Mesothelioma Clinical Trials

A clinical trial for mesothelioma is a research study in which you agree to receive treatment with promising new approaches that are being tested to find out if they are safe and effective. If you meet the trial's specific qualifications, your participation helps doctors find better ways to prevent, diagnose, and treat your mesothelioma. The goal of the trial is to gain reliable information about the drug while protecting you, the patient.

If there is scientific evidence a new treatment may be beneficial, researchers develop a plan called a clinical trial protocol that is to be used by every doctor who treats participating patients using the new approach.

Clinical trials are divided into phases that measure both the safety of a new drug or treatment and its effectiveness for positively affecting the course of your disease. And though they can take a long time, the hope is that ultimately only beneficial drugs with acceptable side effects will be made available to those who need them. The FDA recently approved certain changes in their regulations to help speed up the approval of effective drugs, especially for cancer. More about Alimta here.

Trial Phases

Though mesothelioma has no known cure at this time, clinical trials are regularly being conducted to test new drugs and procedures to fight the disease. Each trial consists of three phases:

• Phase I trials usually work with a small number of people to test how new drugs or procedures can best be given.
• Phase II trials give early information about how a new drug or procedure works, what benefits it might give, and how safe it is for patients.
• Phase III trials test new drugs or procedures against current standard treatments. This phase usually involves many people from across the nation who receive either the new treatment or the standard treatment.

 Click for answers to other questions you may have about mesothelioma clinical trials.

Eligibility

Accurate results from clinical trials require that participants fit a certain profile. Mesothelioma trials are often specific as to age, length of time since therapy, stage of disease, and other characteristics.

Current Clinical Trials

Be sure to consult with your medical team about any clinical trials they may be able to recommend for you. Alternatively, the staff at The Gathering Place (216.595.9546 coan@touchedbycancer.org) in Beachwood, Ohio, can provide help to anyone looking for a clinical trial.

If you research on your own, you should know that the number of clinical trials for tests and treatments for mesothelioma has increased dramatically in the last few years. Following are just some of the clinical trials (all are Phase II unless otherwise specified) currently underway for studying mesothelioma treatments. This list-which does not include every available trial-is grouped generally by the type of treatment being tested so that you can sort through it a little more easily. The categories are:

Drugs when surgery is ineffective
Drugs with surgery and with or without radiation therapy
Combinations of drugs
Various specific drugs
Other therapies
General testing

Testing drugs when surgery is ineffective.

• How well AZD2171 works in treating patients with malignant pleural, peritoneal, or tunica vaginalis mesothelioma that cannot be removed by surgery. Details and eligibility
• A second trial of how well AZD2171 works for treating patients with mesothelioma. Details
• PXD101 as Second-Line Therapy for treating mesothelioma

Testing drugs with surgery and with or without radiation therapy

• How well giving pemetrexed disodium and cisplatin followed by surgery and radiation therapy works in treating patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma
• A second trial of pemetrexed disodium and cisplatin followed by surgery with or without radiation therapy
• Testing neoadjuvant chemotherapy with pemetrexed plus cisplatin followed by surgery and radiotherapy

Testing drug combinations

• Testing maximum effective dose of cisplatin, imatinib mesylate, and pemetrexed
• Testing combination of cisplatin, pemetrexed and bevacizumab for previously untreated mesothelioma
• Testing pemetrexed disodium and gemcitabine to see how well they work compared to pemetrexed disodium and carboplatin
• Phase I trial studying the side effects and best dose of decitabine and FR901228, a chemotherapy drug combination
• Phase I trial studying the side effects and best dose of FR901228 when given together with flavopiridol, a chemotherapy drug combination
• Randomized phase III trial studying doxorubicin alone to see how well it works compared to doxorubicin and Onconase, chemotherapy drug combinations
• Assessing antitumor activity of the combination of bevacizumab, pemetrexed and carboplatin

Testing various drugs for treating patients with mesothelioma

• Testing the effects of pemetrexed on mesothelioma and lung cancer patients with fluid around their lungs or abdomen
• How well sunitinib works in treating patients with advanced malignant mesothelioma of the pleura
• Testing an investigational drug called MORAb-009 (Phase I) Details
• Studying the side effects and how well pazopanib works
• Testing how well NGR-hTNF as single agent affects patients with advanced or metastatic malignant pleural mesothelioma
• Phase I trial studying the side effects and best dose of flavopiridol, a chemotherapy drug
• Phase I study evaluating the safety of two doses of BG00001

Testing various general therapies

• Chemotherapy with or without surgery and chemoradiotherapy
• Bortezomib and Cisplatin as first-line therapy
• Multiple drugs for Active symptom control with chemotherapy as opposed to without
• New more aggressive radiation therapy: tomotherapy
• Testing how well antineoplastons (naturally-occurring substances that may also be made in the laboratory) work in treating mesothelioma
• Testing the effectiveness of combining cyclophosphamide with tumor cell vaccine

General testing

• Determine the effectiveness of radiation therapy in preventing metastatic cancer in patients who have undergone diagnostic procedures to identify malignant mesothelioma (Randomized Phase III trial)
• Testing low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) to develop an early-diagnosis tool for mesothelioma in prior asbestos workers
• Phase I trial studying the side effects of vaccine therapy and GM-CSF

The U.S. National Institutes of Health operates dozens of clinical trials. All are listed here

Keywords: surgery, pemetrexed disodium, cisplatin, AZD2171, malignant pleural mesothelioma, peritoneal, tunica vaginalis mesothelioma, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, chemoradiotherapy