Nuova speranza per i tumori provocati dall’amianto. Sono stati presentati a Chicago, all’American Society of Clinical Oncology (Asco), i risultati dello studio IND.227 che vede in prima linea l’Istituto tumori Pascale di Napoli.
The international phase 3 study has evaluated, as stated in a note from Pascale, a new first-line treatment immunotherapy drug, pembrolizumab, in combination with chemotherapy for patients with unresectable advanced or metastatic pleural mesothelioma.
Patients who have worked for years in close contact with asbestos. IND.227 is an academic study conducted by 3 cooperative groups, the Canadian Cancer Trials Group, the Italian cooperative group on thoracic tumors coordinated by the National Cancer Institute of Napoli and the French Intergroup Cooperative on Thoracic Tumors.
“In the IND.227 study, the addition of pembrolizumab to platinum and pemetrexed chemotherapy resulted in significant improvements in overall survival, progression-free survival, and objective response rate in patients with unresectable advanced or metastatic pleural mesothelioma,” explains Marilina Piccirillo, medical director of the Clinical Trials Unit and scientific director of the study coordination in Italy.
“Pleural mesothelioma is a tumor related to exposure to asbestos, and although the use of this material was banned in Italy 30 years ago, due to the long latency period between exposure and the onset of the disease, the incidence of mesothelioma is still increasing today”, he adds Alessandro Morabito, director of Experimental Thoracic-Pulmonary Clinical Oncology and one of the most active investigators in the study.
And then he concludes: “Moreover, this tumor is often diagnosed in an advanced and inoperable stage and the prognosis is very poor. In fact, before the recent results obtained with immunotherapies, chemotherapy was the only available treatment for decades, with very poor results.
Participation in this study was therefore an excellent opportunity for Italian patients, as demonstrated by the fact that approximately half of the 440 patients in the study are Italian”.
Article published on 3 June 2023 - 19:39
