Many new and promising drugs and therapies are being discovered and tested for the treatment of Mesothelioma, including estrogen, Onconase, tea tree oil and Thioguanine with fluorouracil.
Estrogen in both sexes has functions in the skeletal, central nervous, cardiovascular and immune system. Italian researchers have found that estrogen stopped or slowed the growth of Mesothelioma cells.
Onconase, a drug developed by Alfacell Corporation, is in Phase III of a clinical trial which may lead to FDA approval. In Mesothelioma cells, Onconase triggers several biological effects of key cell cycle regulatory factors.
Tea Tree Oil has been found, by the Biomolecular and Chemistry Sciences at The University of Western Australia, to kill mouse Mesothelioma cells in vitro. The compounds in tree oil were found to stop cells from multiplying and inducing cell death. The most promising part of this study is that the compounds had a tendency to protect healthy cells.
While the Italians study Estrogen and the Australians study Tree Oil, researchers at Dartmouth Medical center in New Hampshire are studying the use of a highly toxic drug, Thioguanine with fluorouracil, which protects the healthy cells while Mesothelioma cells are damaged.
While some of these Mesothelioma treatments are a long way from being approved for current use, others are just around the corner. The most encouraging fact is that researches around the world are working tirelessly to find effective treatments for Mesothelioma suffers. The future looks bright, at least for the many more people that will learn they have this deadly disease.
Richard J. Arsenault, 2011
