Cancer Med May Improve Long-Term Mesothelioma Survival

The case of a German man who has lived more than 9 years with malignant mesothelioma is bringing attention to the drug that may have helped him defy the odds.

Mesothelioma is an aggressive malignancy of the pleural, peritoneal or pericardial membranes. It is most closely associated with occupational or environmental exposure to the toxic mineral asbestos and has a median survival of just 12 months after diagnosis. But the 67-year-old former German asbestos worker who is the subject of a new published report has stable mesothelioma, almost a decade after his initial examination.

Writing on the case in the medical journal Onco Targets and Therapy, doctors at the University of Essen say the patient was diagnosed with mesothelioma after a CT evaluation revealed a mass and thickening on the right side of the pleural lining around the lungs. The patient was treated with a combination of chemotherapy medications including an oral medication called etoposide and an injectable drug called paclitaxel.

Along with these drugs, the mesothelioma patient was also given pegylated liposomal doxorubicin hydrochloride by injection. Classified as an anthracycline, doxorubicin has the ability to interrupt communication within a cell’s DNA and prevent replication. According to the National Cancer Institute, liposomal delivery of doxorubicin HCL “improves drug penetration into tumors and decreases drug clearance”, which can increase the length of time that the drug will be effective in the body. A liposomal formulation of doxorubicin has also been shown to help make drug less toxic to the heart.

When the German patient had completed his chemotherapy, radiologic evaluation showed that the thickening caused by mesothelioma on his pleural lining had decreased and his symptoms had improved. While the researchers note that the patient’s follow-up is ongoing, regular CT scans indicate that his mesothelioma has not progressed in nine years.

Today, the gold standard for mesothelioma chemotherapy treatment in the U.S. is usually a combination of pemetrexed and a platinum-based drug such as cisplatin. Regardless of the chemotherapy regimen used, the new report suggests that doxorubicin HCL, particularly when delivered in a liposomal form, may have the ability to improve its effectiveness.

Sources:

Zaroqoulidis, P et al, “Pegylated liposomal doxorubicin in malignant pleural mesothelioma: a possible guardian for long-term survival”, Onco Targets and Therapy, September 27, 2012, Epub ahead of print.

Pegylated liposomal doxorubicin hydrochloride information, National Cancer Institute Drug Dictionary.

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Mesothelioma Symptoms

Mesothelioma is a cancer that occurs in the line of cells outside the lung, pleura or located within the cavity peritoenum. The disorder is usually associated with asbestos exposure on the job and
began to rise in some countries. Pleural mesotheliomas are of two types: (1) diffuse and malignant (cancer), and (2) is localized and benign.

Symptoms begin to appear 20 years after exposure. Malignant pleural mesothelioma is a rare tumor, but in epidemiology insidensnya increased sharply. Some reports indicate that mesothelioma associated with exposure to asbestos found as many as 60-80% of cases. There is little data on the disease. The risk seems related to the dose / amount of levels of asbestos in the lungs. Mesotheliomas that occur due to exposure to asbestos can lead to fatality in 2 to 4 years after diagnosis.

However, tumors are known to occur after exposure to krokidolit work for 6 weeks. Cancer spread and metastasize widely. Bloody effusion with pain in the chest wall often there due massive pleural effusion of blood mixed.  Therefore people who suffer from pleural effusion with a history of exposure to asbestos even a few years ago to think about the possibility of

mesotheliomas.  In animal experiments suggest that these fibers are very fine with a diameter of about 0.1 and a length of 8 milimikron milimikron or more responsible for the occurrence of mesotheliomas.

Mesothelioma is rarely reported as a result of exposure to pure topaz, but is accompanied by exposure to krokidolit, amosit, or mixtures containing these minerals. 

Mesotheliomas are responsible for approximately 2-16% of deaths. The risk of mesothelioma is not affected by smoking in asbestos-exposed workers.

Mesotheliomas diagnosed sometimes inadvertently, before symptoms appear. Sometimes a tumor was found on a routine chest X-ray. However, when symptoms are present, it seemed short of breath, weakness, weight loss,

loss of appetite, chest pain, sore lower backs, persistent cough, difficulty swallowing, while symptoms may appear alone or combined with others. On physical examination found pleural effusion. Fluid from the pleural effusion can generally be viewed by chest X-ray and lung auscultation on physical examination. However, a definitive diagnosis mesotheliomas can only be enforced through a biopsy, pathology examination and autopsy. This is important because there is also a pleural effusion caused by disease or other tumors that have a picture similar to mesotheliomas.