Immunotherapy with Surgery Raises Hopes for Mesothelioma Patients

An immunotherapy vaccine by itself won't stop malignant pleural mesothelioma, but its ability to enhance the effectiveness of cytoreductive surgery could become the treatment breakthrough that doctors and patients have been seeking for years. The combination of immunotherapy and surgery, which proved especially effective in preclinical research at the University of Pennsylvania, should add to the multimodal treatment approach that includes chemotherapy and radiation for mesothelioma patients. "It is very promising," renowned thoracic surgeon and mesothelioma specialist Dr. Sunil Singhal, of the Abramson Cancer Center, told Asbestos.com. "It's way too early to be sure, but this could become a really big deal." Singhal, who also serves as director of the Thoracic Surgery Research Laboratory at Penn Medicine, believes reducing the mesothelioma tumor burden with surgery gives the immunotherapy vaccine a much better chance of success. "What we've seen so far is that the vaccine by itself — with advanced disease — doesn't seem to work very well," Singhal said. "But if the vaccine can rev up or amplify the immune system, and we take out the tumors, it can attack what's left over and finish the job. There is real potential here." Difficulty Developing the Vaccines Although preclinical research continues to support the development of an immunotherapy approach or helping a patient's own immune system to attack the cancer,...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - Category: Environmental Health Authors: Tags: Treatment & Doctors Source Type: news