The Mesothelioma Stratified Therapy (MiST) trial aims to assign targeted treatments tailored specifically to an individual’s mesothelioma and will be run from the HOPE Clinical Trials Facility at Leicester Hospital.
It has been funded by the British Lung Foundation, thanks to a donation from the Victor Dahdaleh Foundation.
Mesothelioma develops in tissue that lines the space between the lungs and the chest wall and forms after several years following the inhalation of microscopic asbestos fibres.
It can take several decades to develop, depending on the parts of the body affected and the extent of exposure to asbestos, with some patients only experiencing symptoms when the disease reaches an advanced stage.
According to the Office for National Statistics only 6% of men and 10% of women with mesothelioma live for longer than five years after diagnosis.
“The sad reality is that we have very limited effective treatment options on the NHS for mesothelioma. There is a desperate need for more effective therapy. As a result, few patients live for a long time after diagnosis,” said Professor Dean Fennell, Chair of the Mesothelioma Research Programme at the University of Leicester, consultant oncologist at Leicester’s Hospitals and scientific lead for the MiST trial.
“By matching new drugs to the individual’s type of mesothelioma, for the first time, we have an unparalleled opportunity to rationally choose drugs most likely to control a patient’s mesothelioma.
“We hope that MiST will accelerate advances in extending survival and quality of life for patients with this aggressive cancer.”
The British Lung Foundation’s Head of Research, Ian Jarrold, added: “Finding new treatments for mesothelioma will be a huge challenge. However, with advanced techniques which enable us to understand the human genome in minute detail, we can make big strides in our understanding of how this terrible disease works. We hope that this trial will make significant progress towards the day where nobody is left breathless by mesothelioma.”
Anyone interested in finding out more about the study, contact the MiST team.
In this episode of the Safety & Health Podcast, ‘Burnout, stress and being human’, Heather Beach is joined by Stacy Thomson to discuss burnout, perfectionism and how to deal with burnout as an individual, as management and as an organisation.
We provide an insight on how to tackle burnout and why mental health is such a taboo subject, particularly in the workplace.
