Last May, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that it had approved the use of the NovoTTF-100L System in combination with pemetrexed plus platinum-based chemotherapy for the first-line treatment of unresectable, locally advanced or metastatic, malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM). Now, West Cancer Center in Tennessee has announced that it will be the first oncology center in the country that has been approved to prescribe the innovative new treatment.
Device is First FDA-Approved Mesothelioma Treatment in 15 Years
The NovoTTF-100L System is the first treatment for malignant pleural mesothelioma to receive FDA approval in the last 15 years, and its availability is being treated with tremendous enthusiasm and hope. The Tumor Treating Fields treatment is a wearable, portable medical device that uses electric fields that have been programmed to specific frequencies that have been shown to disrupt the division of malignant tumor cells. This stops malignant mesothelioma tumor growth, and may even cause the cells to die while not impacting surrounding healthy cells.
The treatment has previously been used with success on patients diagnosed with glioblastoma, a tumor of the brain, and clinical trials have demonstrated that when used in combination with pemetrexed and platinum-based chemotherapy on malignant pleural mesothelioma patients with unresectable tumors, it provided a median overall survival of 18.2 months.
West Cancer Center Is Leader in Research and Care
Matthew Ballo, MD, FACR is Director of Radiation Oncology at West Cancer Center, and he spoke of the facility’s selection as the first to be able to prescribe the new mesothelioma treatment.”Many people with MPM are not candidates for surgery, and approved, non-surgical treatments are very limited. We are really proud that West Cancer Center is the first to offer this therapy as part of a combination treatment, giving another, much-needed option to patients and their families. We actually have just prescribed NovoTTF-100L for one of our patients and he will be the first in the country to receive this treatment.”
Patients diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma can learn more about this innovative treatment, as well as other options available to them, with the help of the Patient Advocates at Mesothelioma.net. Call us today at 1-800-692-8608 to learn more.
