Mesothelioma Research, COVID Findings Featured at IASLC Conference

This study, performed during the pre-vaccine period of the pandemic, once again demonstrates the importance of vaccination against COVID-19,” said Dr. Susana Cedres, a medical oncologist with Vall d’Hebron Hospital. “Malignant pleural mesothelioma patients are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19.” Cedres said since the subsequent rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines, no positive cases have been attributed to pleural mesothelioma patients at the hospital. The average age of the seven patients was 62. All had the epithelioid histology of mesothelioma and two were receiving oncologic treatment at the time of diagnosis. Median overall survival of the seven was 17.8 months from the time of their cancer diagnosis, but less than two weeks from the COVID diagnosis. “If a patient with this particular disease is diagnosed with the virus, he or she is at increased risk of mortality,” Cedres said. “Infection must therefore be prevented, and we know that the vaccine works.” Second-Line Mesothelioma Treatment Has Potential The virtual World Conference on Lung Cancer included other mesothelioma presentations, particularly on treatment advances. In one phase II multicenter study in Europe, heavily pretreated mesothelioma patients found promise with the drug lurbinectedin. Both lung cancer and mesothelioma cancer patients showed clear clinical benefits from the anti-tumor, synthetically produced agent. The 55 mesothelioma patients in the study received lurb...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - Category: Environmental Health Authors: Source Type: news