Recently a new compound was discovered for treating various cancers, including pleural mesothelioma, a cancer caused almost exclusively by asbestos exposure. The research team was from Duke University Medical Center and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or MIT.
This compound has the potential to make treatment for various cancers more effective. Many cancer cells have the ability to become pretty much immune to chemotherapy. This compound is a small-molecule inhibitor drug. It’s name is JH-RE-06. Cisplatin is a chemotherapy and is used a lot. It is very well known in treating cancers. But there’s a problem. Cancer cells have the ability to become pretty much immune to it. This JH-RE-06 has shown an ability to make the cells more sensitive to Cisplatin. And when JH-RE-06 was combined with Cisplatin it showed an ability to consistently keep the cancer cells from becoming immune to cancer treatment, which is a common problem with pleural mesothelioma. The testing for this study was done on live mice as well as cultured human and mouse cell lines. The results of the testing showed prolonged animal survival as well as an ability to keep the tumors from growing. The researchers say they plan to begin testing on humans soon. In June, the findings were published in the journal Cell. Michael Hemann, who is an associate professor of biology at MIT was co-senior author to this paper. He said the goal of the research was to make chemotherapy work better. He said it is well known that if chemotherapy doesn’t cure you, it makes you worse. That is what they are trying to change. Of course they also want to cure cancer patients, but they don’t want it still to be the case that if that doesn’t happen, the cancer becomes worse. Hemann said they also want to make the cancer cells continue to be sensitive to the chemotherapy. The other senior co-author is Graham Walker. He is an American Cancer Society Research Professor of Biology at MIT. The researchers focused on how the cancer cells become immune to chemo. That way they could do the opposite. One thing the researchers did as part of their study was screening almost 10,000 drug compounds they thought would negate the DNA repair that makes the cancer cells immune to the chemotherapy used to treat it. Like I said earlier, they discovered that treating cancer with Cisplatin and JH-RE-06 killed more cancer cells than just using chemotherapy. The combination also made it so that cancer cells didn’t become treatment resistant. Or at least it was less likely. The researchers were worried that if they were to stop the DNA repair of the cancer cells, mutagenesis would occur. But the compound prevented it! Because the goal of this compound was to stop the ability of the cancer cells to become resistant to treatment it could potentially also help deal with cancer relapse. In 1978 Cisplatin was first approved by the FDA. Then, it was for testicular cancer. Now, it is used for many types. In the case of mesothelioma, Cisplatin is currently used paired with Alimta. This combination does effectively kill cancer cells, but quickly, cells become treatment resistant. After about a year, it doesn’t do much. Pleural mesothelioma is often diagnosed in an advanced stage, which you can read more about here. At this advanced stage, chemotherapy is often not as effective as it could be and the average survival after diagnosis of pleural mesothelioma is only nine to eighteen months. The hope is that, with JH-RE-06, mesothelioma treatment will be more effective. How does this relate to us, or even asbestos? It’s always exciting to hear when a new cancer treatment comes around! Pleural mesothelioma is caused almost exclusively by asbestos exposure. It’s exciting if you’ve got a cancer to hear that a new treatment was discovered. But it’s terrible to get the cancer! Mesothelioma is a very preventable disease. Just stop being exposed to asbestos. As much as you can, at least. Call us now at (312) 586-8713 for a free quote for asbestos testing and removal.