A vaccine developed at the Erasmus Medical Research Centre in Rotterdam has shown early promise in its first clinical trials.
Researchers at Erasmus say the vaccine brings about an anti-tumor reponse, Dr Joachim Aerts a pulmonary physician says "We hope to further develop our methods so it will be possible to increase survival in patients with Mesothelioma and eventually vaccinate persons who have been in contact with asbestos to prevent them from getting asbestos related diseases".
The findings have been published online ahead of print publication in the American Thoracic Society's American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine
The use of asbestos has been prohibited in most developed countries, but the time between asbestos exposure and diagnosis of mesothelioma can be up to 50 years. The incidence of mesothelioma, therefore, is still on the rise and expected to continue to increase until 2020. Once diagnosed, mesothelioma has a median survival time of 12 months. The standard chemotherapeutic treatment only improves survival time by about three months.
The anticipated increase in the incidence of mesothelioma, together with the paucity of treatment options, has spurred considerable interest in the development of new therapies. Immunotherapy, which uses the body's own immune system to target and destroy cancer cells, has been shown to have some promise.
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