The American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine recently published the findings of a Dr. Joachim Aerts concerning a new immunotherapy treatment for use in treating and vaccinating against mesothelioma. The study is part of a growing body of immunotherapy research which aims to rally the body’s natural defenses against complex diseases such as mesothelioma and other cancers. The treatment which Dr. Joachim Aerts and his colleagues are developing demonstrated great potential, increasing antibody counts in patients and in some cases reducing the size of their tumors.

Mesothelioma is an aggressive and terminal cancer caused by exposure to asbestos fibers. Asbestos fibers enter a patient’s body through inhalation or ingestion, and due to their microscopic size and odd needle like shape pass through the body’s normal defenses for collecting and expelling foreign debris. The fibers collect in the mesothelium, a protective soft tissue lining that encases the body’s organs, and causes severe tissue scarring. In time, scarring of the mesothelium can lead to the development of malignant tumors which spread and cause death, often in less than two years. Every year more than three thousand Americans are diagnosed with mesothelioma, and the rare cancer is becoming an even bigger problem worldwide as developing countries increase asbestos imports without effectively enforcing safe handling procedures.

Dr Joachim Aerts’ vaccine is particularly exciting because of its lack of serious side effects. If the treatment itself is sufficiently effective,it would considerably improve the quality of life of those patients whose current options are limited to harsh chemotherapy and radiotherapy. While conventional therapies induce such side effects as dramatic loss of strength, hair loss, weight loss, and weakening of the body’s autoimmune system, Aerts’ treatment at worst causes a brief stint of flu like symptoms.

The new treatment works with the patient’s dendritic cells to create the necessary antigins for combating the cancer. Dr Joachim, a lung specialist at Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, Holland, hopes that his research will contribute to future treatments which enable a patient’s immune system to eradicate the disease. Immunotherapy techniques, if proven sufficiently effective in destroying cancer cells, will bring a great change to current cancer treatments and could vastly improve the prognosis of diseases like mesothelioma.

Some of the current limitations to immunotherapy are discussed in Dr. Aerts’ recently published study, including complications introduced by immunosuppressive disorders and some inherent difficulties in combating advanced tumors with autoimmune responses due to the state of the autoimmune system in patients with advanced cancers. Despite the obstacles, immunotherapy shows great promise for cancer treatment in the future.

The University of Hawaii’s Cancer Research Center will be re-evaluated by the National Cancer Institute next week to ascertain whether it will maintain its designation as an NCI Cancer Center. The University of Hawaii’s Cancer Research Center received about $1.5 million from the NCI last year, helping Dr. Michelle Carbone, the Cancer Research Center’s director, to continue her work in the study of mesothelioma, an aggressive and incurable cancer that results from asbestos exposure. Dr. Carbone specifically studies the impact of environmental carcinogens, viral infections, and genetics on the development of mesothelioma.

The University of Hawaii’s Cancer Research Center’s designation as an NCI Cancer Center is important to mesothelioma research as it allocates financial and research support that helps scientists reach their goals of improving the disease’s diagnosis and treatment processes. Carbone had indicated that the NCI designation was in danger when he became the new director of the Cancer Center in September of 2009. Since then, the staff has worked to address the NCI’s specific concerns in an effort to maintain the assistance that improves the efficacy and output of their efforts.

The Hawaii Cancer Center has worked to fill many vacant positions, established partnerships and cooperative programs with other research facilities, and has begun the design of a new research center. These types of responsible developments could help them to maintain the NCI funding that’s vital to the mesothelioma research that they are conducting.

Mesothelioma affects more than 3,000 individuals annually in the United States alone, and brandishes a frightening prognosis that often gives patients no more than 18 months to live. The incurable cancer is caused almost exclusively by exposure to dangerous asbestos fibers, which through inhalation or ingestion can become lodged in a soft tissue called the mesothelium that protects our bodies’ vital organs. The disease can take decades to fully develop, and mesothelioma symptoms are so generic that they can be difficult to recognize properly.

Cancer Centers that are designated by the NCI are major contributors to the race for a cure for cancer. They are often recognized for their scientific excellence and their substantial discoveries in regards to improving the diagnosis and treatment of various cancers. While NCI supported Cancer Centers receive a huge amount of support that helps them to further their research, they must be re-evaluated each year to ensure that their research merits the NCI’s assistance.

The Australian pharmaceutical company Bionomics recently announced that they will be moving into Phase II clinical trials on their newest compound designed to fight mesothelioma. The trials, which will begin this year, are being conducted based on the success of the first round of Phase I testing which took place throughout 2009. Dr. Deborah Rathjen, the Chief Executive Officer of Bionomics, stated that the Phase I trials which were conducted throughout various participating cancer centers and hospitals showed a lot of promise. The new drug also demonstrated the ability to both destroy individual cancer cells and reduce blood flow to cancerous tumors during animal testing.

The new drug, known as BCN105, will be tested this year on sixty different patients suffering from mesothelioma. The trials will aim to improve the prognosis for patients suffering from this aggressive form of cancer, as well as increase their quality of life.

Mesothelioma is an aggressive and fatal cancer that attacks the mesothelium, a soft tissue lining found in both the chest and abdominal cavities. Patients diagnosed with mesothelioma are normally given less than two years to live. The cancer has been linked with asbestos exposure and has become a source of controversy in regards to negligent practices on the part of industrial employers over the last century.

The new drug, BCN105, says Dr. Rathjen, is expected to be more effective against mesothelioma and other types of cancer due to the malignant cells’ inability to develop a resistance to its activities. In many chemotherapy treatments, cancerous cells eventually form an immunity to the drug being used and stop reacting to its presence after some time. In the past, this has necessitated the use of several different drugs being used during therapy to ensure that the cancer is unable to adapt. This practice, unfortunately, can contribute to a rapid deterioration of the patient’s health. Dr. Rathjen hopes that cancer cells will be unable to develop an immunity to BCN105 as effectively as existing treatments.

The Phase II trials will be conducted in Australia until the beginning of 2011. If the trials continue to show promise and can be proved effective against mesothelioma, Bionomics will begin to consider its commercial applications.

A Palliative Care Options conference will be hosted in San Diego, California, on Tuesday the 8th of December, next week at the Town & Country Resort and Convention Center. The convention will discuss supportive care options for patients of mesothelioma. Supportive care, or palliative care, refers to treatments and practices for decreasing pain and improving comfort in patients that are afflicted with fatal diseases.

Mesothelioma affects between 2,000 and 3,000 people each year in the United States, comprising a substantial 3% of total cancer diagnoses in the country. The deadly cancer is caused by exposure to asbestos and asbestos fibers. It is a very aggressive, incurable cancer that occurs most commonly in the chest or abdominal cavities after the patient either inhales or ingests the dangerous substance. The disease can take several decades to occur after exposure to asbestos fibers, which contributes to the fact that it is exceedingly difficult to diagnose. Also contributing to the difficult diagnosis are the disease’s generic, flu like symptoms. Due to the aggressiveness of the cancer and the long amount of time it normally takes for a correct diagnosis, patients who learn that they have mesothelioma are often told they can expect to live only 6 to 18 months from their diagnosis. Mesothelioma’s very poor prognosis directly contributes to the value of supportive or palliative care options, which work to alleviate the patient’s discomfort and improve the time they have left to spend with their family and loved ones.

The Palliative Care Options conference will be conducted by a Dr. Charles F. von Gunten, an Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine at the Institute of Palliative Medicine in San Diego, California. Dr. von Gunten is among the nation’s leading experts in supportive care and aims to ensure that doctors, patients and families of patients are thoroughly informed about their options in when it comes to mesothelioma treatment. The doctor is the Editor in Chief of the Journal of Palliative Medicine, a renowned investigator of the National Cancer Institute, and the former President of the American Association for Cancer Education.

A thorough understanding of mesothelioma, likely treatment scenarios for the disease, and the role that supportive or palliative care can play can be incredibly important to both mesothelioma patients and their families alike. Often, an oncologist’s unrelenting determination to destroy or remove the cancer effectively can come at the cost of a reduced quality of life for the patient due to invasive and traumatic treatments. Palliative care aims to keep the patient’s best interests in mind in terms of both the quantity and the quality of their life. These options often promote treatments that will encourage a better overall experience for mesothelioma patients and their families. Depending on the circumstance, palliative care can be comprised of treatments like chemotherapy, radiotherapy, or surgeries to improve the patients ability to breath easily or to halt painful fluid buildup. Less intensive treatments such as meditation, dietary changes, acupuncture, massage and hypnosis may also be recommended to improve the patient’s comfort level.

During the conference next Tuesday, Dr. von Gunten will promote supportive care techniques to doctors, patients and their families that will improve the quality of their life and their overall treatment experience.

A new radiotherapy technique has been discovered by researchers at the Austin Health Centre in Victoria, Australia. The radiotherapy is said to improve the life expectancy of mesothelioma sufferers, which, sadly, is often around just two years from diagnosis.

For seven years Dr. Malcolm Feigen, an Austin Health Centre Radiation Oncologist, has been researching and developing new mesothelioma treatment techniques which make use of high dose radiotherapy. So far, thirteen patients have been involved in the trial procedures. Dr. Feigan reports that advances in technology and available equipment have allowed the team at the Austin Health Centre to safely increase radiotherapy doses in their mesothelioma patients, and with impressive results.

“… we’ve been very impressed that in most cases there’s a considerable improvement in the activity of the tumour masses that we’ve given high doses of radiotherapy;” Dr. Feigan said, “and most patients have got through the course of treatment with no major side effects and some have had long-term benefits.”

The doctor continued to say that most patients treated exclusively with radiotherapy tend to realize short term benefits before the cancer becomes active again.

“But with radiotherapy it doesn’t come back in the same area and if we find patients early enough we may be able to stop any further developments of their disease,” he added.

Most of the patients involved in the trial treatment had surgery to remove cancerous tumors prior to radiotherapy, which seems to drastically improve the results. Dr. Feigan believes the new radiotherapy treatment in conjunction with other treatments shows plenty of promise, and on average can already give patients another two years to live.

“Some patients go on to have a number of good years before sometimes the tumour comes back in areas that we haven’t been able to give radiotherapy to,” he said.

“Some have had chemotherapy before they see us or afterwards and that does provide an additional benefit, but not always, and we think that most of the symptoms are relieved more effectively by high doses of radiotherapy than these other alternatives.”

A national oncology conference will receive Dr. Feigan next week to present his findings. The doctor hopes to gain some support for his research and encourage other cancer centres to help further his work.

The new treatment has already created somewhat of a stir which has been received by the medical community excitedly, if with some reservation. Professor Ian Olver, the CEO of the Cancer Council of Australia, welcomes further research in this direction and says that the findings to date are promising.

“I think it’s an important finding that radiation has a useful role along with other therapies, not so much on its own, so they’ve really found the niche for radiotherapy in this disease,” Professor Ian Olver said.