A new immunotherapy treatment is showing promising results against mesothelioma. The therapy consists of a combination of two drugs: one drug that reprograms macrophages and the other is the chemotherapy cisplatin. Mesothelioma is a cancer that does not respond well to treatment. The best option for patients is a combination of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation, but many patients are not eligible to receive surgery. Another treatment consisting of the immunotherapy combination Opdivo and Yervoy has been approved for mesothelioma, but it is more effective in some patients over others. Since mesothelioma is still hard to treat, more treatments need to be developed to help patients with the cancer.
Allocetra is a novel way to treat cancer. It reprograms macrophages back into their homeostatic state. Many illnesses including mesothelioma and other cancers take macrophages out of their homeostatic state, which makes the diseases more severe. Many cancers are hard to treat because anti-cancer drugs cannot get past “pro-tumor” macrophages. The macrophages usually create a layer on top of the tumor and promote tumor growth, leading to poor survival in patients. Allocetra targets the macrophages that facilitate tumor growth, making the ratio of anti-tumor macrophages and pro-tumor macrophages skew towards the anti-cancer macrophages.
When combining anti-cancer agents with Allocetra, the anti-cancer agents are able to fight cancer more effectively compared to when they are used by themselves. When cisplatin is used by itself, it has limited efficacy against mesothelioma. When combined with Allocetra, the survival rate was 55 percent versus zero percent in the untreated and cisplatin monotherapy groups. They also worked better compared to the Allocetra monotherapy group that saw a 14.2 percent survival. Mice had AB12 mesothelioma cells implanted and then were given treatment, which involved intravenous monotherapy, Allocetra monotherapy administered intraperitoneally, or IV cisplatin being given in combination with intraperitoneally administered Allocetra.
The combination of Allocetra and cisplatin showed good results. Fifty-seven days after the mesothelioma cells were implanted, the survival for mice that never received treatment was 0 percent and the survival duration was 31.7 plus or minus 2.6 days. The group that just received cisplatin had a 0 percent survival with a mean survival of 36.2 plus or minus 5.0 days. The survival for Allocetra was 14.2 percent and the duration was 40.2 plus or minus 10.9 days. When the two drugs were combined, the survival rate was 55 percent and the mean survival time was 49.3 plus or minus 10.6 days. This survival time increase was statistically significant compared to the other treatment groups.
Allocetra is a promising treatment for mesothelioma patients. Based on the current research, more research is warranted to see if the treatment is safe and effective and could be used in humans. More research is also needed to see if Allocetra could be effective when used alongside other treatments that work for mesothelioma.
