A new imaging technique which visualises how a drug spreads through a tumour, has shown that the cancer drug, Taxol, is unevenly distributed through pleural mesothelioma. It is thought that this may be why mesothelioma treatment is often not successful.
In healthy tissue, drugs are generally distributed evenly through the blood but this does not seem to be the case for tumours. This would make sense as tumours are made when cells multiply erratically and are therefore not likely to develop smoothly.
Research conducted at the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research in Italy found that in mice, Taxol, was more unevenly distributed than in other cancers. There were areas with a high concentration of the drug and other areas with nearly no drug at all.
This research helps show why some treatments for mesothelioma are not successful. It is hoped that new drug distribution methods can be developed following this research, to help the treatment of mesothelioma.
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