Clinical trials are crucial for testing new therapies for diseases such as cancer. Clinical trials are especially important for developing new options for mesothelioma treatment. Mesothelioma is a rare and aggressive type of cancer with only a few treatment options available for patients.
There are clinical trials for mesothelioma recruiting patients in the United States and Canada. These studies provide opportunities to develop groundbreaking therapies while giving patients early access to treatments before they are released to the general public.
Visit the National Library of Medicine clinical trials database for a full list of recruiting, completed and closed mesothelioma clinical trials. Below is a list of four promising trials that reportedly have spots open for patients.
SMARTEST Trial in Toronto
The clinical trial SMARTEST is recruiting 30 patients diagnosed with malignant pleural mesothelioma, a type of mesothelioma that forms in the lining of the lungs.
SMARTEST is a treatment plan testing the use of mesothelioma radiation before surgery and immunotherapy after surgery. The goal is to shrink mesothelioma tumors with radiation, remove the tumors and diseased tissue with surgery, and then keep the tumors from regrowing with immunotherapy.
SMARTEST is an evolution from the SMART protocol. SMART for mesothelioma is a groundbreaking multimodal treatment plan. SMART is an acronym for “surgery for mesothelioma after radiation therapy.” It was developed at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
SMARTEST adds immunotherapy as a postoperative treatment. In the clinical trial, at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, patients will receive the immunotherapy combination of tremelimumab and durvalumab following surgery.
The study is also testing the benefit of using low-dose cyclophosphamide, a type of chemotherapy, in combination with radiation before surgery.
Read more about the trial here: https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05380713.
Using Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy After Surgery for Peritoneal Mesothelioma
A phase 2 clinical trial is testing the benefits of using intraperitoneal chemotherapy following surgery for peritoneal mesothelioma.
Peritoneal mesothelioma is a rare type of cancer that forms in the lining of the abdominal cavity. The top treatment for peritoneal mesothelioma is a surgery called cytoreduction with HIPEC. This treatment combines aggressive surgical removal of tumors and heated intraperitoneal chemotherapy. When all visible tumors are removed, the surgeon delivers a liquid chemotherapy solution directly into the abdominal cavity. This step allows chemotherapy drugs to come in direct contact with the cancer cells.
The doctor places ports in the patient’s abdomen as a way to deliver the chemotherapy drugs. This study is testing whether patients benefit from leaving the ports in and delivering additional chemotherapy treatments into the abdominal cavity in the days and weeks following surgery. This is called normothermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (NIPEC), which uses a body-temperature chemotherapy solution instead of heated chemotherapy like with HIPEC.
The study will compare two types of post-surgery chemotherapy delivery methods: NIPEC (delivered into the abdominal cavity); and intravenous chemotherapy (delivered into the bloodstream).
The study is enrolling a total of 64 patients from the following medical centers:
- University of Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center
- Rogel Cancer Center (University of Michigan)
- Washington University Siteman Cancer Center (St. Louis, MO)
- Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center (University of Nebraska)
- Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (New York and New Jersey locations)
- Allegheny Health Network Cancer Institute (Pittsburgh, PA)
Read more about the trial here: https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06057935.
Does Chemotherapy Make Immunotherapy More Effective?
A clinical trial at Duke Cancer Institute (Durham, N.C.) and Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center (Houston, TX) is testing the combination of chemotherapy and immunotherapy for malignant pleural mesothelioma.
Chemotherapy for mesothelioma can give patients 12-16 months of survival. Immunotherapy can give patients approximately 18 months of survival. Surgery, when available, can give patients 2 years or more of survival.
The study will examine whether chemotherapy makes immunotherapy more effective – and if the combination can lead to a longer survival than surgery.
The trial will enroll 52 mesothelioma patients. Half of the patients will receive an immunotherapy combination of durvalumab and tremelimumab. The other half will receive the same immunotherapy combination in addition to chemotherapy. All patients will undergo surgery after finishing their treatment.
Read more about the trial here: https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05932199.
Using Immunotherapy and Chemotherapy to Treat Peritoneal Mesothelioma
Patients diagnosed with peritoneal mesothelioma cancer are often treated with surgery or chemotherapy. Immunotherapy has not yet been FDA-approved for the treatment of peritoneal mesothelioma.
A phase 2 clinical trial enrolling 66 mesothelioma patients will determine whether immunotherapy and chemotherapy together are better than chemotherapy alone.
Half of patients will receive the mesothelioma immunotherapy drug atezolizumab, which is a monoclonal antibody that helps the immune system latch on to and attack tumor cells. These patients will also receive the chemotherapy drugs (carboplatin and pemetrexed) as well as bevacizumab, an antiangiogenic agent that prevents the formation of blood vessels from providing nutrients to the tumor cells – slowing the growth and spread of the cancer.
The other half of the patients in the trial will receive chemotherapy and bevacizumab without any immunotherapy.
There are 39 medical centers offering the trial spanning the following states:
- Arizona
- Illinois
- Kentucky
- Massachusetts
- Minnesota
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Pennsylvania
- South Dakota
- Texas
- Wisconsin
Read more about this clinical trial here: https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05001880.
Contact Mesothelioma Guide’s registered nurse Karen Ritter at karen@mesotheliomaguide.com to learn more about clinical trials for mesothelioma patients.
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