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Journal Articles on Mesothelioma: Cancer Information for Patients and Families

Journal Articles on Mesothelioma: 'New & Novel' Category


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August 14th, 2008. Enhanced antitumor therapy by inhibition of p21waf1 in human malignant mesothelioma

Conclusions: These results indicated that p21 might play an important role in chemosensitivity to anticancer agents, and the suppression of its expression might be a potential therapeutic target for MPM.

August 9th, 2008. Clinical Activity of Vinflunine in Transitional Cell Carcinoma of the Urothelium and Other Solid Tumors

The activity and tolerability of this agent warrant further investigation. Phase 3 trials are underway to further define the extent of clinical benefit provided by vinflunine in patients with advanced solid malignancies.

August 8th, 2008. Novel Functional View of the Crocidolite Asbestos-Treated A549 Human Lung Epithelial Transcriptome Reveals an Intricate Network of Pathways with Opposing Functions

Conclusions: Our analyses demonstrate the power of combining a statistically robust, comprehensive dataset and a functional network genomics approach to 1) identify and explore relationships between genes of known importance 2) identify novel candidate genes, and 3) observe the complex interplay between genes/gene products that function in seemingly different processes. This study represents the first function-based global approach toward understanding the response of human lung epithelial cells to the carcinogen crocidolite. Importantly, our investigation paints a much broader landscape for the crocidolite response than was previously appreciated and reveals novel paths to study. Our graphical representations of the function-based global network will be a valuable resource to model new research findings.

August 7th, 2008. The serine protease HtrA1 is a novel prognostic factor for human mesothelioma

Conclusion: This is the first study of the relationship between HtrA1 expression and survival of mesothelioma patients. The data obtained strongly indicate the utilization of HtrA1 expression as a prognostic parameter for mesothelioma and suggest this serine protease as a possible molecular target for the treatment of malignant mesotheliomas.

August 5th, 2008. Antibody-onconase conjugates: cytotoxicity and intracellular routing

Antibody-onconase conjugates are effective in preclinical models, cause little non-specific toxicities in mice and have favorable formulation properties. Understanding the reason for their potency coupled with understanding novel RNA-based mechanisms of tumor cell death will lead to improved variations of targeted onconase.

August 5th, 2008. Antibody-targeted RNase fusion proteins (immunoRNases) for cancer therapy

Conjugation of RNases to internalizing tumor-targeting monoclonal antibodies was shown to enhance specific cell killing by several orders of magnitude both in vitro and in animal models. In this review we describe the development and current status of genetically engineered 2(nd) generation immunoRNases as promising novel anti-cancer therapeutics.

August 2nd, 2008. MET as a target for treatment of chest tumors

These drugs function at a variety of steps within the HGF-MET pathway, including MET expression at the RNA or protein level, the ligand-receptor interaction, and tyrosine kinase function. This paper will review the structure, function, mechanisms of tumorigenesis, and potential for therapeutic inhibition of the MET receptor in lung cancer and mesothelioma.

July 29th, 2008. Targeted therapy–possible new therapeutic option for malignant mesothelioma?

Molecular screening methods have revealed profound differences in the driving mechanisms of the variously differentiated mesothelioma cells. Characterization of these differences has made it possible to identify novel drug targets which are effective for both phenotypes.

July 26th, 2008. A novel concept of treatment of diffuse or multiple pleural tumors by boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT)

In each case, the tumors regressed or remained stable in size for 3–6 months following BNCT. No acute or late adverse events higher than grade 2 were observed.

July 22nd, 2008. A Phase II Trial of Tetrathiomolybdate After Surgery for Malignant Mesothelioma: Final Results

Conclusions: Tetrathiomolybdate has antiangiogenic effects in malignant pleural mesothelioma patients after resection of gross disease, and exhibits minimal toxicity and comparable efficacy to previous multimodality trials. Tetrathiomolybdate should be evaluated for efficacy in combination with standard malignant pleural mesothelioma regimens, as well as for postsurgical maintenance therapy.

July 12th, 2008. A phase II multicenter study of L-alanosine, a potent inhibitor of adenine biosynthesis, in patients with MTAP-deficient cancer

Conclusion: At this dose and schedule, L-alanosine was ineffective in patients with advanced MTAP-deficient tumors.

July 9th, 2008. A novel combination: ranpirnase and rosiglitazone induce a synergistic apoptotic effect by down-regulating Fra-1 and Survivin in cancer cells

The drug combination does not have a synergistic effect on killing in Fra-1 knockdown cells, showing that Fra-1 modulation accounts in part for the synergism. The novel drug combination of ranpirnase and rosiglitazone is a promising combination to treat cancers with increased PI3K-dependent Fra-1 expression or Survivin.

July 4th, 2008. A pilot study with very low-intensity, intermediate-frequency electric fields in patients with locally advanced and/or metastatic solid tumors

Conclusion: Although the number of patients in this study is small, the lack of therapy toxicity and the efficacy observed in data gathered to date indicate the potential of TTFields as a new treatment modality for solid tumors, definitely warranting further investigation.

July 3rd, 2008. Multiple mechanisms of telomere maintenance exist and differentially affect clinical outcome in diffuse malignant peritoneal mesothelioma

Conclusions: Our results indicate that both known telomere maintenance mechanisms, TA and ALT, are present in DMPM and differentially affect patient prognosis.

June 27th, 2008. The tyrosine kinase inhibitor cediranib for non-small cell lung cancer and other thoracic malignancies

The NSCLC trials include patients with squamous cell histologic features and treated brain metastases, populations for which bevacizumab is currently not indicated. These trials will determine whether cediranib will join the growing armamentarium of therapeutic options for thoracic malignancies and broaden the number of patients with NSCLC who could potentially benefit from antiangiogenic therapy.

June 24th, 2008. Phosphorylation and localization of protein-zero related (PZR) in cultured endothelial cells

To see if tyrosine kinases other than Src are also capable of phosphorylating PZR, the authors cotransfected HEK293 cells with PZR and one of several tyrosine kinases and found that c-Src, c-Fyn, c-Lyn, Csk, and c-Abl, but not c-Fes, phosphorylated PZR and increased PZR/SHP-2 interaction. These results suggest that PZR is a cell adhesion protein that may be involved in SHP-2-dependent signaling at interendothelial cell contacts.

June 24th, 2008. Measles virus induces oncolysis of mesothelioma cells and allows dendritic cells to cross-prime tumor-specific CD8 response

Priming of autologous T cells by DCs loaded with MV-infected MPM cells led to a significant proliferation of tumor-specific CD8 T cells. Altogether, these data strongly support the potential of oncolytic MV as an efficient therapeutic agent for mesothelioma cancer.

June 4th, 2008. Malignant mesothelioma 2008

Novel therapies including intrapleural chemotherapy, photodynamic therapy and hyperthermic perfusion have also been used with some success. Finally there are several attempts at immunomodulating and targeted treatments, which are in phase I/II trials.

May 31st, 2008. mTOR Mediates Survival Signals in Malignant Mesothelioma Grown as Tumor Fragment Spheroids

We propose that mTOR mediates survival signals in many mesothelioma tumors. Inhibition of mTOR may provide a non-toxic adjunct to therapy directed against malignant mesothelioma, especially in those with high baseline expression of p-S6K.

May 24th, 2008. Effects of Piroxicam and Cisplatin on mesothelioma cells growth and viability

In particular, the two drugs in NCI cell line had a synergistic effect on apoptosis, probably through activation of caspase 8 and caspase 9, while the most evident targets among the cell cycle regulators were cyclin D1 and p21waf1. These results suggest that the association of piroxicam and CDDP specifically triggers cell cycle regulation and apoptosis in different mesothelioma cell lines and may hold promise in the treatment of mesothelioma.