Breakthrough in Lung Cancer and Mesothelioma Treatment

 

               Chemotherapy treatments for lung cancer and mesothelioma patients have come a long way, but they are still quite toxic to the body.  Traditional chemotherapy drugs can often produce severe side effects and organ damage, but, unfortunately, this is the most common treatment for mesothelioma patients.  Researchers continue to seek a new method of administering chemotherapy that would minimize the toxic side effects while maintaining or increasing the drugs’ effectiveness on the cancerous cells. Recently, a group of researchers from several colleges in the United States may have found new way to deliver the treatment that could make all the difference.

             Researchers from Oregon State University, Rutgers University and the Cancer Institute of New Jersey report that they have developed a new inhalation method of administering chemo medications that could potentially eradicate many toxic side effects associated with the chemotherapy. 
            
             According to the report, a patient inhales nanoparticles that carry the drug directly to the lungs when administering the drug. The treatment becomes more targeted without the occurrence of damaging side effects when the medication is inhaled. 

            Dr. Oleh Taratula, one of the co-authors in the study and assistant professor at Oregon State University’s College of Pharmacy, says that chemotherapy is imperative to lung cancer and mesothelioma treatment because the cancer cells are typically not localized. Therefore, severe side effects occur through the conventional methods of administration for most patients. With the inhalation method, doctors think that chemo medications could be much more effective and much less harmful for lung cancer and mesothelioma patients.

             This is believed to be possible because the inhaled nanoparticles carry a small interfering RNA, a molecule that helps to quell specific genes that cause cancer cells to be more susceptible. It does so by eliminating pump resistance, where the medication is ejected from the interior of the cancer cell, and non-pump resistance, which keeps the cancer cell alive.

             Current methods of chemotherapy delivery often build up in the kidney, liver and spleen before even having a chance to affect the cancer cells. Studies show that only 23 percent of the drug is able to affect the cancer cells under the current intravenous method of delivery. But with the inhalation method, 83 percent of the drug reaches the lungs with far less damage to any internal organs.

              The inhalation trials have only been administered in animal testing and there is much more research to be done before human testing begins. Still, the report represents a groundbreaking step in the way we might be better able to deliver treatment to lung cancer and mesothelioma patients in the future.