Researchers at Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine have announced that an innovative “drug factory” treatment entirely eliminated advanced stage malignant mesothelioma tumors in laboratory mice. The technology, which was originally developed for the treatment of patients with ovarian cancer, will likely be tested on mesothelioma patients in late 2023.
Drug-Producing Beads Implanted Next to Mesothelioma Tumors
The drug factory technology tested on the mice with mesothelioma was invented by Omid Veiseh, a bioengineer at Rice University. It involves beads no larger than the head of a pin, loaded with FDA-approved cancer-treating cytokines and then implanted next to tumors. The procedure is achieved through minimally invasive surgery and delivers high doses of medication.
Upon hearing of Veiseh’s success with animals with ovarian cancer, mesothelioma surgeons Dr. Bryan Burt, professor and chief of Baylor’s Division of Thoracic Surgery, and Dr. Ravi Ghanta, surgeon and associate professor at Baylor, asked whether the same treatment could be applied to mesothelioma tumors. This led to a test where the drug factory implants were implanted by themselves as well as in combination with an immunotherapy checkpoint inhibitor that has previously been effective in training the immune system to destroy mesothelioma cells.
Tests of Drug Factory Technology in Mice with Mesothelioma Called “Very Effective”
The results of the mesothelioma study were published online in Clinical Cancer Research. They found that the cytokine drug factory implants alone eliminated tumors in more than half of the animals, and that tumors were destroyed completely in the mice that were treated with both the cytokine implants and PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor.
Calling the potential for local delivery of immunotherapy to mesothelioma tumors “a very attractive way to treat this disease,” Dr. Burt went on to say, “It’s very hard to treat mesothelioma tumors in mice, like it is in human beings. And what our data show is that delivery of these immunotherapy particles, regionally, to these mice who have mesothelioma, has very provocative and very effective treatment responses. In fact, I’ve not seen these mesothelioma tumors in mice be eradicated, with such efficacy, as we have in this mouse model.”
Remarkable results like those found in the Rice/Baylor study offer real hope for those with malignant mesothelioma. For information on other resources, contact the Patient Advocates at Mesothelioma.net today at 1-800-692-8608.
