Chemotherapy extends life in pleural mesothelioma
For patients with the drug so far as little as a controllable current malignant pleural mesothelioma, there is now a treatment option. Studies have shown that the antifolate pemetrexed in combination with cisplatin can prolong the survival of these patients.
Pemetrexed (Alimta ®) was approved in September for the indication for pleural mesothelioma and second-line chemotherapy in advanced cancer. It is the first drug that has an approval in Europe for the treatment of patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma.
In a large Phase III trial survived the patients who received pemetrexed and cisplatin had an average of twelve months. Untreated patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma usually die within months after diagnosis. Just over half the patients treated with pemetrexed and cisplatin was, after a year still alive. Of the patients in the control group who received only cisplatin, at that time lived only 38 percent. (more…)
