Maintenance Chemotherapy Treatment with Alimta May Improve Survival Rate of Mesothelioma Patients

ast year the FDA gave approval for Alimta, a chemotherapy used in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer and mesothelioma, to be used in maintenance treatment in patients with advanced or metastatic nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer whose disease has not progressed after four cycles of platinum-based first line chemotherapy.

Mesothelioma is a cancer of the mesothelial cells, caused by breathing in asbestos fibers that become lodged in the thin membrane that lines and encases the lungs. While there is no cure, mesothelioma can be treated with varying degrees of success through the use of surgical procedures, chemotherapy and radiation. Alimta is often used in combination with cisplatin, another chemotherapy drug for the treatment of mesothelioma.

Patients taking Alimta (pemetrexed) as a maintenance therapy for advanced non-squamous lung cancer lived a median of five months longer than patients taking a placebo. The findings were presented at the 2009 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting.

Maintenance therapy, which involves continuous chemotherapy treatment for cancer treatments, is gaining popularity among physicians and patients. Previously, chemotherapy treatments ended when the cancer was under control and was restarted if the cancer began to worsen.

Patients are often given a break from the treatments but restart chemotherapy before the cancer returns. Maintenance therapy is becoming more accepted due to the improved survival rates and because some of the newer cancer drugs have less side effects than the toxic older ones.

Read more about maintenance therapy in Cure.