New Clinical Trial Recruiting Mesothelioma Patients

Mesothelioma Mesothelioma Mesothelioma

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Bethesda, MD, have begun recruiting patients with either pleural or peritoneal mesothelioma for a Phase II clinical trial. The trial is to study IMC-A12 in patients with mesothelioma who have been previously treated with chemotherapy.

Pleural mesothelioma is a form of lung cancer that is almost always caused by asbestos exposure and is most commonly found in the outer lining of the lungs called the mesothelium. Peritoneal mesothelioma, also caused by asbestos exposure, affects the lining of the abdomen. Although there is no cure for mesothelioma, it can be treated with varying degrees of success through the use of surgical procedures, chemotherapy and radiation.

IMC-A12 is a new cancer treatment, not yet approved by the U.S. FDA, designed to block the effects of a protein called Type I Insulin-Like Growth Factor (IGF-1R). The drug blocks receptors in cells that respond to IGF-1R, which are thought to play an important role in helping cancer cells to grow and divide.

The trial’s primary objective is to “determine the clinical response rate (PR+CR) to IMC-A12 monotherapy in patients with advanced mesothelioma.” Researchers are also interested in assessing the safety of IMC-A12 in patients with mesothelioma.

Those eligible for the study are patients that have been diagnosed with mesothelioma that has not responded to previous chemotherapy treatment.

source: blog.mesotheliomahelp.ne