Los Angeles, California - For the third year in a row, UCLA and the Pacific Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of Los Angeles organized a symposium focused on lung-sparing therapies for patients dealing with difficult-to-treat malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM).
According to a press release by the institute, this year’s symposium – held in mid May – centered on therapies designed to preserve vital lung function, seriously questioning such treatments as extrapleural pneumonectomy, which was long considered the go-to treatment for many patients diagnosed with malignant pleural mesothelioma, which attacks the lining of the lungs.
The symposium was led by Robert B. Cameron, MD, FACS, Director of the UCLA Mesothelioma Comprehensive Research Program and Chief of Thoracic Surgery at the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center. Cameron spoke about multi-modal treatments for the disease and focused on current thermal research at UCLA and the effectiveness of cryo-ablation in killing MPM cancer cells.
Other presentations at the symposium, which included some of the top names in mesothelioma treatment, included: Joseph S. Friedberg, MD, of the University of Pennsylvania, who presented new photodynamic therapy results, which he deemed quite promising; Olga Olevsky , MD, of UCLA Medical Center, who discussed results of a variety of novel treatment strategies; Italian Radiologist Marco Trovo, MD, who focused on the early results of tomotherapy techniques following pleurectomy; and Raffit Hassan, MD, of the National Cancer Institute, who discussed anti-mesothelin agents for mesothelioma therapy.
All of the doctors agreed that, though MPM is still one of the most difficult forms of cancer to treat, options for successful treatment are increasing with more research; therefore, life expectancies are increasing as well.
“There were a number of incredibly exciting studies that far exceed what we've seen before,” said Dr. Cameron, speaking to doctors, nurses, and also meso patients and their families. “All of our collective efforts are finally beginning to pay off in new treatments that truly affect patients.”
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