The role of Alimta in the treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma: an overview of preclinical and clinical trials.
Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is a rare tumor, but its annual incidence is rapidly increasing. While most patients have locally advanced disease at presentation, to date there is no proven standard chemotherapy for MPM that has shown to increase survival in randomized studies. Therefore, the development of new therapeutic agents is urgent for this disease. Alimta is a novel, multitargeted antifolate with activity as single agent in patients with MPM. Recently, a phase III trial showed that the combination of Alimta with cisplatin resulted in a significantly increased efficacy compared with cisplatin alone. In addition, vitamin supplementation reduced treatment associated toxicities with no apparent affect on activity. This review summarizes preclinical and clinical data to define the future role of Alimta in the treatment of patients with MPM.[1]References
- The role of Alimta in the treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma: an overview of preclinical and clinical trials. Hanauske, A.R. Lung Cancer (2004) [Pubmed]
Annotations and hyperlinks in this abstract are from individual authors of WikiGenes or automatically generated by the WikiGenes Data Mining Engine. The abstract is from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.About WikiGenesOpen Access LicencePrivacy PolicyTerms of Useapsburg
