A personal medicine study conducted by researchers from the University of Ljubljana and the Institute of Oncology Ljubljana in Ljubljana, Slovenia, concluded that each mesothelioma patient has unique genetic biomarkers that can be both predictive of outcomes and can guide physicians to improved outcomes for mesothelioma patients.
It has long been known that there is no one-size-fits-all protocol for the treatment of malignant mesothelioma. Patient responses are dependent upon a variety of factors ranging from the type and location of mesothelioma the patient has been diagnosed with, the patient’s gender and overall health, the stage of the disease, and the cell type of mesothelioma that the patient has.
There have also been theories that each patient has unique genetic characteristics that could also play a role.
The study was published in the online journal Scientific Reports, and details both previous research into variability in genetic coding as well as the researchers current investigation involving 189 patients diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma, a condition that has a median chemotherapy response rate of only 40 percent.
Working with data showing that individual patients’ genes could play a role in how drugs are both metabolized and transported, the team examined each patient’s genotype in order to gauge what its impact would be on their responses to two different types of chemotherapy.
The idea was that based on the data that was collected, a custom tailored treatment protocol could be suggested and would yield improved results. The team found they were able to use the data collected to achieve this goal in 85.5 percent of patients, and hope to work with the information that they collected to guide future outcomes for mesothelioma patients as well as patients suffering from other types of cancers.
“In conclusion, we have developed clinical-pharmacogenetic models for predicting gemcitabine/cisplatin and pemetrexed/cisplatin treatment outcome. Using the proposed algorithm, effective chemotherapy could be recommended for 85.5% of malignant mesothelioma patients; however, this needs to be confirmed in a prospective study. A similar approach could be used for selecting the most favorable treatment option and thus improving outcomes of chemotherapy in other cancers where more treatment options are available.”
Improved technologies in medicine are offering reason for real hope for people diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma, but these treatments care extremely costly. For information on financial resources for mesothelioma patients, contact the Patient Advocates at Mesothelioma.net today at 1-800-692-8608–
