When used together, chemotherapy and immunotherapy may hold promise for mesothelioma patients. Researchers found that this combination could help patients live up to eight months longer than if they only received chemotherapy.
Clinical Trial Results Showed Mesothelioma Patients Lived Longer
A new clinical trial combined chemotherapy and immunotherapy to treat mesothelioma. The results of this trial have been promising.
The overall patient survival in this clinical trial was 20.4 months. The average survival time is just 12 months with chemotherapy alone.
The results were first reported by Dr. Patrick Forde of the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center as part of the American Society for Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting in late May 2020.
Notably, none of the patients in the trial could have their cancer surgically removed. This is important as surgery has typically been how mesothelioma patients improved their lifespan.
According to a report about the study from Johns Hopkins University: “This is the first study to show survival times exceeding 20 months for patients with inoperable mesothelioma.”
If this treatment combination shows success in more studies, it could help thousands of people with mesothelioma live longer.
Breakdown of This Mesothelioma Clinical Trial
This clinical trial combined an immunotherapy drug (durvalumab) and two chemotherapy drugs (cisplatin and pemetrexed). Every patient in the clinical trial had pleural mesothelioma, which develops in the lining of the lungs.
Chemotherapy is the use of drug treatments to kill cancerous cells. Cisplatin and pemetrexed are the most commonly used chemotherapy drugs to treat mesothelioma.
Immunotherapy drugs retrain the patient’s immune system to recognize and kill cancer cells.
The clinical trial treated 55 patients across 15 U.S. cancer centers with the new drug combination.
Researchers found that over 70% of patients were still alive a year after receiving the chemotherapy and immunotherapy combination.
Further, patients did not experience any unexpected side effects, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Previous Mesothelioma Clinical Trials Found Similar Results
This 2020 study was not the first to test a combination of chemotherapy and immunotherapy for cancer.
The 2018 DREAM trial based out of Australia also reported positive results when testing a similar combination of drugs. 54 patients received durvalumab with cisplatin and pemetrexed in this trial.
The median progression-free survival (PFS) in these patients was nearly 7 months. Progression-free survival is the amount of time that a patient lives with the disease without it getting worse.
More Combination Trials on the Horizon For Mesothelioma Patients
Both the 2018 and 2020 trials have shown that long-term survival may be possible with immunotherapy and chemotherapy. Due to this, more patients will soon be able to access this combination through clinical trials.
Clinical trials progress in phases (from 0 to 4) and each phase accepts more patients. The May 2020 findings came from a phase 2 clinical trial.
Dr. Forde said: “Because of the promising results, we are in the process of starting a phase 3 study to confirm the benefit of this approach.”
The phase 3 trial has been delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. It is currently scheduled to begin later in 2020. The new study will combine with the DREAM trial and recruit patients from both the U.S. and Australia.
Contact us to see if you can join a clinical trial after a mesothelioma diagnosis. While you may not qualify to join this upcoming trial specifically, there may be other ones you can join. Our team can also answer other questions you may have about mesothelioma.
