New Vaccine Could Improve Treatment of Asbestos-Related Diseases

March 19, 2010

New York, NY A recent study may have successfully identified a vaccine that can be used to safely combat asbestos mesothelioma.



The study, published in the American Thoracic Sociery's American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, tested vaccines that help combine a patient's own dentritic cells with an antigen from the mesothelioma, producing a direct T-cell response to the growing disease.



A Dutch research team introduced three experimental vaccines to ten patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma at two-week intervals following chemotherapy treatments. No life-threatening side effects were observed in this initial round of testing, and in one subgroup there was evidence that patients' cells were actively attacking cancerous tumors.



While initial results are promising, researchers still hope to solve other problems generated by the disease, most notably a suppression of the immune system that can lead to other serious conditions.





"We hope that by further development of our method it will be possible to increase survival in patients with mesothelioma and eventually vaccinate persons who have been in contact with asbestos to prevent them from getting asbestos-related diseases," Dr. Joachim G. Aerts, one of the study's authors, told Asbestos.com.