Professor Gareth Griffiths from the Southampton Clinical Trials Unit and Professor Dean Fennell from the University of Leicester have made a major breakthrough in the treatment of mesothelioma patients which could see much longer survival.
Mesothelioma is difficult to treat
The asbestos-related cancer, mesothelioma, is notoriously difficult to treat and patient options are often limited. Due to this, the prognosis for mesothelioma patients is often poor and any sadly do not live more than a year after their diagnosis. However, thanks to ongoing research, there are now more treatment options and the post-diagnosis survival rate of mesothelioma patients is increasing.
International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer World Conference on Lung Cancer
Professors Griffiths and Fennell presented their ground-breaking research at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer World Conference on Lung Cancer. Many patients choose to have chemotherapy to stop growth or to shrink their cancer but sadly, chemotherapy does not work indefinitely. The research focused on how to treat patients after chemotherapy treatment stops being effective.
CONFIRM study
The Checkpoint Blockade for Inhibition of Relapsed Mesothelioma (CONFIRM) study was funded by Cancer Research UK/Stand Up To Cancer and looked at 332 adult patients with unresectable pleural or peritoneal mesothelioma. 221 patients were given nivolumab, an immunotherapy drug, the remaining 111 were given a placebo.
The results showed that the patients on nivolumab had an average survival of 9.2 months, compared to an average of 6.6 months for the placebo group. It was also found that those on nivolumab had more stable disease.
Stopped mesothelioma growth
The results concluded that nivolumab stopped mesothelioma growth and in turn, improved survival, showing that this is a good treatment option for patients where chemotherapy has stopped working.
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Source:
Presented at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer World Conference on Lung Cancer by Professor Dean Fennell, Chair of Thoracic Medical Oncology at the University of Leicester in collaboration with Professor Gareth Griffiths and his team at Southampton Clinical Trials Unit, University of Southampton.