Kidney cancer treatment may benefit mesothelioma patients

A group of Austrian researchers tested chemotherapy drug temsirolimus, currently used for kidney cancer, malignant mesothelioma. Temsirolimus is an inhibitor of the kinase, but the targets and blocks the functions of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), an essential protein that regulates cell growth. In cases of kidney cancer, temsirolimus has stopped or greatly slowed the growth of a malignant tumor.

Although the results of temsirolimus on cancerous cells are mesothelioma showing similarities with those of kidney cancer cells, there is no turning back. The tests showed the malignant mesothelioma cells resistant to commonly used chemotherapy drugs, cisplatin, to be more resistant to temsirolimus. This led researchers to believe that temsirolimus as second-line treatment for mesothelioma, or a medicament for use in combination with first-line treatment of others.

Mesothelioma treatments are usually administered in combination. Standard procedures include surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. These can be administered in the form of cancer directly, in an attempt to eradicate the malignant cells of the body, or as palliative treatment in order to improve the quality of life for patients and prolong the expectancy life.

Mesothelioma has a short life expectancy after diagnosis, with an average of eighteen months. Mesothelioma is caused by toxic chemicals that asbestos fibers, if inhaled, he began to develop cancer of the lining of the lungs and the lining of the abdominal cavity of others.

Professor Walter Berger, Ph.D., Institute of Cancer Research at the Medical University of Vienna, said that the rare cancer mesothelioma on: "Malignant mesothelioma is a serious malignancy characterized by a very poor prognosis, with an average time of patients survived less than a year This unacceptable situation is mainly caused by delayed diagnosis associated with resistance to all the distinct forms of systemic therapy available to date Mesothelioma is often caused by exposure to asbestos, and unfortunately, -.. on the basis of the long latency period - the peak incidence is found, despite the ban of asbestos still in progress so, new therapeutic options for this disease are urgently needed devastated "..

The results and conclusions of the Austrian study were published in the May issue of the Journal of Thoracic Oncology. Berger's study: "In our preclinical study, published in the BCT, we were able to demonstrate that inhibition of mTOR is the major active against oncogenic human mesothelioma, especially after the development of resistance to chemotherapy in vitro and in vivo these. results suggest the early clinical trials of mTOR inhibitors as a new strategy against mesothelioma.