Mesothelioma TreatmentMesothelioma Alerts
Chemotherapy Combination Promising For Mesothelioma
LONDON (Reuters Health) Aug 13 - A new chemotherapy combination has shown "remarkable" activity against mesothelioma in an early study, British researchers reported on Tuesday. Malignant pleural mesothelioma is increasing in incidence in most countries and has shown a poor response to systemic chemotherapy, the investigators write in their report, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology for August 13. Approximately 250,000 people are expected to die from the disease in Western Europe over the next 35 years, they note. But the combination of a new drug called pemetrexed, developed by Eli Lilly, with carboplatin could be an effective treatment for the hard-to-treat condition, Dr. Hilary Calvert from Newcastle General Hospital and colleagues say.
The researchers administered the two drugs to 27 patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma in a Phase I dose-escalating study.
"The drug combination showed remarkable activity in mesothelioma," Professor Calvert said in a news release. "Indeed, our study provided the first convincing demonstration that pemetrexed [and] carboplatin could be useful in the treatment of the disease." Of 25 patients who completed the study, 8 showed a partial response, while 70% of patients noticed an improvement in symptoms, often after just 2 courses of chemotherapy. The median survival time in the study was 451 days, or over 14 months. A handful of patients have survived for 3 years or more. Previously, people diagnosed with mesothelioma could expect to survive for 6 to 8 months, the University of Newcastle said. The chemotherapy triggered neutropenia, leukopenia and thrombocytopenia, but these toxicities were usually short-lived and "caused few clinical problems," the researchers write.
A multinational, randomized trial has since shown an improvement of survival and symptoms, according to the news release.
"Mesothelioma is a serious condition that is difficult to treat, so this is an important development," Dr. Lesley Walker, director of cancer information at Cancer Research UK said in the news release. "We now need to look closely at the drug's performance in the next stages of clinical trials to see how it compares to other anti-cancer drugs."
