Clapper, Patti, Schweizer and Mason

For decades doctors and scientists around the world have been looking for safer ways to combat and kill mesothelioma tumor cells. These cells form deadly tumors in the soft tissues which line the body cavity and surround vital organs like the lungs. These tumors, caused by inhalation or ingestion of asbestos fibers, are extremely aggressive, almost impossible to remove, and until now how been nearly unstoppable.

Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is the most aggressive form of this preventable asbestos cancer and is the most difficult to treat. The most common treatment for mesothelioma is a trimodal approach: surgery to remove the bulk of the tumor followed by chemotherapy and radiation therapy.  However, a new line of research has just opened up.

Following in the path of scientists who have attempted to create or utilize novel therapeutic agents to treat MPM, five Japanese researchers have discovered that a novel compound called JBIR-23 has been found to induce apoptosis. Apoptosis is the process of programmed cell death – PCD – in mesothelioma cells, thereby killing of cancer cells and slowing progression of the disease.

The cytotoxic effect was caused by the induction of a process called tubulin polymerization. The effect was noted when researchers Ji-Hwan Hwang, Motoki Takagi, Hideki Murakami, and Yoshitaka Sekido used tumor-bearing nude mice to test the effects of JBIR-23.

Not only is the result itself good news but, at least in the mice, there were no adverse side effects of this treatment recorded.

Mesothelioma has a frustratingly long latency period from asbestos exposure to the noticeable onset of symptoms, anywhere between 10–50 years. Therefore, by the time most patients know they have the disease, there is very little doctors can do but help with pain management.  MPM has a demonstrated resistance to all conventional and traditional cancer therapies (chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgery) and patients diagnosed with this form of mesothelioma have very poor prognoses – often only a few months to live.

If this type of treatment were to develop into the experimental phase, it may prove more beneficial to mesothelioma patients than traditional therapies which destroy healthy cells in addition to attacking cancerous cells. This causes extreme damage to the body in general and dramatically increases a mesothelioma patient’s suffering. However, if an effective mesothelioma treatment with no, or few, ill side effects could be developed, it would save patients tremendous amounts of pain, effort, and lower the risk of death due to treating these secondary side effects.

This study was devised when the scientists in charge took a look at available treatments for mesothelioma and found them to be outdated and not effective at all. They were also frustrated by the mediocre results from studies designed to examine the use of molecule-targeting agents as therapeutic options for mesothelioma.

While there has been some success in this realm, most of the treatment options are decades from being developed into a form usable at any global scale and many are only slightly more effective than the outdated treatments they’re seeking to replace. This Japanese team thought outside the box and developed a different treatment altogether, one that directly interferes with the “normal” functioning of a diseased mesothelioma cell.

Researchers were optimistic that JBIR-23 will be important for the development of future anti-MPM drugs. Unfortunately, not much is known about the underlying mechanisms behind the cytotoxic effects of this compound. Therefore, the researchers warn, much more study is called for before experimentation proceeds to the clinical trial stage.