New Clinical Trial Focuses on Immunotoxins and Mesothelioma

An exciting new mesothelioma clinical trial will study one approach for improving how well immunotoxin drugs work. The phase I trial is enrolling peritoneal and pleural mesothelioma patients. Immunotoxins, which are targeted therapies, attach to and destroy cancer cells. This approach already has shown promise in a small clinical trial. This new clinical trial will give mesothelioma patients an immunotoxin in combination with another substance to suppress the immune system. The goal of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) clinical trial is to learn how safe and tolerable the combination of the immunotoxin and immune suppressant is in people with advanced mesothelioma. Helping Immunotoxins Treat Mesothelioma Better In previous clinical trials, immunotoxins have proven effective for reducing the size of mesothelioma tumors in a small portion of patients. Unfortunately, a large number of mesothelioma patients did not respond to this therapy. The NCI clinical trial aims to address why so many people with mesothelioma do not respond to immunotoxins. When immunotoxins are injected into the body, the body reacts in the same way it often responds to bacteria or viruses — it creates an immune response. While immunity against harmful bacteria and viruses is a good thing, immunity against an immunotoxin is not. The body’s immune reaction creates antibodies to neutralize the drug, making it useless. If researchers figure out how to stop the body from making antibodies against the im...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - Category: Environmental Health Authors: Source Type: news