Non Drug Related Clinical Trials

Non-drug mesothelioma clinical trials of promising new alternative treatments are currently being conducted at research facilities around the world. There is reason to believe that the mesothelioma treatments being studied may offer real benefits to sufferers of the fatal asbestos disease.  It should be noted that there are risks involved with any clinical trial.

Alternative treatments can be used alone or in conjunction with conventional mesothelioma treatments. Examples of recent / current non-drug mesothelioma clinical trials are immunotherapy, gene therapy, photodynamic therapy and tri-modality therapy. The hope with regards to all mesothelioma clinical trials is that they will yield a breakthrough in the treatment of this fatal cancer.

Gene Therapy Clinical Trials

Gene therapy is a new mesothelioma treatment that attempts to understand why proteins within cells are resilient to cancer, while assessing the genetic code that predisposes some cells to becoming cancerous. The purpose of using gene therapy is to change the genetic code of the cancer sufferer.

Gene therapy represents a revolution in mesothelioma treatment by replacing cancer-causing genes with a synthetic gene engineered to die when exposed to cancerous growth. Essentially, mesothelioma patients are infected with a healthy virus that attacks cancerous cells and changes their genetic structure. Gene therapy clinical trials are designed to test the safety and efficacy of this revolutionary mesothelioma treatment modality.

Immunotherapy Clinical Trials

Immunotherapy is very similar to gene therapy in that both rely on biological mechanisms to do their work. The key difference is immunotherapy concentrates on boosting the immune system to fight off cancer cells while gene therapy tries to change the genetic structure of cancer cells.

The problem with cancer in general is that it deceives the body into thinking that cancer cells are normal cells, and the immune system will not fight them off. This is because the cancer cells were once actually normal cells in your body and are recognized by the immune system as not being foreign cells.  By stimulating the immune system, immunotherapy can prevent the cancer from spreading into other areas inside the body. It can also regulate and suppress the body's ability to grow new cancer cells. Immunotherapy is still in its infancy. There is no guarantee of success, although the treatment has been effective in Immunotherapy clinical trials.

Photodynamic Therapy (PDT) Clinical Trials

One of the latest mesothelioma treatment modalities being studied is photodynamic therapy (PDT). This revolutionary treatment involves the injection of light-sensitive molecules into mesothelioma cells. After injection, doctors insert a laser or high intensity light into a patient's chest and expose the cancerous cells which take up most of the light-sensitive molecules.  This results in death of the cancerous cells.

The main drawback of photodynamic therapy is that the light is not very strong, and typically penetrates only three centimeters into the skin. PDT is best suited to attack tumors close to the skin or on the surface of an internal organ. Major side effects include the body's increased sensitivity to sunlight, severe nausea and a lasting metallic taste in the patient's mouth. Photodynamic therapy clinical trials have been studying the modality's effectiveness in treating mesothelioma when used in combination with more conventional treatments.

Tri-Modality Therapy Clinical Trials

When faced with an incurably rare cancer such as mesothelioma, doctors will use their entire wealth of knowledge to treat their patients. Most doctors will use one form of conventional mesothelioma treatment such as radiation therapy, chemotherapy and surgery. However, more than one form of conventional treatment is often used to attack the disease. Tri-modality therapy will aggressively attack the cancerous growth with a combination of all three forms of conventional mesothelioma treatment. The unfortunate side effect of this method of treatment is a large amount of healthy cells may be destroyed in the process. Tri-modality therapy clinical trials have proven effective in extending patient survival time beyond the one- to two-year average.