NCI Moving Closer to More Effective Treatment for Pleural Mesothelioma

A research team at the National Cancer Institute is developing a novel therapy that could change the treatment paradigm for pleural mesothelioma. It is a long-awaited, much-needed breakthrough. The potential intraoperative adjuvant is a spray-on hydrogel involving genetically engineered molecular nanoparticles designed to specifically target and kill tumor cells. It showed surprising efficacy in a recent laboratory study at the NCI with mesothelioma models in mice. Nature Nanotechnology published the study, detailing the impressive results. “This could be a huge deal, potentially a real game-changer in treating this disease,” Dr. Chuong Hoang, thoracic surgeon at the NCI, told The Mesothelioma Center at Asbestos.com. “Yes, I’m excited by what we’ve seen.” Gel Could Kill Tumor Cells That Evade Surgery Hoang believes the new therapy could potentially be used alongside surgery to kill the microscopic tumor cells that typically evade detection and later cause the inevitable recurrence of mesothelioma, a cancer with no cure. Aggressive surgery is still viewed as the most effective treatment for pleural mesothelioma, but less than 20% of those who have it survive more than five years. “It’s so disappointing that after surgery, inevitably the tumor comes back. You just can’t remove every last bit of it,” Hoang said. “That’s why this could be a game-changer, seen as a molecular knife to finish the job and go after the microscopic stuff tha...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - Category: Environmental Health Authors: Source Type: news