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Mesothelioma is a type of cancer caused primarily by exposure to asbestos. (Representative photo)
UK scientists have welcomed a “truly wonderful” new drug for an aggressive and difficult-to-treat form of cancer. According The Guardian, researchers at Queen Mary University of London said their new treatment “quadrupled” three-year survival rates and increased average survival by 1.6 months. They also added that the new drug, which works by cutting off the tumor’s food supply, is the first of its kind for mesothelioma in 20 years. The results were published in the JAMA Oncology magazine.
Mesothelioma is a type of cancer that develops in the lungs and is primarily caused by exposure to asbestos at work. It is aggressive and deadly and has one of the worst cancer survival rates in the world. Thousands of people are diagnosed with the disease around the world and, according to official figures, around 2,700 new cases of mesothelioma occur in the UK each year.
Researchers from Queen Mary University of London carried out an international trial in five countries: the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Italy and Taiwan. For the study, led by Professor Peter Szlosarek of Queen Mary, the team observed that all patients received chemotherapy every three weeks for up to six cycles. Half of them were injected with the new drug ADI-PEG20 (pegargiminase), while the other half received a placebo for two years.
Patients included in the final analysis included 249 people with pleural mesothelioma, when the disease affects the lining of the lungs. They had an average age of 70 years.
The ATOMIC-meso trial was carried out at 43 centers in five countries between 2017 and 2021. Patients involved in the study were followed for at least one year. Those who received pegagiminase and chemotherapy survived an average of 9.3 months, compared with 7.7 months for those who received placebo and chemotherapy, according to the study.
The average “progression-free survival” was 6.2 months with pegagiminase chemotherapy, compared with 5.6 months among patients who received placebo and chemotherapy, the researchers said.
“In this pivotal phase 3, randomized, placebo-controlled trial in 249 patients with pleural mesothelioma, pegagiminase chemotherapy significantly increased median overall survival by 1.6 months and quadrupled survival at 36 months compared with chemotherapy. with placebo,” the authors wrote. .
“Pegagiminase-based chemotherapy was well tolerated and there were no new safety signals,” they added.
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According to the researchers, this is the first successful combination of chemotherapy with a drug targeting cancer metabolism developed for this disease in 20 years. The new drug works by reducing arginine levels in the bloodstream. For tumor cells that cannot make their own arginine, this means their growth is thwarted.
“It’s really wonderful to see research on arginine deficiency in cancer cells coming to fruition,” said Professor Szlosarek. “This discovery is something I have been driving since its early stages in the laboratory, with a new treatment, ADI-PEG20, now improving the lives of patients affected by mesothelioma,” he added.