Penn receives $ 8 million grant from the NCI to study the effects of PDT -
Perelman School Researchers at the Medical University of Pennsylvania in collaboration with Roswell Park cancer Institute received $ 8 million grant from the National cancer Institute (NCI) to study the effects of photodynamic light therapy (PDT) in patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma, a rare cancer , aggressive and deadly that most often occurs in the lining of the lungs and is caused almost exclusively by exposure to asbestos. The grant will fund clinical trials and other studies examining the effects of PDT on the patient's response to the shelter, the tumor cell itself, and blood vessels surrounding the tumor.
Approximately 3,000 new cases of mesothelioma are diagnosed each year in the US, with numbers expected to rise worldwide due to uncontrolled exposure to asbestos.
"Mesothelioma is a cancer for which there is currently little or no hope of recovery," said Eli Glatstein, MD, principal investigator of the grant of the proposed program and professor and vice president radiation oncology and a member of pleural mesothelioma and Penn program, one of the world's leading centers for research and treatment of mesothelioma. "This trial is an important step in understanding the combination treatment modalities that offer patients the best hope for the survival and prolonged remission. "
The study, which plans to enroll 102 patients over four years, will administer Photofrin, a photosensitizing agent that makes cancer cells more susceptible to dying from light therapy, the trial participants 24 hours before surgery. Patients will be a radical pleurectomy, removal of the pleura or lining of the lung and tumor cells contain. They will then be randomized into two arms: half will receive intraoperative PDT by intense laser inserted into the chest cavity during surgery and postoperative chemotherapy standard; and that only half will receive a post-operative chemotherapy. Photofrin absorbs the laser light and produces an active form of oxygen that can destroy microscopic residual cancer cells left after surgery. Radical pleurectomie allows mesothelioma patients to keep their lungs and is associated with better postoperative quality of life and improved survival compared to other cities definitive mesothelioma surgeries.
"PDT has been a part of our treatment plan with Lung-sparing surgery for many years, but a randomized clinical trial, as is still needed to prove its effectiveness," said Glatstein.
PDT is known to kill cancer cells, but researchers are also trying to understand the patient's immune response, the microenvironment of the tumor and the blood vessels in and around the tumor in three additional studies funded under the grant.
the second project will examine the process by which PDT works to destroy tumor cells and look where a drug agent -a or other treatment that may increase its effects.
the third project will investigate whether certain channels awakened during surgery can play a key role in inflammation and cell growth and contribute to treatment failure in some way, and whether inhibition of these pathways will allow improve the effectiveness of intraoperative PDT.
Finally, the team will study the tumor vasculature in the following patients PDT and assess changes in the vascular environment as a result of intraoperative PDT and the modulation potential to improve the efficacy of treatment.
"This trial will help us understand how PDT works in the body and what we can be able to do in the future to improve the body's response to therapy," said Glatstein .
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