Adding Bevacizumab Improves Overall Survival in NSCLC
TUESDAY, June 18, 2019 -- The addition of bevacizumab to carboplatin/pemetrexed is associated with improved overall survival among patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to a study published in the May issue of the... (Source: Drugs.com - Pharma News)
Source: Drugs.com - Pharma News - June 18, 2019 Category: Pharmaceuticals Source Type: news
Dr. Ramalingam on Pemetrexed and Bevacizumab as Maintenance Therapy for Advanced NSCLC
Cancer Network spoke with Suresh S. Ramalingam, MD, of Emory University, about pemetrexed, bevacizumab, or both for advanced non-squamous NSCLC. (Source: CancerNetwork)
Source: CancerNetwork - June 11, 2019 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Suresh S. Ramalingam, MD Source Type: news
Chemo Regimen Boosts Gefitinib in EGFR-Mutant Lung Cancer, But at What Cost?
Researchers tested the addition of a pemetrexed-carboplatin chemotherapy regimen to gefitinib for patients with EGFR-mutant advanced non –small-cell lung cancer. (Source: CancerNetwork)
Source: CancerNetwork - June 5, 2019 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Jim Kling Source Type: news
Addition of Maintenance Therapy Did Not Meet Primary Endpoint in Lung Cancer Trial
The addition of pemetrexed to bevacizumab maintenance therapy after induction therapy for chemo-naive patients with advanced lung cancer did not meet the primary endpoint in a phase III trial. (Source: CancerNetwork)
Source: CancerNetwork - June 5, 2019 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Jim Kling Source Type: news
Adjuvant Pemetrexed Plus Cisplatin: A Safer Option for Non-Squamous NSCLC?
The study evaluated the efficacy and tolerability of adjuvant treatment with pemetrexed/cisplatin vs vinorelbine/cisplatin in patients with non-squamous NSCLC. (Source: CancerNetwork)
Source: CancerNetwork - June 2, 2019 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Jim Kling Source Type: news
FDA Approves First New Treatment for Mesothelioma in 15 Years
The U.S. Food & Drug Administration on Thursday approved Tumor Treating Fields, a therapy involving electric currents that disrupt cancer cell division and inhibit tumor growth, for the first-line treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma.
It is the first treatment in more than 15 years that the FDA approves for mesothelioma. In 2004, the agency added the chemotherapy drug pemetrexed (Alimta) to standard-of-care treatment.
The FDA approved Novocure’s NovoTTF-100L System under the agency’s Humanitarian Device Exemption. The approval comes eight months after Novocure, which manufactures and markets the device, rel...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - May 24, 2019 Category: Environmental Health Authors: Matt Mauney Source Type: news
FDA Approves First Mesothelioma Treatment in 15 Years FDA Approves First Mesothelioma Treatment in 15 Years
The NovoTTF-100L System is approved for use in combination with pemetrexed plus platinum-based chemotherapy in patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma.FDA Approvals (Source: Medscape Hematology-Oncology Headlines)
Source: Medscape Hematology-Oncology Headlines - May 24, 2019 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: Hematology-Oncology News Alert Source Type: news
Survival Improves for Peritoneal Mesothelioma Patients in Finland
Survival time improved significantly for peritoneal mesothelioma patients in Finland who underwent a combination of surgery and chemotherapy, according to a recently released study.
The five-year survival rate was 66 percent. The median survival was 62 months.
According to a smaller, previous study in Finland, the median survival without treatment was just four months after diagnosis.
“Despite these advances in treatment…the majority of patients with malignant peritoneal mesothelioma receive only palliative care of systemic chemotherapy, leaving many eligible patients without the benefit of this more invasive treatmen...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - April 1, 2019 Category: Environmental Health Authors: Matt Mauney Source Type: news
Clinical trial finds therapy to be well-tolerated in patients with aggressive brain tumour
A phase I clinical trial that set out to assess the safety of a new combination therapy for a type of aggressive brain tumour has found the treatment to be well tolerated in patients. The trial used a treatment combination of ADI-PEG20, pemetrexed and cisplatin, which showed encouraging efficacy in patients with recurrent high-grade gliomas (HGGs), a disease for which little progress has been made over the last few decades. (Source: World Pharma News)
Source: World Pharma News - March 29, 2019 Category: Pharmaceuticals Tags: Featured Research Research and Development Source Type: news
Targeting Blood-Clotting Pathway Improves Mesothelioma Treatment
A team of researchers at the Cancer and Vascular Biology Research Center in Haifa, Israel, and the Langone Medical Center in New York collaborated on research of a common blood-clotting pathway.
Targeting this pathway may offer a unique avenue for improving existing mesothelioma treatments.
Researchers said the standard first-line chemotherapy for malignant pleural mesothelioma — a combination of Alimta (pemetrexed) and cisplatin — offers little benefit to most mesothelioma patients.
“This treatment regimen confers a median progression-free survival of 5.7 months,” according to the study published December 2018 in...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - March 5, 2019 Category: Environmental Health Authors: Walter Pacheco Source Type: news
New Immunotherapy Clinical Trial Targets Common Mesothelioma Protein
A biotechnology company specializing in innovative cancer therapeutics has opened a clinical trial examining an immunotherapy drug targeting a protein found in 90 percent of malignant mesothelioma tumors.
It is the first clinical trial to specifically study a patient population characterized by this protein expression.
The target is known as VISTA, a surface protein which inhibits the immune system from working properly and allows the mesothelioma to grow.
The drug is CA-170, an orally available molecule and the only anti-VISTA drug being studied today in a cancer clinical trial.
And the potential could be huge.
“The hop...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - February 19, 2019 Category: Environmental Health Authors: Matt Mauney Source Type: news
Dr. Mags Portman, HIV Prevention Pioneer, Dies from Mesothelioma at 44
Dr. Mags Portman, a British trailblazer in the fight to prevent and control HIV, died Wednesday after a two-year battle with mesothelioma.
She was 44.
Portman was lauded for triggering a significant reduction in HIV diagnoses throughout the United Kingdom by her work as a researcher, clinician and outspoken advocate.
She earned international acclaim for her work as an HIV consultant at London’s Mortimer Market Centre, a progressive sexual health clinic that made pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) a reality in the U.K.
Portman played a key role in the 2014 study at The Royal London Hospital that proved the efficacy of the d...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - February 14, 2019 Category: Environmental Health Authors: Matt Mauney Source Type: news
Chemo-Carrying Gold Nanoparticles Tested on Mesothelioma
Italian researchers have found early success using gold nanoparticles as a chemotherapy-delivery vehicle for mesothelioma.
They are hopeful their discovery will lead to an improvement in mesothelioma treatment in the future.
The researchers tested their strategy on pleural mesothelioma cells in the lab. They first designed gold nanoparticles with a specific antibody targeted to the cells. Then they loaded the chemotherapy drug Alimta (pemetrexed) into the nanoparticles and observed its effect on the cancer cells.
Delivering Alimta through the gold nanoparticles proved more effective than standard chemotherapy. But the me...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - February 12, 2019 Category: Environmental Health Authors: Matt Mauney Source Type: news
Apatinib Case Study Uncovers Potential Mesothelioma Treatment
Doctors in China may have uncovered an effective second- or third-line treatment option for patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma.
Dr. RongQin Meng, an oncologist at 363 Hospital in Cheng Du, said the investigational drug Apatinib (rivoceranib) could become part of a much-needed advance in mesothelioma treatment.
After first- and second-line chemotherapy combinations had failed to slow tumor growth in a 58-year-old woman, Apatinib provided a five-month progression-free survival.
“I was surprised at the result,” Meng told The Mesothelioma Center at Asbestos.com. “After taking the drug, the quality of life was g...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - January 31, 2019 Category: Environmental Health Authors: Daniel King Source Type: news
Vaccine and Chemotherapy Combo Shows Promise for Mesothelioma
Mesothelioma patients showed an impressive immune response to TroVax, a novel cancer vaccine, when it was combined with standard chemotherapy in a recent clinical trial.
Researchers from Cardiff University in the United Kingdom conducted the study that was published by the journal OncoImmunology.
TroVax is a laboratory engineered virus designed to target the human protein 5T4.
A mutated form of 5T4 is found in almost all mesothelioma tumors, including the sarcomatoid subtype, the most difficult to treat.
The phase II clinical trial produced a disease control rate of 87 percent, more than double the rate of a previous stud...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - January 22, 2019 Category: Environmental Health Authors: Matt Mauney Source Type: news
