• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe

Drug Delivery Business

  • Clinical Trials
  • Research & Development
  • Drug-Device Combinations
  • FDA
  • Pharmaceuticals
  • Policy

Study: Radiation may boost immunotherapy in mesothelioma treatment

May 25, 2017 By Sarah Faulkner

MesotheliomaDoctors in Pennsylvania reported this week that combining immunotherapy drugs with radiotherapy could help to more efficiently treat malignant pleural mesothelioma.

The analysis from the University of Pennsylvania looked at studies that combined immunotherapy drugs like Merck‘s (NYSE:MRK) Keytruda with radiation therapy. The team concluded that radiotherapy may boost the cancer-killing effects of immunotherapies.

Malignant pleural mesothelioma is a rare form of lung cancer that is closely related to asbestos exposure. It’s highly invasive and the current median survival time with standard treatment is less than 1 year.

Traditionally, patients with the rare cancer are treated using surgical resection, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. But more recently, companies have investigated the use of immunotherapy drugs, such as immune checkpoint inhibitors, in treating mesothelioma.

PD-1 inhibitors, like Keytruda, avelumab and nivolumab, block a cell surface protein that is sometimes expressed by mesothelioma tumors.

“Radiation therapy may itself be immunomodulatory,” Dr. Evan Alley of the Penn Presbyterian Medical Center wrote. “The combination of radiation therapy and immunotherapy can serve to achieve a synergistic therapeutic effect.”

The team recommended that further work be conducted regarding the combined effects of the therapies in the treatment of mesothelioma.

Filed Under: Drug-Device Combinations, Featured, Immunotherapy, Oncology, Pharmaceuticals, Research & Development Tagged With: Merck

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

  • Tandem Diabetes Care wins CE mark for Mobi insulin pump with Control-IQ+ technology
  • Glooko adds chief strategy officer to chief medical officer’s title
  • Cordis launches 10,000-patient registry for drug-eluting balloon
  • Senseonics opens $50M public offering, $25M private placement with Abbott
  • Study links Abbott CGM use to lower risk of hospitalizations due to heart complications

Primary Sidebar

“ddb
EXPAND YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND STAY CONNECTED
Get the latest news and trends happening now in drug delivery.

MEDTECH 100 INDEX

Medtech 100 logo
Market Summary > Current Price
The MedTech 100 is a financial index calculated using the BIG100 companies covered in Medical Design and Outsourcing.

Footer

Drug Delivery Business News Logo

MassDevice Medical NETWORK

MassDevice
DeviceTalks
Medical Tubing + Extrusion
Medical Design & Outsourcing
MedTech100 Index
Drug Discovery & Development
Pharmaceutical Processing World
Medical Design Sourcing
R&D World

DRUG DELIVERY BUSINESS NEWS

Subscribe to Drug Delivery’s E-Newsletter
Advertise with us
About
Contact us
Privacy
Listen to our Weekly Podcasts

Copyright © 2025 · WTWH Media LLC and its licensors. All rights reserved.
The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media.

Privacy Policy | RSS