Mesothelioma Treatment and NGR-hTNF
NGR-hTNF is a promising new drug that may help mesothelioma patients live longer by targeting and killing tumor cells. While most current treatments only slow tumor growth or minimize symptoms, NGR-hTNF is being tested as a potentially curative treatment. Unlike chemotherapy and radiation therapy, which can harm healthy tissue as well as tumor masses, NGR-hTNF is specialized so that it only affects cancer cells.
Although the drug is still in the testing phases, clinical trials have shown it safe and effective in mesothelioma patients. Such success has already earned it orphan drug status. This is a special status granted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for products designed to treat rare diseases.
Other promising new treatments are available for mesothelioma patients. To find out about these treatment options, fill out the form on this page for a complimentary informational packet.
What is hTNF?
NGR-hTNF starts with a specific protein naturally made by the human body: hTNF. Similar to a hormone, this protein is in charge of carrying messages throughout the body. When a person develops mesothelioma or another cancer, the protein can carry one of two messages to the tumor. It can either help the tumor continue to grow, or it can carry the opposite message, signaling the tumor to shrink. It is this cancer-fighting property that gave the protein its name: "human tumor necrosis factor-alpha" (hTNF-α or hTNF), meaning it triggers tumor death.
Doctors have discovered a way to harness hTNF's anticancer properties. That way, once hTNF reaches cancer cells, it kills them. However, doctors must combine hTNF with another component so it has a way to reach the cancer. This is where another chemical compound comes in: NGR (asparagine-glycine-arginine).
What is NGR?
NGR is like a protein, but smaller. It is helpful in cancer treatment because it naturally wants to combine with hTNF. So, when it is administered to mesothelioma and other cancer patients, NGR targets the hTNF present in tumors. This gives it a "tumor-homing" quality, meaning it affects tumor cells while avoiding normal tissue.
Clinical Trials of NGR-hTNF
Ongoing clinical trials are testing the effectiveness of NGR-hTNF as an intravenous cancer drug in pleural mesothelioma patientsas a single agent, meaning it is administered alone with no other treatments.
The first study of NGR-hTNF, which started in 2007, tested the drug's efficacy in 57 pleural mesothelioma patients. Some patients in the Phase II trial previously received another form of treatment. However, all prior treatments were ineffective and concluded months before patients received NGR-hTNF. Initially, NGR-hTNF was delivered intravenously for one hour every three weeks. In later testing, the trial was amended to treat patients every week. About half of the study's patients lived a year or longer after NGR-hTNF treatment.
Fast Fact
NGR-hTNF in combination with chemotherapy has shown positive results in patients with lung cancer, ovarian cancer and colorectal cancer with more trials underway.Another Phase II trial was started in 2011 to test the drug's effectiveness as a "maintenance treatment" in pleural mesothelioma patients. In the clinical trial, patients undergo chemotherapy, and then immediately begin a regimen of NGR-hTNF. Normally, there is a three-month period between the first type of treatment and the second type. Researchers hope that removing the waiting period will increase survival times by maintaining the less cancerous state.
A similar Phase III trial, which began in Europe, is now underway in the United States. The clinical trial is testing NGR-hTNF in pleural mesothelioma patients who previously underwent chemotherapy with no success. MolMed, the Italy-based biopharmaceutical company that manufactures the drug, plans to have results from this trial in 2013.
If you want access to top new mesothelioma treatments like NGR-hTNF, speak with one of our Patient Advocates about current clinical trials and other treatment options.
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Last Modified Monday, May 14th, 2012 | Disclaimer | Privacy Policy |
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