy over the past 30 years), pemetrexed (the new and promising mesothelioma drug) and bevacizumab (the first FDA approved anti-angiogenesis agent and an exciting drug in many areas of oncology.)  The researchers are looking to test this cocktail of agents on mesothelioma patients who have never had any treatment for their cancer - who are chemically “naive” as they say.  It should be interesting to see what results from this triple-threat to mesothelioma tumors.

Ranpirnase (marketed as Onconase) is a drug with potential for mesothelioma treatment (studies are ongoing), but this is new:  a trial for ranpirnase to see if it can prevent mesothelioma.

The Nevsehir region of
Turkey has a high incidence of mesothelioma, due to natural asbestos deposits.  The drug company Alfacell in conjunction with the Turkish Ministry of Health is doing this program to see if giving healthy people ranpirnase will reduce the rate of mesothelioma.  Press release from Alfacell.

Just a slight blurb out of Italy about a phase III study on raltitrexed being used in conjuntion with cisplatin for mesothelioma treatment.  Raltitrexed is a quinazoline folate analogue, an “antimetabolite”.  Antimetabolites are similar to normal body molecules, but they are slightly different in structure.  These differences mean that antimetabolites stop cells working properly instead of helping them.  Alimta (pemetrexed) is also an antimetabolite. 

Like other cancers, mesothelioma is treated with chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery.  These are the three traditional “modalitiesâ€? of cancer treatment.  There’s a lot of interest in adding immuotherapy to that list, of using it regularly in treatment.  This recent study looked at the viability of creating a vaccination against mesothelioma.  They had 22 test subjects and found that “induced tumor specific immunity in 32% of patients, was safe and was
associated with stable disease but no major tumour regressions.”

There’s a phase III clinical trial coming up that tests a combination of the old chemotherapy drug doxorubicin with the new agent ranpirnase on mesothelioma.  Combination therapy - using more than one chemotherapy drug at a time - is the new thinking in the fight against difficult-to-treat cancers.

There’s a phase III clinical trial coming up that tests a combination of the old chemotherapy drug doxorubicin with the new agent ranpirnase on mesothelioma.  Combination therapy - using more than one chemotherapy drug at a time - is the new thinking in the fight against difficult-to-treat cancers.

This article was from a year and a half ago, but it’s still worth mentioning.  The asbestos health crisis is the legacy of decades of asbestos use.  Asbestos use is down substantially (although not eliminated) in recent years, but mesothelioma cases are up.  Now a new industry is potentially coming up: carbon nanotubes.  These nanotubes are about the same size and shape as asbestos fibers, and there are concerns that they could cause similar long-term health problems.  Early tests in animals have proved distressing.

From the nanopublic blog, I see the Rand Corporation sponsored a conference where the participants called for regulation of the nano workplace.

There are three forms of mesothelioma and the doctor must take care to identify which type the patient has: 1) pleural
mesothelioma affects the
lining of the lung; 2) peritoneal mesothelioma affects the lining of
the abdominal cavity; 3) pericardial mesothelioma affects the lining
around the heart.

Senator Patty Murray has a couple PDFs on her website.  One is a Top 10 Reasons to Ban Asbestos.  And they are convincing reasons, indeed.  Another is a list of countries that have already banned asbestos.  Unfortunately neither Canada nor the United States is on the list.