Mesothelioma is a type of cancer primarily caused by exposure to asbestos. (Representative photo)
British scientists have hailed a “truly amazing” new drug for a hard-to-treat, aggressive cancer.according to guardian, researchers from Queen Mary University of London announced that the new treatment “quadrupled” three-year survival rates, extending average survival by 1.6 months. They added that the new drug works by cutting off the tumor’s nutritional supply and is the first drug of its kind for mesothelioma in the past 20 years. The result is Journal JAMA Oncology.
Mesothelioma is a type of cancer that occurs in the lungs and is primarily caused by exposure to asbestos in the workplace. It is aggressive, highly lethal, and has one of the worst survival rates in the world. Thousands of people around the world have been diagnosed with the disease, and official figures show there are around 2,700 new mesothelioma cases in the UK each year.
Researchers from Queen Mary University of London conducted an international clinical trial in five countries: the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Italy, and Taiwan. In the study, led by Professor Peter Slosalek from Queen Mary University, the team ensured that all patients received up to six cycles of chemotherapy every three weeks. Half of them were given injections of the new drug ADI-PEG20 (pegalgiminase), and the other half were given a placebo for two years.
Among the patients included in the final analysis were 249 patients with pleural mesothelioma, which affects the lining of the lungs. Their average age was 70 years.
The ATOMIC-meso study was conducted at 43 sites in five countries from 2017 to 2021. Patients in this study were followed for at least 1 year. According to the study, patients who received pegalgiminase and chemotherapy lived an average of 9.3 months, compared with 7.7 months for those who received a placebo and chemotherapy.
According to the researchers, the average “progression-free survival” was 6.2 months with pegalgiminase chemotherapy, compared with 5.6 months for patients who received a placebo and chemotherapy.
“In this pivotal, randomized, placebo-controlled, phase 3 study of 249 patients with pleural mesothelioma, pegalgiminase chemotherapy significantly prolonged median overall survival by 1.6 months compared to placebo chemotherapy. , quadrupled survival by 36 months,” the authors wrote. .
“Pegalgiminase-based chemotherapy was well tolerated and no new safety signs were observed,” the researchers added.
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Researchers say this is the first time in the past 20 years that chemotherapy has been successfully combined with a drug that targets cancer metabolism developed for this disease. This new drug works by depleting arginine levels in the bloodstream. For tumor cells that cannot produce their own arginine, this means their growth is stunted.
“It’s really exciting to be able to do research on arginine starvation in cancer cells,” said Professor Slosalek. “This discovery is something I have been championing since the beginning of our lab, and our new treatment, ADI-PEG20, is now improving the lives of patients affected by mesothelioma.” he added.
