About 3,000 people are diagnosed with malignant pleural mesothelioma every year in the U.S., with the majority of them dying within 18 months of diagnosis. The typical treatment for this very aggressive cancer has for decades been a combination of chemotherapy, radiation and surgery. Sadly, the treatment is often ineffective because the cancer is too far advanced by the time treatment starts.
Now, Dr. Bryan Burt and his team at Baylor College of Medicine are preparing to test a new treatment that could bring better results for patients. The clinical trial, scheduled to be completed in September 2020, will treat pleural mesothelioma patients using a combination of immunotherapy and a new drug designed to speed up cell death.
“Progress in advancing long-term survival in pleural mesothelioma has been minimal for decades,” Burt said. “The benefit of the current standard treatments…has plateaued.”
Success in Animal Use
The trial treatment combines a widely used drug called Nivolumab, known to effectively treat tumors in humans, with a cancer-targeting adenovirus known as MTG201. Dr. Burt’s team has tested this drug combination in mice and has seen excellent outcomes.
“This therapy eradicates mouse mesothelioma tumors, rapidly and consistently in an aggressive mouse model of mesothelioma,” Burt said in a press release.
Now the Baylor team hopes the positive results can translate to success with human patients.
Trial Details
Dr. Burt and the research team are looking for 12 patients who fit specific criteria: people who have malignant pleural mesothelioma and who have already undergone chemotherapy treatment.
The primary objective of the trial is to test the effectiveness of the Nivolumab and MTG201 combination. Additional objectives include:
- Assessing the safety of the drug combination.
- Assess the disease control rate of the drug combination
- Determine how the disease progresses or doesn’t progress (“duration of response”) and determine the overall survival rate of patients treated with the drug combination
Dr. Robert Taylor Ripley of the Mesothelioma Treatment Center says different patients respond to different approaches and hopes that this clinical trial “will help define which patient will respond and which therapies should routinely be utilized while avoiding ineffective treatment.”
If You Have Mesothelioma, You May Be Entitled to Compensation
While this exciting clinical trial could lead to another treatment option for mesothelioma sufferers, people who have the disease right now may not live long enough to benefit from it. But patients and families may be able to work with an attorney to recover compensation via a personal injury lawsuit.
While financial compensation certainly is no substitute for your health, a successful mesothelioma lawsuit can provide much-needed funds to sustain you and your loved ones during and after this battle with cancer.
You can schedule a free consultation with our Dallas mesothelioma lawyers at any time. We’ll evaluate the situation and tell you about all your legal options. Call us at 877-Ted-Lyon / 877-833-5966 or contact us online.
Source:
https://www.bcm.edu/research/clinical-trials/h-44850
https://www.bcm.edu/news/cancer/clinical-trial-immunotherapy-mesothelioma
https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04013334?term=04013334&recrs=ab&rank=1
