Mesothelioma is a cancer of the pleura the membranes that lines the inside of the chest and the outside of the lungs. It differs from other types of lung cancer in that it is caused by exposure to asbestos, rather than by smoking. The condition affects five times more men than women, and most commonly develops in men between 50 and 70 years of age.
Mesothelioma is very hard to treat. It is usually inoperable and not very responsive to radiotherapy. With the anticancer drugs previously available, people diagnosed with the disease could expect to survive for only six to eight months.
Now, results of a study by Professor Hilary Calvert, Dr Andrew Hughes and colleagues in the Cancer Research UK-funded Cancer Research Unit at Newcastle University, in collaboration in Eli Lilley, have shown that, on average, patients who were given the new drug, pemetrexed and carboplatin, survived for up to 13 14 months. In a handful of cases, patients have survived for three years or more.
Professor Calvert said: 'The drug combination showed remarkable activity in Mesothelioma. Indeed, our study provided the first convincing demonstration that pemetrexed to carboplatin could be useful in the treatment of the disease'.
Pemetrexed is an experimental drug being developed by pharmaceutical company Eli Lilley under the trade name Alimta. It is an anticancer drug based on being an analogue of the B-vitamin, folic acid. Drugs of this class were first developed by Professor Calvert and colleagues at the Institute of Cancer Research in London in the early 1980s with funding from Cancer Research, leading to the l
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Contact: Prof. Hilary Calvert
44-191-222-8057
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
13-Aug-2002