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Current and prospective pharmacotherapies for the treatment of pleural mesothelioma

Bakker, EY; Guazzelli, A; Krstic-Demonacos, M; Lisanti, MP; Sotgia, F; Mutti, L

Authors

EY Bakker

A Guazzelli

L Mutti



Abstract

Introduction: Mesothelioma is a rare asbestos-linked cancer with an expected incidence peak between 2015–2030. Therapies remain ineffective, thus developing and testing novel treatments is important for both oncologists and researchers.


Areas covered: After describing mesothelioma and the shortcomings of current therapies, the article discusses numerous therapies in turn such as immunotherapy (passive and active), gene therapy (such as suicide gene therapy) and targeted therapy such as tyrosine kinase inhibitors. The bases for different therapies and clinical trials at different phases are also described. The article concludes by detailing possible reasons for therapy failure.

Expert opinion: Despite the many attempts to uncover new therapeutic options, mesothelioma is still an orphan disease, complicated by factors such as the inflammatory microenvironment and low mutational load. Our opinion is that uncovering the biological mechanisms behind mesothelioma development will assist therapy development. The lack of efficacy of tyrosine kinase inhibitors and modest anti-angiogenic activity indicates a less relevant role for tumor cell proliferation and neoangiogenesis, thus the shortcut of treating mesothelioma with therapies from other cancers may be unsound. Conversely, many lines of evidence indicate that focussing on the survival mechanisms that tumor cells exploit may yield better therapeutics, particularly nutrition and cellular machinery.

Citation

Bakker, E., Guazzelli, A., Krstic-Demonacos, M., Lisanti, M., Sotgia, F., & Mutti, L. (2017). Current and prospective pharmacotherapies for the treatment of pleural mesothelioma. Expert Opinion on Orphan Drugs, 5(6), 455-465. https://doi.org/10.1080/21678707.2017.1325358

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Apr 27, 2017
Online Publication Date May 23, 2017
Publication Date May 23, 2017
Deposit Date Jun 6, 2017
Publicly Available Date May 23, 2018
Journal Expert Opinion on Orphan Drugs
Publisher Taylor and Francis Group
Volume 5
Issue 6
Pages 455-465
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/21678707.2017.1325358
Publisher URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21678707.2017.1325358
Related Public URLs http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/ieod20/current

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