Immunotherapy is a method of cancer treatment that works with the body’s immune system to attack and fight cancer cells. CRS-207, a newer immunotherapy vaccine, is showing great success in the disease control rate of patients with pleural mesothelioma. A recent multicenter clinical trial found that CRS-207, when combined with chemotherapy, allowed for a 94% control rate in patients with advanced and unresectable mesothelioma. What’s more, tumor shrinkage was reported in 85% of patients and median progression-free survival increased by nearly three months.
CRS-207 contains Listeria monocytogenes, a bacterium that is capable of producing anti-tumor immune response without any serious side-effects. For this most recent study, researchers administered two doses of the vaccine for two weeks, followed by six cycles of pemetrexed and cisplatin over a three week period, and capped by two more CRS-207 infusions spaced three weeks apart.
While these results are very encouraging, the test group for this study was small. Randomized clinical trials are currently underway to see if larger groups of mesothelioma patients will experience similarly positive results when immunotherapy is combined with chemotherapy. In 2015, the FDA granted CRS-207 orphan drug designation to incentivize its development and speed the progression of new and well-tolerated mesothelioma treatments.
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