MESOTHELIOMA LUNG CANCER

Researchers with the largest mesothelioma lung cancer trial, an aggressive cancer affecting the lining of the lung, reported results showing that patients on a new chemotherapy drug live longer and have less pain than those on an older drug which is a good thing. The findings were announced at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Orlando, Fla., on May 20, 2002.

If you have been exposed to asbestos or been diagnosed with mesothelioma lung cancer you will want to stay abreast of new treatment options you’re your physician. It could save your life or at least prolong it. Pemetrexed is a class of drugs that targets the folic acid metabolic pathway, which effects availability of certain B complex vitamins. The results of the trial show that tumors shrank in 41 percent of patients on pemetrexed in combination with a more commonly used chemotherapy agent called cisplatin. Only 17 percent of patients receiving cisplatin alone experienced tumor shrinkage. Additionally, those on the pemetrexed combination lived nearly three months longer than those on cisplatin alone. That could seem like a life time to some. That could give you more time with loved ones and to make sure legal action is taken so that your family is taken care of when you are gone. This is the largest clinical trial ever conducted in this disease and the 25 to 30 percent improvement in survival for patients on the combination therapy is the first time anyone has documented a significant improvement in patients treated for mesothelioma ever. That was a huge breakthrough and there are more to come.

The beauty of modern medicine is that there is never a stopping point. Those beautiful people will never stop until a cure is found! Malignant pleural mesothelioma is associated with asbestos exposure in about 70 to 80 percent of all cases and there is no approved or effective chemotherapy for the disease. Most physicians will choose to keep their patients comfortable and pain free versus heavy bouts of chemotherapy that may not help. Researchers hypothesized that pemetrexed might prove effective in treating this disease because it targets key enzymes thought to play a role in allowing the rapid growth of this tumor. Early detection patient trial results in 11 patients tested with pemetrexed and cisplatin were promising and a definitive phase III trial was developed. Since there are no established therapies for this condition, a standard chemotherapy agent called cisplatin that has shown efficacy in treating other diseases, was used. Using a strategy to reduce drug side effects that has been successful in the past with many cancer trials, this new protocol added folic acid to the regimen because pemetrexed as an antifolate agent reduces levels of this important vitamin. Folic acid was given prior to and during the trial, and vitamin B12 was given only during the trial. Because of the presumed importance of the vitamins to the research study, the researchers examined not only the combination therapy versus the single drug therapy, but also looked at the results of patients on the vitamin supplements versus those early enrollees who had not initially received vitamins.

Standard treatment for malignant mesothelioma lung cancer has always been surgery first. Surgical treatment rarely results in cure and long-term survival is unusual. Use of chemotherapy and or radiation following surgery has not improved survival for patients but radiation treatments may alleviate some pain associated with the disease. If you are living with mesothelioma lung cancer there are important steps you must take and time is of the essence.

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