While immunotherapy has been increasingly used to treat mesothelioma in the United States, other countries have been slower to adopt the innovative treatment. A study from oncologists at Geetanjali Medical College in Udaipur, India, indicates that a chemotherapy-free treatment approach delivered to patients at a tertiary care center delivered real, lasting results. The real-world study found that combining the immunotherapy drugs nivolumab and ipilimumab as a first-line treatment offered meaningful survival benefits for patients diagnosed with unresectable epithelioid pleural mesothelioma.
Mesothelioma Treatment in India Largely Relies on Chemotherapy
In India, mesothelioma patients have traditionally been treated with platinum-based chemotherapy, but that same treatment, which is still frequently used in the United States, offers limited long-term survival. This study, which was published in Cureus, followed 15 patients to determine whether the same dual checkpoint immunotherapy that is increasingly used in the United States could improve on chemotherapy’s outcomes in the real world, outside the controlled setting of a clinical trial.
Immunotherapy Treatment Yields Positive Results in Real-World Mesothelioma Study
Mesothelioma patients in the study responded well to the immunotherapy treatment. Nine of the 15 patients (60%) achieved a partial response by the three-month mark, and that response held steady through 12 months of follow-up. Six patients experienced disease progression and survived less than nine months. Overall, the one-year survival rate reached 60%, with nine patients still alive and continuing immunotherapy at that point.
Mesothelioma researchers noted that the outcomes reported by the Indian researchers closely track benchmarks that have been achieved internationally, including the landmark CheckMate 743 trial that reported a 68% one-year survival rate using the same drug combination. The study’s cohort had a slightly lower survival rate, but that was attributed to patients only being referred for treatment when their disease was advanced. The researchers’ reported response rate actually exceeded the trial’s, which the researchers attribute to their strict focus on a population of patients diagnosed with epithelioid mesothelioma, the subtype most responsive to this treatment.
Researchers Report Mesothelioma Side Effects Remained Manageable
The mesothelioma patients involved in the study experienced some treatment-related side effects, with 80% reporting some adverse events and 26% experiencing severe reactions, most commonly diarrhea and hepatitis, similar to those found in other studies. These were managed using standard corticosteroid protocols. These findings support broader adoption of chemotherapy-free, dual-immunotherapy regimens in India for appropriate patients.
If you or someone you love has been diagnosed with Mesothelioma, continuing international research is the key to better outcomes in the future. For information on the resources available for you, contact the Patient Advocates at Mesothelioma.net at 1-800-692-8608.
