Mesothelioma TreatmentChemotherapy
Onconase
Onconase, currently in clinical trials and manufactured by the Alfacell Corporation, slows down cancer growth by decaying RNA. Without certain RNA strands, cancer cells cannot produce certain essential proteins and therefore cannot replicate. The lack of RNA slows the growth of the tumor in question.
Thus far, the trials for Onconase have showed much promise. The drug, developed from the eggs of the leopard frog, is designed to enhance the anti-cancer effects of traditional chemotherapy drugs, allowing the use of lower doses and therefore producing fewer serious side effects. The drug works more slowly than others but, because of that, patients may not suffer from things like anemia, nausea, or hair loss.
Phase III trials are currently underway, pairing Onconase with the chemo drug doxorubicin to determine its efficacy in treating patients with malignant mesothelioma. Phase II trials were considered a success and figures released in 2002 show that the tumors either shrank or stopped growing in 41 or the 81 patients that were assessable for tumor response. The researchers reported that the median survival time for the patients who entered the trial without symptoms from the cancer was 18.5 months.
Onconase is also one of the first embryonic stem cell products to reach the final stages of testing. Doctors hope to soon be using Onconase in place of doxorubicin, which causes severe side effects that greatly impact on a meso patients quality of life.
