Mesothelioma Information Washington DC Blog | Parker, Dumler and Kiely LLP

Thursday, October 30, 2008

New Mesothelioma Treatments: Gene Therapy

Gene therapy is still in the experimental stage but is thought to show a lot of promise and could one day be effective for mesothelioma. To understand the basics of gene therapy one has to know a few basics about genes.

Each of us has something between 30,000 and 40,000 genes which determine our height, eye color etc. and are stored inside chromosomes, which in turn are inside body cells. Genes are made of a molecule called DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid).

Digging deeper down into the microscopic level of our bodies, each DNA molecule is a string of thousands of little units called nucleotides. So the ever-smaller sequence goes like this:

Body cells / chromosomes / genes / DNA molecules / nucleotides

The sequence of nucleotides in each DNA string (strand) is a sort of code which contains instructions to our body cells. This enables the body cells to produce various proteins such as enzymes.

Mistakes Can Happen in Gene Activity
There can be mistakes in the nucleotide sequence in a DNA molecule, and this is called gene mutation. The mistakes can be inherited. Results can be abnormal proteins, too much or too little of any given protein, or poor timing in protein production. This is how cancerous tumors begin.

Gene Therapy Takes Several Approaches

Replacing a mutated gene with a healthy copy of that gene
Inactivating mutated genes which are causing problems
Bringing new genes into the body to help combat disease

Gene therapy is being tried for cancer, some inherited disorders, and HIV/AIDS. Genes can be introduced through an intravenous line to the targeted body area. Alternatively, body tissue such as blood or bone marrow can first be removed. Then in a laboratory they are allowed to multiply before the gene is introduced into them and allowed to multiply with the gene. The resulting tissue is injected back into the patient.

There are currently no FDA-approved types of gene therapy, but a great deal of research is being devoted to it. If you or a loved one are suffering from mesothelioma there are forms of chemotherapy, radiation and surgery that can be done. They can be combined with the newer treatments of Photodynamic Therapy or Immunotherapy (see previous blogs) for enhanced results.

To learn more about your legal rights and options in regard to mesothelioma, please call or email our experienced mesothelioma attorneys to schedule a free consultation.

posted by Patti at 9:22 AM

Saturday, October 25, 2008

New Mesothelioma Treatments: Photodynamic Therapy (PDT)

Photodynamic therapy regards a cancer cell as a single-celled organism. It proceeds on the premise that if a cancer cell is treated with a light-sensitive drug and then exposed to a light of a specific wavelength, it will die.

PDT Has Two Steps

The light-sensitive drug (photosensitizer) is administered through an intravenous line. Over the next few days it is naturally eliminated from the body’s normal cells and concentrates itself in cancer cells (a mesothelioma or other type of tumor).
A laser is targeted on the tumor, where the treated cells absorb the light and produce a specific form of oxygen which destroys neighboring cells. Timing is important, as the laser step must be done after all or most of the light-sensitive drug is still present in the cancer cells but has left normal cells.

The photosensitizing drug can also damage blood vessels in the tumor, which deprives it of oxygen and nourishment, making it shrink. There is also some evidence that it can activate the immune system to attack tumor cells.

Rather than being shone through the skin and other tissue outside the pleura where the mesothelioma is located, the laser light is sent by means of a fiber optic cable. The cable is inserted into the body through an endoscope, which is a thin tube with a camera and light at its tip, which sends images to a computer. This gives your surgeon a clear and magnified view on the computer monitor of the tumor and what is happening in the area.

PDT is an outpatient procedure and may be combined with other more traditional treatments such as chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery.

If you or a loved one are suffering from mesothelioma because of a past employer’s use of asbestos and negligence in warning or protecting you from its dangers, please contact our experienced mesothelioma lawyers for a free consultation.

posted by Patti at 9:19 AM

Monday, October 20, 2008

New Mesothelioma Treatments: Immunotherapy

The body has an immune system which protects it from disease. In some it works very comprehensively and efficiently and in others not so well. But research has been done on how the immune system can be assisted in recognizing cancer cells and then disposing of them.

The substances used for immunotherapy are called Biological Response Modifiers (BRMs). Some occur naturally in the body and others can now be made in a laboratory to mimic the natural ones. Several approaches are being taken in how to use BRMs to enhance the immune system’s response to cancerous cells. The BRMs may:

Help the immune system prevent cancer cell growth
Make the cancer cells more vulnerable to destruction
Change the cancer cell growth pattern to more closely resemble normal cells
Prevent cancer cells from spreading to other body areas
Suppress body responses that allow cancerous cells to grow
Stop or reverse the process by which a normal cell becomes cancerous

So far studies have used only one drug at a time. Mesotheliomas have several ways of avoiding detection by the immune system, so future studies will be combining immunotherapy with other treatments such as surgery, chemotherapy and radiation.

Cancer Vaccines
There are several types of cancer vaccines and they work a little differently than the familiar measles or mumps vaccines. An example is tumor cell vaccines. They contain cancer cells taken from the patient and altered so as to be more recognizable by the immune system. They are then injected back into the patient in hopes that the immune system will recognize the antigens (special molecules) on the altered cells and therefore attack other cells with those same antigens – namely, the mesothelioma.

Medical research is always complex and time-consuming and the many possibilities must be tested separately to obtain clarity of results. Testing procedures for obtaining FDA approval take several years and require studies of differing sizes. So FDA approval is slow and expensive to obtain. Time will tell whether immunotherapy will produce successful cancer prevention.

If you would like to have a free consultation with one of our knowledgeable mesothelioma attorneys, please call or email our office today.

posted by Patti at 9:16 AM

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

New Mesothelioma Treatments: Anti-Angiogenesis Drugs

Mesothelioma is a type of lung cancer and for many decades now, all cancers have been a challenge to treat. Much of the research has focused on the differences between normal cells and cancer cells. Chemotherapy is such a stressful and difficult process to go through because the drugs hitherto used have not been able to confine their effects to cancer cells. They have affected normal cells as well, all those which have relatively fast growth cycles. So patients lose hair, and have stomach upsets and mouth sores because those cells divide rapidly and can’t be differentiated from cancerous cells.

What is Angiogenesis?
The anti-angiogenesis drugs are a group of new drugs which can spare the body’s normal cells while targeting only the cancer cells. Angiogenesis is the term for the production of new blood cells. When the body is growing, it creates new blood vessels to nourish the new body cells. In an adult who develops a cancerous tumor, the body mistakenly does the same thing.

At first the small tumor uses the existing local blood supply but as it grows it needs new veins and arteries. The body creates them, which facilitates cancerous growth. Anti-angiogenesis drugs are designed to prevent these new blood vessels from forming, thus preventing tumor growth. They might be able to both shrink existing tumors and prevent new ones from forming.

In some cases angiogenesis drugs are being combined with traditional chemotherapy drugs, as testing done so far has yielded better results and longer survival.

Current Testing
The first of the angiogenesis drugs obtained FDA approval in 2004 for treating metastatic colon cancer. Currently there are three drugs in Phase II testing for untreated mesothelioma (cisplatin, pemetrexed and bevacizumab); and two are in Phase II testing for previously-treated mesothelioma. Hundreds of others are in various other testing phases for mesothelioma and some are still enrolling patients with malignant mesothelioma.

To learn more about your legal rights and options, please contact our experienced mesothelioma attorneys today.

posted by Patti at 9:12 AM