In the roughly half-century since doctors came to understand mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases, patient treatment options have largely revolved around surgery, chemotherapy, and medication cocktails.
But the mesothelioma trial attorneys at The Williams Law Firm, P.C., in New York City, are encouraged by recent treatment successes using cancer immunotherapy. We want to make sure that clients understand and discuss this option with their doctors.
Cancer clinicians are now seeing more significant tumor shrinkage with these new medicines.
Despite the fact immunotherapy, or any treatment that boosts the body’s natural capacity to fight disease, has been successful when confronting some types of cancer, initial clinical trials of immunotherapy treatments for mesothelioma patients achieved less-than-promising results.
Doctors, however, have expanded the variety of immunotherapy drugs and strategies. Cancer clinicians are now seeing more significant tumor shrinkage with these new medicines.
Immunotherapy is a method of cancer treatment that works with the body’s immune system to attack and fight cancer cells. CRS-207, a newer immunotherapy vaccine, is showing great success in the disease control rate of patients with pleural mesothelioma. A recent multicenter clinical trial found that CRS-207, when combined with chemotherapy, allowed for a 94% control rate in patients with advanced and unresectable mesothelioma. What’s more, tumor shrinkage was reported in 85% of patients and median progression-free survival increased by nearly three months.
One immunotherapy vaccine is showing great promise in the control of pleural mesothelioma.
CRS-207 contains Listeria monocytogenes, a bacterium that is capable of producing anti-tumor immune response without any serious side-effects. For this most recent study, researchers administered two doses of the vaccine for two weeks, followed by six cycles of pemetrexed and cisplatin over a three week period, and capped by two more CRS-207 infusions spaced three weeks apart.
While these results are very encouraging, the test group for this study was small. Randomized clinical trials are currently underway to see if larger groups of mesothelioma patients will experience similarly positive results when immunotherapy is combined with chemotherapy. In 2015, the FDA granted CRS-207 orphan drug designation to incentivize its development and speed the progression of new and well-tolerated mesothelioma treatments.
Regardless of whether you’re recently diagnosed with an asbestos disease, or you’ve already tried several mesothelioma treatments, attorneys at The Williams Law Firm in New York City take pride in providing “meso” survivors just like you with legal advice and assistance in battling the disease.
If you or a family member was diagnosed with mesothelioma, please contact The Williams Law Firm online or call (855) 955-6376 for your free case consultation. Our New York mesothelioma attorneys represent victims from Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island and across the United States.
