Front and Second Line Treatments for Mesothelioma
If you or someone you know has been diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma, you are probably trying to understand which treatments might be most effective. If you have gone through initial treatment with little results, you may be exploring what other options you have.
Recently medical researchers published an article in Cancer Treatment Reviews (February 2010) with a detailed explanation of currently accepted front line therapies as well as information regarding several second line treatments that are being explored through clinical trials.
The standard front line therapy, after conducting many Phase I and II trials, remains a combination of pemetrexed along with cisplatin or carboplatin. For pemetrexed naive and some cases of pre-treated patients, pemetrexed is also a good chemotherapueutic agent for second line treatments.
However, often front line treatments have little effect at curbing the progression of the disease or even controlling symptoms, and therefore more is being investigated about therapies that could be used after initial treatment or with patients that don’t qualify or aren’t able to do the standard treatments.
The authors of the article review results from numerous clinical trials as well as other related sources, and recommend that further investigations be done, particularly looking into new targeted agents, different types of inhibitors, and anti-tumor regimens that are showing promise to block cancer cell signaling pathways.
For more detailed information, read the recently published article at Helping Mesothelioma Patients. If you have been diagnosed with mesothelioma, you can also contact your oncologist or call our mesothelioma law firm to find out about more resources and ways to participate in current clinical trials.
