COSA 2014* What’s new in malignant mesothelioma? (#109)
Malignant mesothelioma remains a significant cancer issue in Australia because of previous substantial industrial use of this agent. A proposed 3rd wave of incidence is still predicted to occur because of its wide presence in building materials. Fortunately, increased research efforts have helped to provide new insights into the biology of this illness and also new markers of prognosis and novel targets for treatment. Recent data have shown that systemic inflammatory markers are increased in almost 50% of mesothelioma patients and are associated with worse response to treatment and significantly reduced survival. These data have been confirmed in large historical cohorts. Other prognostic factors identified in long living patients on multivariate analyses included age, gender, epithelioid histology and calretinin staining. 24% of patients survived >20 months. Restoration of expression of miR-16 has been demonstrated to produce anti-tumour effects in pre-clinical models and phase I trials of miR-16 delivered by bacterial derived mini-cells are about to commence.
