The National Cancer Institute just started a study to see if it could make immunotherapy more potent for treating mesothelioma. The study combines a manmade protein that kills cancer cells called LMB-100 and an immunotherapy drug called ipilumab. The problem with current immunotherapy treatments is they do not work well with mesothelioma. The combination of LMB-100 with ipilumab is showing to be effective for the cancer though, leading to a phase I clinical trial for pleural and peritoneal mesothelioma. The effectiveness in mice is showing that the treatment is promising, so the next step is to find out if it is effective in people.
The trial is for the drug combination as a second line treatment, so patients who cannot have surgery who had standard chemotherapy and immunotherapy treatments fail over time are the main target. Patients in the study have to have either biphasic or epithelioid mesothelioma. There are not many options for treating mesothelioma, so this could potentially create a new effective treatment that cancer patients respond to. Opdivo and Yervoy were approved in 2020, but the treatment does not help that much since median overall survival went from 14.1 months to 18.1 months with the treatment.
This study is building on a different study utilizing Keytruda and LMB-100. The trial used systemic delivery while the current trial is using intratumor injection. Doctors want to find out if the intratumor injection is better at creating an immune response. LMB-100 targets mesothelin, an antigen that can be found in many different types of cancer including mesothelioma. The mice models show that mesothelioma tumors can be removed with this treatment, including the tumors that are injected and not injected into the mice’s bodies.
Researchers are now trying to figure out what levels of the drug combination are safe. Patients will receive LMB-100 injections in their tumors on days 1 and 4 for at most two 21-day cycles. This will be alongside up to four ipilumab doses. Researchers will find the best doses for patients for LMB-100 and ipilumab. Ipilumab is known as an immune checkpoint inhibitor and works by allowing the immune system to see and then attack and kill cancer cells. This treatment and other treatments like it are great for mesothelioma patients because they give hope to patients with a very hard to treat disease. New treatments can extend the life expectancy of patients and can help patients who would ordinarily not respond to regular treatments.
