Several options are available in mesothelioma treatment. For years doctors have used traditional treatments to slow down and cure mesothelioma but the malignity of this specific tumor has reduced these treatments with a relatively low successful rate and a very low survival rate. In fact, traditional mesothelioma treatments include Surgery, Chemotherapy and Radiotherapy. Several types of Chemotherapy are on the way right now and are already giving promising results. Other Chemotherapies have been abandoned in trial stage as results weren’t good enough or side effects were just too important to use it as a cure. Other New Mesothelioma Treatment includes Photodynamic therapy which uses the power of light to destroy cells that has absorbed a photosensitive drug. This technique which is still in development is on the way of becoming the most optimistic treatment that could be used in the industry. Immunotherapy is also creating excitement in mesothelioma researches as it will use the body’s own defense system to destroy tumor cells by making the difference with normal cells. As these immunity cells can be recreated in laboratory, scientists will be able to extend this technique to higher levels. Finally, gene therapy is on the way as scientists continue to study this domain. The concept is based at correcting a missing or mutated gene that naturally destroys tumor cells in the body.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
New Mesothelioma Treatments
Following results that haven’t convinced with traditional mesothelioma treatments, Scientist have been working hard on new treatments to help increase the survival rate that was too low with the traditional treatments.
New chemotherapy is actually used and already produces better results. From these new substances, Gemcitabine has given interesting results in two trials done in the United States and in Europe with a response rate of 7%. However, single-agent studies failed to demonstrate that Gemcitabine could produce anti-tumor effects in mesothelioma.
Pemetrexed is another technique that chemotherapy studies have created. It is considered a promising method and the trial already gives interesting results that could be accepted and used in a near future. MTA combination studies have been examined lately as promising techniques in combination with chemotherapy. Mayo Clinics are performing trials that could reach acceptable results pretty soon.
Other new treatments of mesothelioma include combination of several chemotherapy techniques like cisplatin/irinotecan and oxaliplatin/raltitrexed.
Several new treatments of mesothelioma have been developed and are actually in trial as future mesothelioma treatments. Considering the high aggressiveness characteristics of this lung cancer associated with contact to asbestos particles, new therapies are crucial in a near future knowing the peak of diagnosis of mesothelioma cancer will peak in 2020.
Photodynamic therapy is a mesothelioma treatment that is based on the power of light to destroy a specific cell. Knowing tumor cell have different characteristics then regular cells, a photosensitive drug can be introduced and exposition to a light at a specific frequency of this cell will destroy it. The drug administered has the characteristic to stay inside the tumor cells while being eliminated from the normal cells.
Immunotherapy is a therapy that uses the body’s own immune system to create a self defense against the disease. These researches are aimed on the fact that the immune system of the body can make the difference between a normal cell and a cancer cell and automatically destroy the tumor cells by itself. The concept is based on a substance called biological response modifiers (BRM) that is naturally present in the body, but can also be created in laboratories. This treatment is still in a primary phase but could be a great solution in a near future.
Using Gene Therapy to cure mesothelioma is a theory that aims on modifying an individual’s genes in the goal of correcting abnormal genes at the DNA level. In this optic, doctors could replace a mutated or missing gene which has the ability of suppressing tumor formation. The target gene in this treatment is called the gene p53.