A clinical trial recently conducted in Japan and supervised by the Japanese Ministry of Health and researchers in the cancer Eli Lilly and Company has had very promising results . They recently announced that a combination of pemetrexed and cisplatin, two chemotherapy drugs, patients safely and effectively treated with malignant pleural mesothelioma and effectively prevented the spread of asbestos cancer in the trial participants.
Pleural mesothelioma is a rare form of cancer that occurs in the pleura, or lining of the cavity of the lung, which is caused by exposure to asbestos fibers in suspension. This study involved 20 participants who were aged between 20 and 75 and have been diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma were visible and measurable cancer tumors. Those who participated in this clinical trial were not eligible for curative surgery and had not received chemotherapy before trial.
Participants were monitored throughout the study because they received two pemetrexed plus cisplatin chemotherapy. Pemetrexed is a chemotherapy drug known as Alimta and is designed to interfere with the replication and spread of cancer cells in the body by preventing the production of key enzymes necessary for cell growth. Cisplatin is also a chemotherapy drug which is known to induce apoptosis or death of cancer cells. When accompanying pemetrexed, both drugs were highly effective in preventing the spread of cancer to other parts of the body.
The results of this trial are very encouraging for oncologists and cancer researchers, not to mention thousands of people with pleural mesothelioma cancer or other malignant mesothelioma cancers and those who suffer from other lung cancer non-small cell. The combination of pemetrexed and cisplatin was approved by the Federal Drug Administration and is a valid initial method of treatment for patients.
