U.S. News and World Report has recently written about a clinical trial for an experimental mesothelioma treatment that is being conducted at the Mesothelioma Center at New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University Medical Center. The trial is investigating the combined use of chemotherapy and radiation in the treatment of pleural mesothelioma, which is a departure from the standard therapies that normally specify some form of curative surgery. Patients who are enrolled in the trial will receive multiple cycles of a chemotherapy regimen consisting of either cisplatin and doxorubicin or cisplatin and pemetrexed (Alimta). The latter chemotherapy regimen is the current standard of care in chemotherapy for mesothelioma. All of these patients will receive radiation that is targeted directly at the pleural tissue on the lung.

Although the treatment regimen does not specify curative surgery, it will be available for patients who elect to undergo it. Patients can choose between extrapleural pneumonectomy and pleurectomy/decortication.

The trial is investigating whether this regimen will demonstrate any improvements in overall patient outcome than do the standard therapies.

The Mesothelioma Center at New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University Medical Center is the only cancer center in the country to offer this therapy.

Labels: chemotherapy, mesothelioma, radiation, treatments