Those fighting malignant pleural mesothelioma have had a new drug at their disposal since it was approved by the FDA in 2004, and it has worked wonders for many – stopping the growth and spread of the cancer, in addition to extending life and relieving patient suffering.

The developer of that drug — Alimta — was honored with a doctoral degree at Princeton’s 263^rd commencement exercises earlier this month.

Prof. Edward C. Taylor has been a mainstay at Princeton since 1954, when he first joined the faculty. In 1966, he was appointed Professor of Organic Chemistry – a position he held until 1997, when he was appointed Professor of Organic Chemistry Emeritus and Senior Research Assistant.

With over 450 published scientific papers and the holder of more than 50 patents in the chemistry field, Taylor is one of Princeton’s most tenured and respected researchers.

Those working on the fight to ban asbestos and cure mesothelioma owe Taylor a debt of gratitude for the time spent and dedication he has to these causes.

Here is a link to a great interview conducted by the Princeton Alumni Weekly (PAW) with Taylor back in 2006; two years after Alimta hit the market.

From the entire staff at MesoRC, we’d like to say congratulations to Prof. Taylor.

A new study indicates promising results in therapies to combat mesothelioma and other cancers.

The results of a joint study (“Pro-tumorigenic Effects of miR-31 Loss in Mesothelioma,”) between Rosetta Genomics and NYUs Langone Medical Center shows the potential of miR-31 – a micro RNA recently discovered to be a suppressor of breast cancer metastases – to inhibit proliferation, migration, invasion and clonogenicity of mesothelioma cells.

“Over the past several years, microRNAs have been hailed as one of the most significant scientific and medical discoveries. They have been described as the body’s ‘master switches’, holding significant potential for therapeutic applications,” said Kenneth A. Berlin, President and CEO of Rosetta Genomics.

Berlin also noted how the study is yet another demonstration of microRNAs potential role in cancer therapeutics and how significant an impact a single microRNA can have on the course of a disease.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are recently discovered, small RNAs that play the “master regulator” of protein synthesis, and are highly effective biomarkers. Early data has shown that cancer cell growth may be reduced by controlling levels of specific microRNAs.

Founded in 2000, Rosetta Genomics is a company on the forefront of microRNA-based molecular diagnostics and was the winner of the Wall Street Journal’s Technology Innovation Awards in the medical/biotech category.

Dr. Robert Taub and his staff at the Mesothelioma Center of New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University Medical Center are recruiting pleural mesothelioma patients for a clinical trial of a new targeted radiation and chemotherapy treatment.  Their center will be the only one offering this experimental therapy nationwide.  Pleural mesothelioma patients typically undergo surgical and chemotherapy treatments with no significant increases in survival.  According to Dr. Taub, this study will investigate “whether a combination of chemotherapy and radiation targeted directly at the lung’s lining can improve outcomes while avoiding surgery.”

This could be good news for patients suffering from mesothelioma which is a complicated disease.  Often pleural mesothelioma is difficult to diagnose and patients don’t receive a diagnosis until they are in the later stages of disease.  Then the treatment options are limited and a patient’s prognosis is typically 6 – 18 months.  Patients, families and advocates have been calling for increased funding for research which could lead to better diagnostic tests and treatment options.  This clinical trial could be a step in the right direction.

The study is looking for patients over the age of 18, who have not recently undergone radiation therapy or chemotherapy and have not had Alimta chemotherapy in the past.  Patients can call #212-305-6837 for more information about the study.

For more details read:  Lung Cancer Trial Targets Asbestos-Related Disease

Clinical trials are an attractive alternative for many mesothelioma patients.  This is often the case for those who have been given a short prognosis, been diagnosed in the late stages of the disease or for those patients who prefer less invasive treatment options.  These clinical trials offer mesothelioma patients access to cutting edge technology/treatment and also provide hope when other treatments have been unsuccessful.  In addition, many of my clients have voiced that participating in these clinical trials allows them to help future victims of mesothelioma.

Before becoming part of a clinical trial I advise my clients to understand what a clinical trial is, the benefits, and the risks involved. Ask questions and consult your treatment provider in regard to the specific trial.  Discuss the trial and what it could mean to you with your family and close friends.

A clinical trial that has been getting attention lately is MORAb-009.  This study focuses on the use of MORAb-009 monoclonal antibody with current chemotherapy drugs pemetrexed and cisplatinum.  The goal of this trial is to determine if using MORAb-009 as a combination therapy with the current standard of care provides better results than using the standard of care by itself.  The researchers hope this trial will show slowed or stopped progression of the mesothelioma disease,  safety of the drug and anti-tumor effects of the drug.  A detailed description of the study can be found at http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/140835.php .

I encourage anyone suffering from mesothelioma or other cancers to explore all their treatment options including clinical trials.   Below are resources for more information about clinical trials and mesothelioma trials currently in progress.

National Institute of Health (NIH)

National Cancer Institute (NCI)

Center Watch (http://search.centerwatch.com/default.aspx?SearchQuery=mesothelioma)

Clinical Trials play an important role in many mesothelioma and asbestos-related lung cancer client treatments.  This is the recent update on Erlotinib (Tarceva) and improved survival rates in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer when treated with this drug after standard chemotherapy.  Read about it at http://www.curetoday.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/news.showNewsArticle/id/13/news_id/1531.

CanBas Co. Ltd. and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company have announced that they plan to advance the drug, CBP501, into phase-2 trials for the treatment of patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma.

CBP501 induces the death of cancerous cells by stripping the cell of the ability to progress through the cell life cycle. Phase-1 data suggests that when CBP501 is combined with selected chemotherapeutic drugs it enhances the established treatments’ ability to fight cancer. 

“For CanBas, which was founded based on a vision of creating superior new treatments for cancer, CBP501′s advancement to phase-2 is an outstanding milestone achieved through our collaborative work with Takeda,” said Takumi Kawabe, president and CEO of CanBas. “We now are focused on continuing the development efforts to achieve our goal of marketing authorization.” 

Takeda Pharmaceutical Company’s President, Yasuchika Hasegawa, is also encouraged by the progress being made with the drug and has said that they along with CanBas will do their diligence to move development along and provide potential benefits of the drug to the medical community.

Mesothelioma is a cancer caused by asbestos. Asbestos can also cause lung cancer.

Learn more about mesothelioma treatment.

When patients enroll in clinical asbestos trials, they do so with the knowledge that their own health might not benefit and could even be compromised. What they may not have knowledge of, however, are the actual results of the clinical trial as is the case with many clinical trials including new drugs. “There’s usually not much additional effort done to reach out to participants and inform them (of the results) in a timely manner,” says Ray Dorsey, a University of Rochester (N.Y.) Medical Center neurology instructor. More surprising, participants usually don’t even learn if they were taking an actual drug or a placebo or comparator drug, information that could impact their own care.

“Why isn’t this standard?” Dorsey says of efforts to inform participants of study results. “I suspect it’s just not a priority.”

It should be, says Conrad Fernandez, a pediatric oncologist at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, who has surveyed researchers about why they don’t inform patients of results.

“We have a moral obligation to offer research results to participants,” Fernandez says. “It needs to be done in a very carefully planned way.”

Clinical trials can serve to be extremely helpful in treating mesothelioma and lung cancer caused by asbestos. As of right now there is no known cure for mesothelioma.

Learn more about mesothelioma research.

According to “The Independent Journal of Clinical Practice,” age is not an independent factor in cancer survival rates and should not influence decisions about how to treat older patients that have been diagnosed with lung cancer.

Elderly patients who have been diagnosed with cancers have been systematically excluded from clinical trials despite the fact that 60% of cancer occurs in patients over the age of 65.  Elderly participation in clinical trials does not exceed 25%, and as a result, it is extremely difficult to predict how these older patients would have responded to the latest cancer treatments for cancers like mesotehlioma that stem from the harmful material asbestos. 

Dr. Eva Domingo and a team of researchers from the University of Barcelona conducted a study in which they looked at 224 patients that had been diagnosed with a cancerous tumor. The patients ranged from 32-92 years of age; with 75% of the participants being male and 61% of the patients being at least 65 years old. In addition, 43% of the patients had respiratory tumors, 29% had gastrointestinal tumors, and 42% had a localized tumor. Unfortunately 62% of the participants did not survive through the one year follow up period.

There were four independent factors that played a significant role in predicting survival.

·        Metastatic dissemination, a measure of how wide the cancer has spread.

·        The level of functional impairment the patient experienced.

·        The patient’s physical quality of life.

·        Serum albumin level, a major protein produced in the liver, and is essential in maintaining pressure in the vascular system. 

Domingo and her team concluded that patients have a better chance for survival if the cancer has not spread; the patient has a good physical quality of life, high serum albumin levels, and fewer problems with functional impairment. According to Domingo, “The patient’s age was not an independent factor that predicted how likely they were to survive cancer. Because of this, age, in itself, should not be used to limit diagnostic or therapeutic decisions.”

Learn more about mesothelioma research.

Numerous surveys show few patients realize there are clinical trials going on for what ails them, and even those who are aware are often leery of taking part. As a result, testing of genuinely new treatments has fallen behind, one reason that approvals of new drugs has slowed. A shortage of patients also means the quality of testing has suffered. That’s because researchers are forced to widen the criteria that must be met for patients to take part, which often means the data collected is less definitive about whether the new drug works or is superior to existing treatments.

A survey of 6,000 cancer patients done for the American Association for Cancer Research found that 85 percent were either unaware or unsure that taking part in an experimental treatment was an option for them. However, 75 percent said they would have been willing to sign up if they’d known it was possible. As a result of this shortage in patients, 80 percent of cancer clinical trials being delayed.

There are generally three phases/stages of clinical trials. First, the FDA requires that any treatment first be tested to prove that it’s safe in humans. These tests typically involve only a small number of volunteers, who may or may not be ill. Then testing moves on to demonstrate that the treatment has a positive effect on preventing or treating an illness at a certain dose, and that the effect is as good or better than the current standard treatment, or no treatment at all. Usually, researchers try to get from tens to hundreds of patients in these trials. Most study guidelines require that neither patients nor the doctor caring for them know whether they’re getting the new drug or not. The third phase of a drug or procedure trial pits the new against the best standard treatment in several thousand patients, unless the disease or condition is rare.

To learn more about clinical trials, click here.

For full article, click here.

In a continued effort to provide visitors with the most comprehensive mesothelioma and asbestos-related resources, MesoRC is pleased to announce the addition of the Mesothelioma Ongoing Clinical Trials page to our site. This page provides visitors with important information regarding more than 40 current mesothelioma clinical trials taking place throughout the U.S. and Canada. These clinical trials focus on a variety of different treatments and therapies ranging from experimental chemotherapy to innovative new drug treatments.

While the MesoRC has always had lots of general information pertaining to clinical trials, visitors had to go offsite to find information on clinical trials that were currently taking place. This is no longer an issue as we are now able to bring the clinical trial resources and information straight to you in a concise, user-friendly way.