A mesothelioma research group has discovered that treatment with anti-cancer drug Pemetrexed may be more effective if patients are treated with caffeine before receiving chemotherapy.

Pemetrexed (sold under the brand name Alimta) is usually given in combination with another chemotherapy drug called Cisplatin. The drug is one of a class of chemotherapy agents known as folate antimetabolites. It works by inhibiting certain enzymes that are used in DNA synthesis. The end result is that cells cannot synthesize new DNA molecules, leading to their death.

As with other chemotherapy drugs, Pemetrexed targets rapidly dividing cells, leading to side effects such as reduced immune function and hair loss caused by the death of hair follicles and immune cells as well as cancer cells. Side effects can be reduced if patients take supplements of folic acid and vitamin B12.

The combination of Pemetrexed and Cisplatin was approved by the FDA for the treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma in 2004. Pemetrexed is also approved for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer.

A report of the new Pemetrexed research, entitled “Caffeine markedly sensitizes human mesothelioma cell lines to pemetrexed,” appeared in the “Cancer Chemotherapy and Pharmacology” journal in April 2008. The research group is based at the Departments of Medicine and Molecular Pharmacology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in The Bronx, New York.

Because caffeine was already known to improve the effects of radiation and chemotherapy-induced killing of cells, the researchers decided to investigate whether caffeine could improve the anti-mesothelioma activity of Pemetrexed.

The researchers used four different cell lines to test the effects of caffeine. Cell lines are altered so that they can grow in the laboratory almost indefinitely. Each was a different type of tumor cell line derived from mesothelial cells.

They found that all of the tumor cell lines were ‘sensitized’ with caffeine treatment, meaning that when the cells were treated with caffeine and then exposed to Pemetrexed, the cell-killing activity of the chemotherapy drug was improved.

Interestingly, the researchers found that ‘pulsing’ the cells with caffeine by applying caffeine in a series of short-term exposure periods was more effective than continuous exposure to the substance.

The researchers also found that Pemetrexed sensitization occurred in cells treated with an analog of caffeine, called theobromine. The caffeine analog may be safer to use in patients, as it can be administered more safely at higher doses.

The researchers concluded that caffeine and theobromine may both be useful at improving the effectives of Pemetrexed chemotherapy.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 24th, 2008 at 4:46 pm and is filed under Asbestos Exposure, Mesothelioma Treatment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed. Responses are currently closed, but you trackback from your own site.