Mesothelioma is a fatal form of cancer that affects the lining of the lungs (malignant pleural mesothelioma), the heart (pericardial mesothelioma) or the abdomen (peritoneal mesothelioma). The primary cause of mesothelioma is exposure to asbestos.
Symptoms of mesothelioma (or asbestosis, a scarring of the lungs) do not appear until decades after initial exposure, sometimes up to fifty years later. Because of the long latency period and non-specific symptoms, mesothelioma diagnosis are often not made until the cancer has reached advanced stages. Median overall prognosis is only a year, even with combination treatment.
Efforts to discover more effective therapies to add to the standard treatment for mesothelioma (chemotherapy using a combination of pemetrexed and cisplatin) are ongoing and some appear promising. Clinical trials investigating gene therapy and immunotherapy combined with traditional chemotherapy has shown some success in improving the prognosis of mesothelioma patients.
Other clinical trials are researching second line therapies, especially for patients who do not respond to typical front line pemetrexed based treatments. Gemcitabine combined with a single agent vinorelbine or platinum compound as well as adding bevacizumab to pemetrexed has been proven to be effective in some cases.
Vironostat, a histone deacetylase inhibitor, has also shown promising results, and warrants further study. Vironostat (suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid) is a compound that can slow down growth and suppress cellular DNA repair capacity of tumor cells, enhance cellular radioresponsiveness, and restore radiation-induced apoptosis (cell death).
For more information about current clinical trials for mesothelioma, please visit the National Cancer Institute website: http://www.cancer.gov/clinicaltrials. If you have been diagnosed with an asbestos related illness, contact us today to talk with an attorney who specializes in mesothelioma lawsuits. We also have a comprehensive brochure and booklet that contains the most essential medical and legal information for anyone recently diagnosed.