Y Ninguno de los dos ha demostrado ser particularmente efectivo y les ha dado a los pacientes con mesotelioma una mediana de supervivencia libre de progresión de menos de tres meses, y una mediana de supervivencia global de menos de nueve meses.
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3 de Octubre 2019 .
Mesothelioma Researchers are all-too aware that the disease they’re investigating is extremely resistant to treatment. They have to measure victories in small increments, and being able to offer patients even a few more months of life has significant value. So it is no wonder that attendees at this year’s European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress being held in Barcelona were so heartened by news delivered by the Swiss Group for Clinical Cancer Research (SAKK): The non-profit revealed that its Phase II trial of their new drug lurbinectedin had provided significant progression free survival for mesothelioma patients when used as a second or third line palliative treatment.
Extending progression-free survival is the goal .
Malignant mesothelioma is an aggressive form of cancer for which very few treatment protocols have proven to be effective. In many cases patients are treated with the first-line chemotherapy treatment, only to find that their disease and symptoms eventually return. As indicated in the presentation at ESMO, there is currently no standard second-line treatment for mesothelioma that has proven effective, and that is what SAKK hopes lurbinectedin will provide.
According to Dr. Metaxas, the coordinating investigator of the Phase II trial, 42 patients with progressive malignant pleural mesothelioma were given the drug with a goal of achieving 12 weeks of Progression Free Survival. The researcher said that they achieved this goal in 52.4% of patients.
Guidelines?
While there are no universally accepted mesothelioma treatments second line or beyond, US NCCN guidelines already list Opdivo with or without Yervoy, as well as Keytruda, as possible options.
Meanwhile, another academic trial, run by the Swiss SAKK group, gave Pharmamar’s Zepsyre to 42 second/third-line subjects, and reported that this resulted in median OS and PFS of 11.1 and 4.1 months. Interestingly, in this case “slow” as well as “fast” progressing patients benefited from Zepsyre, Kantonsspital Graubünden’s Dr Yannis Metaxas told Esmo today.
Pharmamar’s focus with Zepsyre is small-cell lung cancer. Nevertheless, Dr Metaxas said his data warranted the testing of this project in mesothelioma in phase III.
