Review Article
Progress in the Management of Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma in 2017

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtho.2018.02.021Get rights and content
Under an Elsevier user license
open archive

Abstract

Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is an uncommon, almost universally fatal, asbestos-induced malignancy. New and effective strategies for diagnosis, prognostication, and treatment are urgently needed. Herein we review the advances in MPM achieved in 2017. Whereas recent epidemiological data demonstrated that the incidence of MPM-related death continued to increase in United States between 2009 and 2015, new insight into the molecular pathogenesis and the immunological tumor microenvironment of MPM, for example, regarding the role of BRCA1 associated protein 1 and the expression programmed death receptor ligand 1, are highlighting new potential therapeutic strategies. Furthermore, there continues to be an ever-expanding number of clinical studies investigating systemic therapies for MPM. These trials are primarily focused on immunotherapy using immune checkpoint inhibitors alone or in combination with other immunotherapies and nonimmunotherapies. In addition, other promising targeted therapies, including pegylated adenosine deiminase (ADI-PEG20), which focuses on argininosuccinate synthase 1–deficient tumors, and tazemetostat, an enhancer of zeste 2 polycomb repressive complex 2 subunit inhibitor of BRCA1 associated protein 1 gene (BAP1)-deficient tumors, are currently being explored.

Keywords

Mesothelioma
Immunotherapy
BAP1
Mesothelin
Review
Therapy

Cited by (0)

Drs. McCambridge and Napolitano contributed equally to this work.

Drs. Yang and Peikert contributed equally to this work.

Disclosure: Dr. Fennell reports receiving personal fees and other nonfinancial support from Roche, BMS Epizyme, and AstraZeneca; grants, personal fees, and other nonfinancial support from Boehringer Ingelheim; and personal fees from Abbvie and other nonfinancial support from MSD outside the submitted work. In addition, Dr. Fennell reports serving on advisory boards for Roche, Epizyme, BMS, Abbvie, and Boehringer Ingelheim and receiving honoraria for serving on speaker bureaus for AstraZeneca, MSD, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Roche. Dr. Mansfield reports serving on the Genentech Advisory Board and the AbbVie Advisory Board, for which honoraria were granted to his institution, and he also reports research funding to his institution from Novartis outside the submitted work. Dr. Sekido reports grants from Kyowa Hakko Kirin and Eisai outside the submitted work. Dr. Nowak reports grants from AstraZeneca and personal fees from Boehringer Ingelheim, Roche International, Epizyme, Merck, and Bristol Myer Squibb outside the submitted work. Dr. Pass has a patent for fibulin 3 pending, a patent regarding osteopontin licensed to Wayne State University, and a patent regarding high mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) licensed to the University of Hawaii. Dr. Carbone reports grants from NIH/NCI, grants from DoD, grants from V Foundation, grants from UH Foundation: “Pathogenesis of Malignant Mesothelioma,” through donations from Honeywell Int. Inc and Riviera United-4-a Cure (funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.), during the conduct of the study. Dr. Carbone has pending patent applications on BAP1 and a patent Using anti-HMGB1 monoclonal antibody or other HMGB1 antibodies as a novel mesothelioma therapeutic strategy Patent (No. 9,561,274) issued, and a patent HMGB1 as a biomarker for asbestos exposure and mesothelioma early detection (Application No. 14/123,722, Patent No. 9,244,074) pending, is a board certified Pathologist and provides diagnostic expertise on mesothelioma to lawyers representing various parties. Dr. Peikert reports serving on the Epizyme Advisory Board outside the submitted work, for which an honorarium was granted to his institution. Dr. Yang reports grants from the National Cancer Institute, Department of Defense, V Foundation, United-4 A Cure Foundation, Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation, and Hawaii Community Foundation during the conduct of the study. In addition, Dr. Yang has a patent for a biomarker of asbestos exposure and mesothelioma (U.S. 9244074 B2) and a patent for methods and kits for analysis of HMGB1 isoforms, and she has filed a U.S. provisional patent application (No. 62/106,092) that is pending and a patent for treatment and prevention of cancer with HMGB1 antagonists (U.S. application No. 14/123,607) that is pending. The remaining authors declare no conflict of interest.