Immunotherapy for Mesothelioma

Immunotherapy for Mesothelioma: Does It Actually Work?

What is immunotherapy and does it work for mesothelioma? This article will dive into the treatments, advantages, and disadvantages.

Mesothelioma cancer is usually caused by exposure to asbestos. It is a kind of cancer wherein the tumor cells develop in the walls of the lungs and cover the outer surface of the body's organs. Additionally, asbestos is a material used in roofing, insulation, and other types of construction. Mesothelioma often starts in your pleura which is a thin lining between your lungs and inside your chest cavity. When asbestos fibers enter your lungs, it causes cancer cells to grow in there.

Treatment Options:

Lung surgery
Surgery clinical trial
Targeted therapy clinical trial
Chemotherapy
Immunotherapy

What is Immunotherapy?

Immunotherapy uses certain features of the immune system in order to kill cancer cells in the body. However, there are times when the immune system is not able to recognize cancer cells in the body. This is because it may not have a response that is strong enough to destroy these cancer cells. Cancer immunotherapy is different wherein doctors use natural components of the immune system. In addition, this helps to recognize and fight cancer cells.

Here are the symptoms of peritoneal mesothelioma and its risk factors.

Categories of Immunotherapy

Passive Immunotherapy:

- - Has synthetic immune proteins.
  - The effects go away once treatment is stopped.

Active Immunotherapy:

- It has a lasting response within the immune system.
- Makes the immune system recognize the tumor or cancer cells permanently.

Immunotherapy treatments can be either passive, active, or a combination of both.

How Does Immunotherapy Work and What is Its Relevance to Mesothelioma?

Immunotherapy is more targeted. It is not like chemotherapy drugs which eliminate both cancer cells and healthy cells. Additionally, immunotherapy drugs trigger white blood cells to sense certain proteins on cancer cells and destroy them.

Right now, the only FDA-approved treatment for Mesothelioma is chemotherapy. Doctors are still looking at other options, like immunotherapy. Because it is still an experimental treatment for mesothelioma, it is still yet to added as a standard treatment for patients.

However, medical research and clinical trials are currently ongoing to include immunotherapy as a treatment for mesothelioma. Additionally, ongoing research is trying to include it as part of a treatment plan to manage mesothelioma better. Mesothelioma is specifically much more difficult to treat because this type of cancer is particularly difficult to treat due to its cancer cells being high in checkpoints.

Types of Immunotherapy for Mesothelioma

Below are the different types of immunotherapy for mesothelioma.

Checkpoint Inhibitors

These are drugs that help make the cancer cells more visible to the immune system for the immune system to more easily spot and destroy.

Cancer Vaccines

Here are a few studies on cancer vaccines:

- Research in Hawaii to develop vaccines to prevent this cancer.
- 2016 study showed that the combination of chemotherapy and CRS-207 inhibited the growth of cancer cells.

Monoclonal Antibodies (mAb)

This is the most commonly used form of cancer immunotherapy. However, it is not the most common one for mesothelioma. It is considered a targeted therapy because it is concentrated on a single section within the tumor or cancer cell.

Cytokines

They interact directly with the tumor cells to kill the cancer cells or stop the birth of new ones.

Adoptive Cell Transfer

Transferring live cells into patients is a practice that researchers use for patients who have advanced metastatic melanoma. To add to that, scientists are also investigating adoptive cell transfer for mesothelioma patients.

Disadvantages of Immunotherapy for Mesothelioma

Immunotherapy results are diverse and can vary depending on each case. Each patient's treatment is mostly dependent on the status of the patient’s immune system. Additionally, it also depends on the cancer cells and the tumor in the patient's body. Lastly, the immune reaction of each patient is another factor that causes different outcomes and side effects of mesothelioma.