Category: Featured News
Focus on Mesothelioma Education During Lung Cancer Awareness Month
For many people, November means apple cider, pumpkin pie, and Thanksgiving. In the health and medical fields, November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month, which emphasizes education and awareness of all things about lung cancer and other cancers affecting the respiratory system – such as mesothelioma.
This year, help out by making November a month to educate others about mesothelioma and lung cancer by taking part in Lung Cancer Awareness Month. Teaching the facts about mesothelioma, its symptoms, and its causes can help patients, family members, and friends better understand the disease and help advocate for the community.
Pleural mesothelioma is caused by inhalation or ingestion of airborne asbestos fibers. The fibers then become lodged in the lining of the chest, where, over the years, they begin to irritate the tissue leading to cancer. Not everyone exposed to asbestos will develop mesothelioma, but those who do often are not diagnosed until decades after exposure. The treatment protocol for pleural mesothelioma is similar to that of lung cancer.
People who live with pleural mesothelioma, or who care for someone with the cancer, know that educating the public about the struggles facing rare disease sufferers often takes a focused effort from organizations, the government, the medical community and many volunteers.
Early Detection of Mesothelioma is Important
With a vision of “a world where no one dies of lung cancer,” LUNGevity is 100% focused on increasing and improving lung cancer survivorship. In addition, the 501(c)(3) charity focuses on building and sustaining a community for all those affected by lung cancer and through “accelerating research into early detection and more effective treatments” the organization aims to make an immediate impact on quality of life and survivorship in lung cancer patients.
The key to increased life expectancy when battling mesothelioma is early detection. When treating mesothelioma patients, the best outcome is achieved with early detection of the disease by increasing treatment options and improving the patients‘ quality of life while battling the cancer.
“LUNGevity believes strongly that everyone can drive progress and change for people affected by the disease, whether through research funding, mentoring a fellow lung cancer patient, or organizing and participating in events and activities to raise funds and awareness,” as stated in the 2016 press release kicking off the awareness month.
Know What Questions to Ask Your Mesothelioma Doctor
According to the American Lung Association, “The diagnosis of mesothelioma is very serious and may be overwhelming and affects all aspects of life in a profound way.” The ALA recommends being actively prepared for each healthcare visit by writing down questions to ensure you get everything you need in the short visit, and that your family and caregivers are thoroughly informed about your wants and needs.
- What is the goal of the treatment you are proposing? Is the intent to cure me from the disease or manage its symptoms?
- What are the side effects of the proposed treatment and how will they affect my quality of life?
- Am I a candidate for any clinical trial?
- What are my options for palliative care to address management of my shortness of breath and pain?
- Can you help me and my family make decisions about how I will be treated at the end of my life?
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in men and women with an estimated 222,500 new diagnoses and 155,870 deaths in 2017, according to the National Cancer Institute. Nearly 3,000 Americans are diagnosed with mesothelioma each year.
DOD Continues to Allocate Millions to Mesothelioma Research
The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed the fiscal year 2017 Defense Appropriations bill and kept mesothelioma-eligible funding for 2017. Mesothelioma was first funded through the bill in 2011 and has been on the list every year since then.
The funding is available as part of the DOD’s Peer Reviewed Cancer Research Program (PRCRP). The DOD Appropriations Bill, 2017, which was submitted on May 19, allocates $30 million for distribution among eligible cancers through the PRCRP. In addition to mesothelioma, other cancers sharing in these research funds include: bladder cancer, brain cancer, colorectal cancer, listeria vaccine for cancer, liver cancer, lymphoma, melanoma and other skin cancers, pancreatic cancer, stomach cancer, and cancer in children, adolescents, and young adults.
An additional $12 million is set aside specifically for the lung cancer research program. The bill provides a total of $282 million for cancer research.
The Defense Appropriations bill funds critical national security needs, including military operations and readiness programs, as well as health and quality-of-life programs for U.S. troops and their military families. The PRCRP grants are offered with a goal to improve quality of life by decreasing the impact of mesothelioma cancer on service members, their families, and the American public. The entire bill provides $517.1 billion in funding.
“This bill fulfills the Congress’s most important responsibility – providing for the common defense. And it does so responsibly – funding those military needs that must be addressed now, planning and preparing for the future, and respecting the taxpayer by making commonsense budgeting decisions,” Chairman Hal Rogers said in the June 16th press release announcing the House’s passage of the bill.
http://appropriations.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=394614
The DOD is responsible for funding and promoting research on diseases related to military service. Veterans account for nearly 30 percent of all cases of mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lung or abdomen, caused by exposure to asbestos. Former military troops have a higher risk of contracting asbestos-related diseases because of the wide use of asbestos in thousands of buildings and Navy ships from World War II until the 1970s.
“The Committee commends the Department of Defense for ensuring that projects funded through the various peer-reviewed cancer research programs maintain a focus on issues of significance to military populations and the warfighter,” noted the Committee members in the bill report. “This includes promoting collaborative research proposals between Department of Defense researchers and non-military research institutions. These collaborations leverage the knowledge, infrastructure, and access to clinical populations that the partners bring to the research effort.”
Close to 3,000 Americans are diagnosed with mesothelioma each year. There is no cure for the cancer.
Sources:
- Peer Reviewed Cancer Research Program
http://cdmrp.army.mil/prcrp - Committee members in the bill report
https://www.congress.gov/114/crpt/hrpt577/CRPT-114hrpt577.pdf
Simple Blood Pressure Drug to Increase Effectiveness of Therapy
In February, MesotheliomaHelp reported that patients who drink cola could increase the effectiveness of the anti-cancer treatment erlotinib, a drug used to treat lung cancer and mesothelioma. Now, researchers report that patients may also increase the effectiveness of the drug by taking a diuretic along with the therapy.
Researchers from Imperial College London and Fudan University in China collaborated in an effort to find a way to increase the effectiveness of treatment by erlotinib, a kinase inhibitor, by tackling the drug resistance lung cancer cells inevitably develop. In an in-lab study on mouse models with human cancer cells harboring the EGFR lung cancer mutation, the team found that by adding a simple diuretic found in blood pressure medicine to erlotinib they “reversed resistance to the drug, and enabled it to kill lung cancer cells.”
“Although these are very early-stage results, and are yet to be applied to patients in trials, they suggest the addition of a very cheap diuretic may extend the amount of time we can use the cancer drug erlotinib,” said Professor Michael Seckl, lead author from the Department of Surgery and Cancer at Imperial, in a Sept. 27 press release from Imperial College London. “This could potentially provide patients with more treatment options and save money in financially challenged health services.”
Malignant pleural mesothelioma is a cancer found in the outer lining of the lungs caused by inhaling asbestos fibers. Pleural mesothelioma is highly aggressive and does not always respond to cancer treatments. Both lung cancer and mesothelioma have proven to develop a resistance over time to the very drugs designed to kill the cancer cells. Finding a way to prevent this resistance can increase survival and improve the patients’ quality of life.
The researchers found that by raising glutahione levels, a natural antioxidant, the resistance to erlotinib was reversed. They then found that the “simple and cheap diuretic” ethacrynic acid, used to treat swelling caused by high blood pressure, raised gluhatione levels leading to increased sensitivity to erlotinib.
Erlotinib, or Tarceva® from Genentech Inc., is prescribed for some mesothelioma patients and in nearly 30 percent of non-small cell lung cancer patients, or 85 percent of all lung cancer cases, according to the researchers.
Various studies on mesothelioma have confirmed that developing an effective kinase inhibitor may be the key to developing drugs that kill mesothelioma cancer cells. Other kinase inhibitors used to treat mesothelioma include gefitinib and dasatinib.
“We urgently need new treatments for lung cancer patients, and this research suggests we can boost the effectiveness of an existing drug, rather than switch to another new expensive treatment,” said Seckl. “We are now seeking funding to enable patient trials within the next three years.”
Read the full report in the Sept. 27 issue of Cell Discovery.
Blood Samples May be Reliable Monitoring Tool for Patients
In January, Mesothelioma Help reported about a business venture by a San Diego-based company focused on developing a blood test to detect cancers that can be conducted in doctors’ offices. Now, another company reports that liquid biopsies, another term for the blood tests, can be used to monitor lung cancer patients’ response to treatment in real-time.
Researchers from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), report that oncologists have come to rely on tissue biopsies as a way to manage a lung cancer patient’s treatment and to assess their progress. However, “tissue biopsy is much more invasive, and in some cases a risky procedure,” they report.
So the researchers delved deeper into the pros of liquid biopsies to help ease pain for patients and to improve the success rates of treatments for oncologists. What they found is that blood tests can be “a promising tool to monitor lung cancer patient tumors early.”
They reviewed the blood samples of 16 EGFR-positive lung cancer patients undergoing tyrosine kinase inhibitor treatment (erlotinib, gefitinib, or afatinib). Over the course of the two-year study the researchers were able to attribute three major categories of treatment to the changes in the circulating tumor cells: evidence for therapy response, periods of stable disease, and impending tumor progression.
“These findings highlight liquid biopsy’s sensitivity in detecting and reflecting tumor changes in real time, while providing the advantages of being less invasive,” said the authors.
The use of biopsy when determining the efficacy of a treatment was previously discussed by a panel of oncologists on OncLive’s Peer Exchange Series. The oncologists agreed that biopsy results can be used to not only diagnose cancer but to drive a cancer patient’s treatment plan. Anne S. Tsao, MD, Director, Mesothelioma Program, The University of Texas MD Anderson Comprehensive Cancer Center, said oncologists should use biopsies to “shoot for genetic testing and personalized medicine for treatment decisions.”
The DKFZ researchers explained that when tumor cells die after treatment they release their DNA (or cell free DNA, cfDNA), with all its mutations still intact, into the bloodstream. The team found that blood samples, or cfDNA, are as effective as tissue biopsies when assessing prognosis in EGFR-positive lung cancer patients.
Professor Holger Sültmann, one of the lead authors, cautions that more work remains to be done, saying, ‘’This is a ‘proof of concept’, we should really collect and measure cfDNA more systematically in order to learn what the liquid biopsy can do under these circumstances, and to fully comprehend the principles of lung cancer progression.’’
EGFR is a protein found on the surface of some cells to which epidermal growth factor binds, which causes the cells to divide and spread. It is found at abnormally high levels on the surface of many types of cancer cells, including more than 50% of pleural mesothelioma patients. Tyrosine kinase inhibitors work by blocking the activity of the EGFR tyrosine kinase enzyme, preventing the growth of new blood vessels that tumors need to grow, and, potentially, killing cancer cells.
Pleural mesothelioma is a cancer of the lining of the lungs caused by past asbestos exposure. The cancer is diagnosed in close to 3,000 Americans each year.
See the Sept. 19 issue of Scientific Reports for the study.
Sources
- Scientific Reports
http://www.nature.com/articles/srep23489 - German Cancer Research Center
https://www.dkfz.de/en/presse/pressemitteilungen/2016/dkfz-pm-16-39-Liquid-Biopsy-Level-of-mutated-DNA-in-the-blood-corresponds-to-patient-outcome.php
WT-1 Vaccine Granted Fast Track Designation for Pleural Mesothelioma
Mesothelioma Help has reported several times on the positive results realized in pleural mesothelioma clinical trials with the WT-1 vaccine. In June, we reported on the “exciting results” from two separate phase II clinical trials for the drug for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia and malignant pleural mesothelioma. Now, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted fast-track designation to the drug for pleural mesothelioma.
According to a Sept. 19 press release from Sellas Life Sciences Group, the maker of the drug, the FDA granted the status to galinpepimut-S following results of the phase II trial that showed median overall survival was 24.8 months in patients treated with the WT-1 vaccine compared with just 16.6 months in mesothelioma patients who did not receive the treatment. The company reports “survival benefit was even greater” in surgical mesothelioma patients who had the tumors removed and were then treated with galinpepimut-S.
“This fast track designation underscores the importance of galinpepimut-S as a potential treatment option in mesothelioma,” said Angelos M. Stergiou, MD, vice chairman and CEO of SELLAS Life Sciences Group. “We are excited to begin the pivotal Phase 3 trial in patients with MPM [malignant pleural mesothelioma] in the second half of 2017 and expect the Fast Track designation to expedite the time to market, thereby enhancing the value proposition of galinpepimut-S in this indication.”
The fast track designation from the FDA is a process designed to facilitate the development, and expedite the review of drugs to treat serious conditions and fill an unmet medical need. The purpose is to get important new drugs to the patient earlier, according to the FDA. The agency looks at whether the proposed drug will have an impact on such factors as survival, day-to-day functioning, or the likelihood that the condition, if left untreated, will progress from a less severe condition to a more serious one.
Anne Tsao, M.D., Director of the Mesothelioma Program and the Thoracic Chemo-Radiation Program at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, reports through Clinical Care Options online curriculum, that the WT-1 vaccine is one of the up and coming treatments for mesothelioma to keep an eye on. She explains that WT-1, the Wilms tumor protein, is found on mesothelioma cell surfaces making it “an excellent target for immunotherapy.” Galinpepimut-S is a late clinical-stage immunotherapy.
Don Smitley, whose battle with mesothelioma has been chronicled by his daughter Jennifer Gelsick in “Faces of Mesothelioma,” was a participant in the WT-1 clinical trial at Memorial Sloan Kettering. Smitley and his family remained positive throughout the trial and the family continues to Encourage Mesothelioma Patients to participate in mesothelioma trials.
“I believe that we are so close to finding a cure, and the doctors and other researchers we have been so fortunate to work with are among those vitally instrumental in this crusade,” says Jennifer. “Don’t be afraid to step outside of your comfort zone of home and travel for these amazing treatments.”
“Galinpepimut-S is demonstrating its potential as an anti-cancer agent, with outstanding results regarding survival, immunological responses, and safety in AML and MPM patients,” said Dr. Stergiou.
Read about the WT-1 trial results.
Sources :
- Sellas Life Sciences Group
http://sellaslifesciences.com/2016/06/sellas-life-sciences-announces-exciting-results-for-galinpepimut-s-the-companys-wt1-vaccine-in-patients-with-acute-myeloid-leukemia-aml-and-malignant-pleural-mesothelioma-mpm-as-prese/ - fast track designation from the FDA
http://www.fda.gov/ForPatients/Approvals/Fast/ucm405399.htm
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