ADDITIONAL MESOTHELIOMA THERAPIES

Although surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation-based therapies are at the forefront in terms of treating Mesothelioma, they are not alone.

Immunotherapy

Immunotherapy is a specific course of treatment that, so far, has produced varied results.

As an example, the intrapleural inoculation of Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG), as part of a program to try and boost the immune-response of patients with Mesothelioma, has been found to be of very little, or no, benefit at all.

Mesothelioma cells have proven to be susceptible to in vitro lysis by LAK cells, specifically following activation by interleukin-2 (IL-2). Unfortunately, those patients who underwent this specific type of therapy generally suffered from significant and distressing side-effects.

As a result of the severity of the adverse side-effects (which included fever, weight-loss, fatigue, muscle atrophy, loss of appetite, and weakness), trials were halted.

However, other trials – that involved interferon-alpha - have been shown to be far more successful, with approximately 1 in 5 patients reporting a more-than-50% reduction in tumor-size.

In addition, serious side-effects that have followed this particular procedure have been relatively minor.

Heated Intraoperative Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy

A procedure that was developed by Paul Sugarbaker at the Washington Cancer Institute, HIIC first involves the removal from the patient of as much of the tumor as may be possible.

This is then followed by the direct administration of a chemotherapy-based agent – which is heated to between 40 and 48°C – into the abdomen of the patient.

The fluid is perfused for a period of 1 to 2 hours and is then drained.

The HIIC procedure allows for the administration of concentrations of selected drugs in high quantities into the abdominal and pelvic surfaces.

Moreover, the particular process of heating the chemotherapy treatment has been shown to increase the chance of penetration of the drugs into the patient’s tissues.

In addition, the process of heating alone has been shown to damage malignant cells more than it does normal cells.