One of the many mesothelioma community members on Facebook posted a question today about a clinical trial being conducted at the Mesothelioma Center, located at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. MyMeso discussed this clinical trial in a July post. The clinical trial is a program of targeted radiation and chemotherapy protocol for pleural mesothelioma, which is a cancer of the lung’s lining almost always caused by asbestos. In response to the Facebook thread, meso survivor and awareness advocate (read: warrior) Debbie Brewer, who many of you know from her story and updates here (thanks Debbie!), mentioned a similar study currently ongoing in Australia.

Debbie provided a link to a story published in November 2009 by ABC News that outlines the work of specialists at Austin Health Centre in Victoria. The treatment, spearheaded by Dr. Malcolm Feigen, a radiation oncologist at the Centre, uses high doses of radiotherapy, concentrated on specific areas of the lining of the lungs to target mesothelioma tumors.

According to the ABC report, 13 patients participated in a pilot program to test this new targeted radiotherapy treatment. Most had some surgery prior to the radiotherapy treatment, and some also had chemotherapy before or after the treatment, although Dr. Feigen believes the patients showed the most benefit primarily as a result of the radiotherapy regimen.

Participants in the U.S. clinical trial at the Mesothelioma Center receive a multi-modality therapy that incorporates surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy in combination.

Listen to the interview with Dr. Feigen about the Australian research, which was broadcast on ABC’s AM morning current affairs program.

A recent report published in blood, the Journal of the American Society of Hematology, is examining a possible increased risk for malignant mesothelioma among patients exposed to radiation treatment for Hodgkin lymphoma. According to the study, whose lead author is Marie L. DeBruin, increased risks for second primary mesothelioma after radiation for lymphoma have been reported. Mesothelioma is primarily related to asbestos exposure.

According to the journal summary, the findings are based on a small number of patients, so researchers are approaching these results with caution and anticipate more study to confirm the results. The team examined mesothelioma in 2,567 five-year survivors of Hodgkin lymphoma, who had been treated with radiation alone, chemotherapy alone, or a combination of the two.

The study indicated that mesothelioma risk was almost 30 times greater in Hodgkin lymphona patients treated with radiation than in the general population.

The journal article was summarized by HemOncToday, which reports clinical news in oncology and hematology. The publication says the median follow-up period for patients included in the radiation-mesothelioma study was 18.1 years, at which time researchers found 13 patients had malignant mesothelioma at least five years after being treated for Hodgkins lymphoma.

HemOncToday reports there were no cases of mesothelioma among patients treated with chemotherapy alone, but that patients treated with both radiation and chemotherapy were almost 44 times more likely to develop malignant mesothelioma.

Harry S. Jacob, MD, HemOncToday chief medical editor, provided this perspective:

“Seminal studies by Scripps Research Institute investigators demonstrated that asbestos with high-iron content (as opposed to low-Fe level asbestos) was more likely to cause mesotheliomas in miners. In vitro iron-asbestos promoted oxygen radical generation that altered DNA, providing rationale for the epidemiologic studies. The combination of radiation-mediated oxygen radicals plus lung iron asbestos (or tobacco-mediated iron deposition) may underlie these findings.”