Mesothelioma Surgery With Immunotherapy Proves Effective in Study

An immunotherapy combination given before aggressive surgery has shown impressive effectiveness in extending survival for pleural mesothelioma patients in a recent phase II clinical trial at Baylor College of Medicine. The combination of immune checkpoint inhibitors durvalumab and tremelimumab showed an ability to effectively alter the intratumoral immune system and make surgery more effective. This randomized clinical trial compared the use of durvalumab alone – already shown to be effective in other cancers – to both the two-drug combination and to using no immunotherapy before mesothelioma surgery. Clinical Cancer Research published the randomized trial findings Dec. 5. “These data indicate that neoadjuvant durvalumab plus tremelimumab orchestrates de novo systemic immune responses that extend to the tumor microenvironment and correlate with favorable clinical outcomes,” study authors concluded.  Clinical Trial Begun by Dr. David Sugarbaker The clinical trial opened in May 2016, due in part to the earlier arrival of legendary thoracic surgeon and mesothelioma pioneer Dr. David Sugarbaker as the new director of the Lung Institute at Baylor College of Medicine. Sugarbaker died in 2018 when patients were still being enrolled. Twenty-four patients who were screened and eligible for either the pleurectomy and decortication or extrapleural pneumonectomy surgery joined the trial. It included both epithelioid and the tougher-to-treat sarcoma...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - Category: Environmental Health Authors: Tags: Clinical Trials/Research/Emerging Treatments Immunotherapy Pleural Source Type: news