Mesothelioma Help Cancer News

Afatinib Better Than Gefitinib in Extending Survival for Lung Cancer Patients

• Nancy Meredith
• Featured News

In January 2015, Boehringer Ingelheim reported results from clinical trials that showed EGFR-expressed lung cancer patients treated with afatinib saw “significantly extended overall survival” over those treated with chemotherapy.” Now, in the latest study, comparing the benefits of afatinib over gefitinib, researchers report afatinib resulted in improved progression-free survival  compared with gefitinib.

An international team of researchers, led by Keunchil Park, MD, of Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine in Seoul, South Korea, reported that although the three anti-cancer drugs gefitinib, erlotinib, and afatinib, have shown “superior” results to platinum-based doublet chemotherapy, no study has done a comparison between the drugs, according to an April 29 article in Cancer Network.

In the LUX-Lung 7 clinical trial of 319 EGFR mutation-positive lung cancer patients, half of the patients were treated with afatinib and the other half received gefitinib. The researchers reported the afatinib patients realized better progression free survival at 24 months at 17.6% vs. 7.6% in the gefitinib patients. The time-to-treatment failure was also better with afatinib, at 13.7 months vs. 11.5 months with gefitinib, and objective tumor response for afatinib was 70% compared to 56% with gefitinib.

“The improved antitumor activity with afatinib noted in this trial might reflect its more potent and irreversible inhibition of EGFR signaling,” the authors wrote. “Our findings suggest that first-generation and second-generation EGFR targeted drugs might not be interchangeable.”

In July 2013, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted approval to afatinib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor that blocks proteins that promote the development of cancerous cells, for patients with late stage non-small cell lung cancer whose tumors express specific types of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene mutations. The FDA approved gefitinib, also a kinase inhibitor, for the initial treatment of metastatic EGFR-positive non–small-cell lung cancer in July 2015.

EGFR is a protein found on the surface of some cells to which epidermal growth factor binds, which causes the cells to divide and spread. It is found at abnormally high levels on the surface of many types of cancer cells. According to a 2009 article in Current Drug Targets, EGFR over-expression has been shown in more than 50% of pleural mesothelioma patients. The American Society of Clinical Oncology identified approximately 15% of patients with lung cancer in the U.S. expressing EGFR mutations.

Pleural mesothelioma is a rare, serious cancer affecting the lining of the lungs that occurs in individuals exposed to airborne asbestos fibers. Mesothelioma displays as a large mass of interlocked tumors that blend in with healthy tissue, by contrast, lung cancer is characterized by more distinct, individual tumors. However, the treatments for the two cancers are often similar. Any breakthrough or update in research for lung cancer patients equally benefits mesothelioma patients.

“We believe that these data provide additional evidence to help to inform decision making when choosing a first-line treatment for patients with EGFR mutation–positive NSCLC.”

For more information on the LUX-7 clinical trial see ClinicalTrials.gov.
https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/results?term=%22malignant+mesothelioma%22&recr=Open&pg=1

Results of the study were published in the April 12 edition of The Lancet Oncology.
http://secure.jbs.elsevierhealth.com/action/cookieAbsent

Sources:

• Cancer Network
  http://www.cancernetwork.com/lung-cancer/afatinib-improves-pfs-vs-gefitinib-egfr-mutated-nsclc
• FDA approved gefitinib
  http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm454678.htm

Celebrate Mesothelioma Survivors Every Day

• Nancy Meredith
• Featured News, For Your Family

June 5 was National Cancer Survivors Day, a day set aside to ” to honor cancer survivors and to show the world that life after a cancer diagnosis can be fruitful, rewarding, and even inspiring.”Although this day has come and gone, chances are high that mesothelioma patients are aware of their cancer every day of the year. It is important that you also set aside time throughout the year to reach out and support a mesothelioma survivor.

June 5 was a day for mesothelioma survivors and their families to join the nearly 14.5 million other Americans, and millions more around the world, who have survived cancer. The day was a day for CELEBRATION for those who have survived, an INSPIRATION for those recently diagnosed, a gathering of SUPPORT for families, and an OUTREACH to the community, according to the National Cancer Survivors Day Foundation who sponsors the day. We encourage all of the mesothelioma community to take the time out to celebrate with mesothelioma survivors and their families – each and every day of the year.

Mesothelioma is a terminal cancer caused by past exposure to asbestos, a known carcinogen. Although there is no cure for the cancer, advances in treatments are helping patients live longer, more productive lives than in the past. These mesothelioma survivors, defined by the National Cancer Survivor’s Day Foundation as anyone living with a history of cancer – from the moment of diagnosis through the remainder of life, show true grit and strength every day while continuing to fight this dreadful disease.

“When most people hear the word ‘cancer,’ they automatically think the worst,” says National Cancer Survivors Day Foundation spokesperson, Laura Shipp in a May 20 press release announcing the day. “But the truth is that more people are living longer and better quality lives after cancer than ever before. National Cancer Survivors Day® is an opportunity for these cancer survivors – and those who support them – to come together and celebrate this new reality in cancer survivorship.”

In a statement on survivors day, Douglas R. Lowy, MD, Acting Director, National Cancer Institute, and Robert T. Croyle, PhD, Director, NCI Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, recognized the challenges cancer survivors face every day and acknowledged the role the NCI plays in helping improve survivorship, saying in part:

“As part of the leadership team of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), we also commend the tireless efforts of the researchers who are working to find new and better ways to control and treat cancer more effectively and safely. This is a vitally important task. Although more and more cancer survivors will return to active and productive lives following their cancer diagnosis, for many of them, the long-term physical, psychological, and social effects of cancer and its treatments remain serious and challenging. Recognizing this, survivorship research remains a key component of NCI’s research portfolio.”

The American Cancer Society reports the average survival time for people with mesothelioma, is between 4 and 18 months. However, between five and ten percent of mesothelioma patients will live at least five years after diagnosis.

“Our Foundation hopes that NCSD serves as a call to action for further research, more resources, and increased public awareness to improve quality of life for cancer survivors,” said Shipp.

Sources:

• National Cancer Survivors Day
  http://www.ncsd.org/about-us
• National Cancer Institute
  http://www.cancer.org/cancer/news/features/when-a-friend-has-cancer
• National Cancer Survivors Day Foundation
  http://www.ncsd.org/_blog/Front_Page_News/post/Press_Release-May2013/

Don’t Wait To Make A Doctor’s Appointment

• Joseph Belluck
• Faces of Mesothelioma, Uncategorized

Many people have aversions to going to the doctor. When my Dad began having trouble breathing in the summer of 2011, we urged him to make an appointment. He said, “I’m fine, I’m just having some trouble catching my breath. It’s really hot outside, don’t worry about me!” The symptoms began getting worse and then other symptoms started to arise.

I remember when he went to the doctor and they said he had fluid on his lung. It seemed like it could be an infection; that would have been very treatable. Then they found a shadow on his lung. Then he needed the fluid drained. After that came a procedure that finally gave him the awful diagnosis of mesothelioma.

If you think that you have been exposed to asbestos and are experiencing symptoms of asbestos-related diseases like shortness of breath, coughing, weight loss, etc., please consider getting checked out. It’s important to know what you’re up against if it is mesothelioma. It can allow your medical team to create a treatment plan that will be best for you. You owe it to yourself and your loved ones!

Mesothelioma Nurse Recaps Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation’s Houston Symposium

• Lisa Hyde-Barrett
• Nurse's Corner, Uncategorized

This year the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation is having three conferences “on the road.”  The first of the series was held in Houston, Texas on May 20.  I have had the pleasure of attending a few Meso Foundation conferences over the past years, and it is my impression that each one is better than the one before. This conference did not disappoint.

Houston is home to two cancer centers with mesothelioma specialty centers:  M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center.  Anderson’s mesothelioma program is headed by Dr. Anne Tsao, a medical oncologist, and Dr. David Rice, thoracic surgeon.  Baylor’s mesothelioma program is headed by Dr. David Sugarbaker, an international expert on mesothelioma.

The mesothelioma community at these conferences is represented by patients, family members, caregivers,  medical experts, health care workers, advocates, and members of the legal community.  Attendees can watch presentations by researchers on their latest findings, they can ask questions of the experts, and they can network and meet others who are also dealing with mesothelioma.

My takeaways from the Houston conference include:

• Clinical Trials are showing the way to a personalized approach to treating mesothelioma.
• The goal is to get to a point that mesothelioma is a manageable, chronic disease.
• This spring has brought breakthroughs for the future treatment of mesothelioma.
• The feeling among the researchers was that they are progressing towards a cure.
• Some studies have shown promising results for the four subtypes of mesothelioma.

Nationwide, the number of cancer patients who participate in clinical trials is between 3-5% for adults.  The Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation reports that mesothelioma patients consistently reach out to them to ask about clinical trials, and the number who participate in mesothelioma trials is over 55%. This is one of the tangible, impressive services that the Meso Foundation provides for the mesothelioma community.

The doctors who presented were passionate about helping patients with mesothelioma.  It was evident that the next generation of researchers who presented have the passion to continue the work towards a cure.

Collaboration, research, clinical trials, awareness, advocacy, are the keys to further progress towards a cure. Patients and families were encouraged to get involved and to request more money for research for this cancer from the government and other sources.

The next two conferences for mesothelioma are being held in San Francisco on September 16, and in Chicago on October 7.  Get involved- knowledge is power!

Can a Protein Garbage Truck Clear Out Mesothelioma Cells?

• Nancy Meredith
• Featured News

Researchers are turning to cell garbage collectors, or the proteasome, in their latest attempt to fight cancer. Scientists have known for years that proteasomes clean out unneeded or damaged proteins, now, they are focusing on lassoing them to attack cancer cells.

Two biochemists, Craig Crews and Raymond Deshaies, began discussing this possibility in 1998 in a bar. Crews, the L.B. Cullman Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology at Yale University,  has spent his career tinkering, as he calls it, with proteasomes. After years of research, he is on the cusp of a breakthrough treatment that can gobble up the proteins that help cause cancer.

This approach can target diseases that are considered undruggable or resistant to most treatments, like mesothelioma, a rare, terminal cancer. Currently, there is no known cure for the asbestos-caused disease that invariably recurs after building up a resistance to chemotherapy or other anti-cancer drugs that should kill the cancers. Mesothelioma is diagnosed in nearly 3,000 Americans each year.

In a 2010 presentation entitled, “Contemporary Treatment of Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma,” Nicholas J. Vogelzang, MD, Chair and Medical Director, Developmental Therapeutics Committee, US Oncology Research, Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada, noted that proteasome inhibitors were one of “many new agents worthy of study” in the fight against mesothelioma. Dr. Vogelzang is a renowned medical oncologist, cancer researcher and mesothelioma expert.

Crews and Deshaies, Professor of Biology and Executive Officer for Biology Division of Biology & Biological Engineering California Institute of Technology, and founder of the Proteome Exploration Laboratory at the Beckman Institute at Caltech, have built their careers around the proteasome and have spawned several pharmaceutical companies, including Arvinas, focused on harnessing the power of the proteasome.

After rounds of research, Crews and his team found that when the proteasome was “jammed” up, toxic levels of old proteins built up in the cancer cells before the proteosome could clear them out. Without the help in throwing away the discarded proteins, the cancer cells were overwhelmed and died. Crews determined that this could be recreated by an anti-cancer drug.

“You can imagine a small molecule, a drug, that works under this new paradigm, will truly be one that can seek and destroy rogue, disease-causing proteins,” said Crews in a May 18 article in Stat News.

Crews was recently awarded the National Cancer Institute’s Outstanding Investigator Award. Crews, one of 60 U.S. scientists to receive the award, which brings $4.2 million over seven years to support his lab’s research, says the money will make a big difference in his research and could lead to “a second chance” for drugs that were abandoned because “they couldn’t block the function of rogue proteins.”

“This award will help us change the current small-molecule drug paradigm that fails to target 75% of rogue proteins,” Crews said. “Instead, we propose to hijack the cells’ quality-control machinery so that this new class of drugs can bind to and destroy these disease-causing proteins.”

If everything continues on track, Crews hopes that Arvinas, working with Merck and Genentech, will be testing this approach to cleaning up cancer within a year.

For the full story, “A tinkerer takes on cancer by hijacking the tiny garbage trucks inside every cell,” see the May 18 article in Stat News.