by Francesco Perrone
Up to a few years the prognosis was often poor, with an average survival of less than one year. Today something is moving thanks to the arrival of immunotherapy, which appears to be more effective than chemotherapy
We live in the Casale Monferrato area and we are therefore very interested in knowing if there are new treatments for mesothelioma which claims so many victims in our country due to asbestos.
Answered by Francesco Perrone, Director of the Clinical Trials Unit, National Cancer Institute of Naples, G. Pascale Foundation
Pleural mesothelioma (tumor that affects the mesothelium of the pleura, or the membrane that covers the lungs) remains a very aggressive and difficult to cure neoplasm, also because in most cases it is diagnosed in an advanced stage, when surgery is not a possible option and survival rates are low. In Italy almost two thousand new cases are estimated every year and diagnoses are constantly growing. Although the use of asbestos (production, processing and sale) has been banned in our country since 1992, the peak incidence of mesothelioma has not yet been reached because the latency period between exposure to risk factors and the appearance of the tumor is 20-40 years old. Mesothelioma generally manifests itself around the age of 70: surveillance of the people most exposed to the risk of falling ill is essential, i.e. the former workers of the factories that produced or treated asbestos. The professional figures most commonly affected are: workers in shipyards and construction sites, workers in automotive engineering companies, insulating materials, pipes and installation of heating systems.
Immunotherapy
Until a few years ago a diagnosis of mesothelioma was almost always characterized by a poor prognosis, with an average survival of less than one year. Today something is moving thanks to the arrival of immunotherapy, which appears to be more effective than chemotherapy. Researchers continue to test new therapeutic solutions, as demonstrated by the international study IND.227 presented at the congress of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, in which the Istituto Tumori of Naples participated as coordinator of 17 Italian centres. Trial results indicate that adding the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab to standard chemotherapy prolongs the survival of patients with inoperable advanced or metastatic pleural mesothelioma: At three years, 25% of patients treated with immunotherapy were alive, compared with 17%. Progression-free survival (the length of time before the tumor grows again) was also improved and, most importantly, as many as 62% of patients had a significant reduction in tumor burden thanks to the above combination , while this occurred only in 38% of patients who only received chemotherapy.
June 27, 2023 (change June 27, 2023 | 08:45)
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