Mesothelioma Blog

Researchers have published two studies that show Alimta and Paraplatin form a promising combination for patients with mesothelioma.

In September 2007 at the 12th World Conference on Lung Cancer, scientists presented a study on the combination of Alimta and Paraplatin as a treatment option for patients with malignant mesothelioma. The first study had an overall response rate of 22 percent with a disease control rate of 76 percent and a one-year survival rate of 64 percent. The median time to disease progression was seven months.

A second study by Italian researchers evaluated Alimta and Paraplatin as a palliative treatment for 178 patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma. The median patient age was 65 years and 48 patients were older than 70.

The disease control rate was 67 percent in younger patients compared to 60 percent in older patients. Time to disease progression was 7.2 months for older patients compared with 7.5 months for younger patients. The median survival time was 10.7 months for older patients compared to 13.9 for younger ones. The authors of the study concluded that Alimta and Paraplatin form an effective palliative treatment option for patients but with slightly more hematological toxicity in older patients.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 at 2:05 pm and is filed under Medical news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.