Cisplatin (Platinol ®)
Banning asbestos could soon be a reality after a study linked asbestos, a toxic naturally occurring mineral, to mesothelioma, lung cancer, and other cancers. The report linked asbestos with different asbestos related diseases in 70 countries. The report was published in May by Environmental Health Perspectives, which is supported by the National Institute of Environmental…
High doses of hyperthermic intrathoracic chemotherapy (HITHOC) help pleural mesothelioma patients. A recent study found that when HITHOC is administered at a high dose, survival rates improve and periods of being disease free increase. HITHOC is the use of chemotherapy during surgery and is an experimental treatment for different types of cancer including mesothelioma. It…
If peritoneal mesothelioma patients undergo a second surgery after recurrence, they can improve their survival. Data from a retrospective review from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center shows that cytoreductive surgery and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) can be incredibly helpful for peritoneal disease sufferers. For some people, a second surgery has the ability to improve and…
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…
Mesothelioma, a cancer of the membrane that surrounds the lungs, abdomen, heart, and testicles is a very aggressive cancer. It spreads very quickly and when the tumors grow big enough, they crowd out organs and make it hard for people to breath. Mesothelioma sufferers can experience coughing, chest pain, and shortness of breath among other…
Studies are showing that the immunotherapy drug durvalumab can make chemotherapy more effective for treating mesothelioma. Durvalumab is an immunotherapy drug called an immune checkpoint inhibitor. It blocks the protein PD-1, which is used by mesothelioma cells to protect themselves. Researchers believed that if the protein was blocked, mesothelioma cells would be easier to kill…
Mesothelioma patients with a gene mutation could benefit greatly from using an anti-malaria drug called quinacrine. Quinacrine is known by the brand name Atabrine. For a long time, it was the primary anti-malaria drug, but it has been replaced by the preferred chloroquine. Researchers at Penn State found that quinacrine shows great cytotoxicity when used…
A new clinical trial involving durvalumab should be closely monitored by the Food and Drug Administration. The phase III clinical trial is being performed in Baltimore, Cleveland, and Ann Arbor as well as places in New Zealand and Australia. The randomized trial is known as DREAM3R. It wants to figure out if overall survival improves…
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…
Mesothelioma is a deadly cancer of the mesothelium, which lines the lungs, heart, abdomen, and tunica vaginalis testis after exposure to asbestos. The most common type is pleural mesothelioma, which affects the lining of the lungs. There is no cure, so the best option for people with this cancer is undergoing clinical trials that help…
