Pemetrexed (Alimta)
A new first line treatment was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of pleural mesothelioma that cannot be removed by surgery. The approval is specifically for Keytruda alongside pemetrexed and platinum chemotherapy. The approval follows the promising results in phases 2 and 3 of the Keynote-483 trial. The trial consisted…
The mix of chemotherapy and pembrolizumab extended survival in patients with pleural mesothelioma. It was given as a first line treatment to adults with the cancer. Data shows that pembrolizumab and chemotherapy reduced death by 21 percent compared to chemotherapy alone. Doctors like the combination of pembrolizumab and chemotherapy because it is already used effectively…
A clinical trial called Checkmate 743, which looks at the immunotherapy drugs nivolumab (Opdivo) and ipilimumab (Yervoy), shows that the combination can create a better quality of life when compared with the chemotherapy drugs pemetrexed, cisplatin, and carboplatin. Patient reported outcomes were recently reported. People who took Opdivo and Yervoy had a better survival rate…
A very aggressive mesothelioma treatment is proving to be more beneficial compared to just chemotherapy and surgery alone. The more aggressive therapy utilizes multiple techniques creating a more successful treatment in certain patients. Mesothelioma treatment needs to be aggressive because it is a tough to treat and aggressive cancer. People diagnosed typically only live a…
Oncologists in Japan have found a way to determine which patients would best benefit from second-line chemotherapy. Second-line treatment is a second treatment that doctors perform after trying another treatment first. When the first treatment doesn’t work or stops working, a second-line treatment is tried to see if it will benefit patients. Patients between the…
Neoadjuvant chemotherapy is typically used to shrink tumors before surgery to make it easier to remove them. It has been thought that the combination of drugs and surgery can help patients survive longer, but a study at Duke has found that it does not increase survival in pleural mesothelioma patients. The study is showing that…
A new study found that the PD-L1 inhibitor nivolumab is effective in mesothelioma. It was tested on patients and showed that it could be a safe and effective treatment for those whose first line treatments have failed. Nivolumab is an immunotherapy drug that helps the immune system fight cancer cells. This specific drug, which is…
The immune system is the body’s first line of defense when fighting off any illness, attacking foreign organisms or other substances that may harm or threaten the over health of the body. When the immune system is compromised, the body is unable to fight infections and becomes weak as the illness takes over. For those…
Avastin (bevacizumab) is a type of chemotherapy treatment that slows tumor growth by blocking the protein that is responsible for forming new blood vessels, which is what tumors need to thrive. By blocking these blood vessels, tumor growth is slowed. For those suffering from mesothelioma, hindering tumor growth can greatly improve the quality of life…
In late 2017, the FDA approved Keytruda (pembrolizumab) as an immunotherapy treatment for cancer. It’s typically used to treat inoperable metastatic non-small cell lung cancer and melanoma but it has also been approved by the FDA to treat any unresectable or metastatic solid tumor, such as those found in mesothelioma. Immunotherapy is a type of…
