New Hope for Mesothelioma Victims -- MesoLink.org -- 06-22-04

There is fresh hope for future mesothelioma victims, as it has been found that a drug normally prescribed for arthritis could have a marked effect on mesothelioma cells as well.

Cox-2 inhibitor, Celebrex, was tested by Dr Alfonso Catalano from the University of Marche in Italy. The Cox-2 inhibitor was shown to stop mesothelioma cells from growing in a lab dish environment. It also showed a significant effect when tested in animal experiments. Current treatments have no significant long term effect on this disease, and so this discovery has given both experts and victims fresh hope for the future.

Researchers reported that this drug managed to inhibit the growth of cancerous cells within the mesothelium but did not affect the development of normal cells that surrounded the affected ones. In experiments on mice, the survival rate increased from 45 days to 62 days, and in several cases to over 120 days.

It is thought that, following the success in lab and animal experiments, Celebrex will now continue to be extensively researched and tested in clinical trials for the prevention and regression of malignant mesothelioma.

Mesothelioma is a cancerous disease which develops from prolonged or regular exposure to asbestos. The number of diagnoses of this disease has been steadily rising over the years, and now appear to have reached massive proportion with further increases expected over the next couple of decades. So far, treatments have proven largely ineffective, although continual clinical trials have resulted in some breakthroughs in testing and short term treatment.