I read two articles that I wanted to share about mesothelioma. Malignant pleural mesothelioma is a rare cancer that develops in the tissue that covers the lungs and lines the interior of the chest. It is often caused by chronic exposure to asbestos.

Patients with this disease have a decreased quality of life due to symptoms such as shortness of breath, cough, pain, fatigue, and the inability to eat. One of the scariest parts about this disease is that it can be resistant to most therapies, including surgery, chemotherapy and radiation.

A press release from Alfacell Corporation says that the addition of a drug called Onconase (ranpirnase) to Adriamycin improves survival over Adriamycin alone in patients that have operable mesothelioma. Onconase targets cancer cells while sparing healthy cells. It is taken into the cancerous cell where it kills the cell through various processes. Onconase is not yet proved by the FDA in the United States.

A clinical trial was conducted to evaluate the addition of Onconase to Adriamycin compared to Adriamycin alone. The trial included a total of 143 patients. At one year 47 percent of patients treated with Onconase/Adriamycin were alive compared to 36 percent of patients treated with Adriamycin alone.

The researchers feel that the drug improves outcomes when given with Adriamycin. This trial was a Phase IIIb trial which means it could be up for FDA approval in the near future.

The second article that I read was recently published in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology. According to the article treatment with Alimta (pemetrixed) with or without Platinol (cisplatin) provides benefit with malignant mesothelioma who have received prior treatment therapies.

This research was focused on recurrent mesothelioma. Optimal treatment strategies that will improve long-term outcomes for patients with recurrent mesothelioma continue to be evaluated. A Phase III trial was conducted to evaluate treatment including Alimta or Alimta/cisplatin. The trial included 187 patients.

Anticancer responses were achieved in 32.5 percent of patients treated with Alimta/cisplatin compared with 5.5 percent for patients treated with Alimta alone.

The researchers conclude that this is a challenging disease. I bring this information in hopes that anyone diagnosed with is disease can have some information to bring to their physicians to discuss further.

Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) comprises the majority of lung cancers.

According to the results presented at the 2006 annual meeting of the European Society for Medical Oncology, the combination consisting of Platinol (cisplatin) plus Navelbine (vinorelbine) improves survival among non-small cell lung cancer patients whose cancer has been surgically removed.

Early stage lung cancer is usually treated with surgery, chemotherapy or radiation therapy. The use of adjuvant chemotherapy has not shown in the past to have improved survival.

This study included data from almost two thousand patients with early stage lung cancer. Patients were treated with either adjuvant Platinol/Navelbine or no chemotherapy at all. The study showed that at five years 55 percent of patients who were treated with the chemotherapy combination were alive compared to only 46 percent who received no further treatment after surgery.

The researchers concluded that adjuvant chemotherapy consisting of Platinol/Navelbine improves survival at five years among patients with NSCLC who were able to have their cancer completely removed by surgery.

One of the most difficult things about receiving the gold standard of chemotherapy for your specific cancer is the fact that the cancer cells are not being tested to actually see if that chemotherapy will work for you. In 2001 when I was diagnosed with breast cancer they didn't test my cancer cells to see if the chemotherapy regimen would be effective. It is known which chemotherapy drugs work for breast cancer but breast cancer is a very heterogeneous disease.

An article published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology says that with head and neck cancers they can now know which patients will benefit from the chemotherapy drug Platinol (cisplatin).

Platinol is a commonly given to head and neck cancer patients but it doesn't always work for everyone. The researchers found out that SNP's (single nucleotide polymorphisms) can help determine a head and neck patient's response to the drug.

SNP's are genetic variations within genes that repair DNA among patients with advanced head and neck cancer. The study included 103 patients that were treated with Platinol. Anticancer responses were increased by nearly three-fold among patients with these genetic variants compared to those without.

I like reading about chemotherapy being more tailored to the individual instead of just the type of cancer.