On behalf of the European Lung Cancer Conference, a study showed that there is continuing frustration in identifying second-line chemotherapy treatment options for mesothelioma patients.
Within the study the researchers considered 98 mesothelioma sufferers. All patients had been diagnosed with either pleural or peritoneal mesothelioma. Following their results the researchers were unable to show support for any of the second-line treatment options considered, due to lack of evidence of their success.
A second-line treatment is a process which naturally follows on from when a mesothelioma patient’s initial treatment does not work. A major difficulty in providing initial treatment is the uncertainty as to how a patient will react, due to a multitude of factors which can influence the effectiveness of the treatment, such as the stage of the mesothelioma, a patient’s previous medical history and genetics, amongst many others.
Further, the cancerous cells following an initial period of successful elimination can return with a greater tolerance level than before. This increased tolerance is likely to further inhibit the success of any chemotherapy treatment in the future, once this is administered.
Also related to this is the gradual reduction in the chemotherapy drugs’ ability to attack the cancerous cells. As a result of the continual exposure to these drugs, often the body can develop a general tolerance to this.
In the study the researches considered various chemotherapy treatments, including, pemetrexed, docetaxel and tazanes and gemcitabine. Although it was noted that the pemetrexed treatment worked slightly better than the others, the researchers were still unable to clarify any reliable treatment options and as a result, mesothelioma patients were unable to be provided with satisfactory second-line chemotherapy treatment options.
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