On July 10, during the research and development portion of the Verastem, Inc.’s investor meeting, Mary Hesdorffer, APRN, the executive director of the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation, was a featured speaker. In her talk, Ms. Hesdorffer focused on the need for clinical trials to increase the number of viable therapeutic options for mesothelioma.
According to their website, Verastem, Inc. is a “clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing drugs to treat cancer by the targeted killing of cancer stem cells. Cancer stem cells are an underlying cause of tumor recurrence and metastasis.”
“When we look at the mesothelioma patient, we have one regimen, pemetrexed and cisplatin, approved in 2003,” said Ms. Hesdorffer. “40% of the patients were found to respond to the treatment, but unfortunately, it’s not a durable response,” she added.
Ms. Hesdorffer continued her speech by focusing on the need to do more for mesothelioma patients to increase time to relapse or even to delay relapse indefinitely. She argues that keeping patients healthier for longer periods of time, improving their quality of life, and keeping them in good shape, positions them as good candidates for major breakthroughs that might develop in the future.
Mary Hesdorffer, MS, APRN-BC, is an expert nurse practitioner with over 16 years of experience in mesothelioma treatment. She is an expert in clinical trials for mesothelioma and her work has been published in a variety of scientific journals. She has spoken about mesothelioma, clinical trials, and the dire need for life-saving mesothelioma treatments to the US Congress and the UK Parliament, as well as many seminars and conferences, including the World Conference on Lung Cancer, where in 2015 she will be the program chair of the Nursing and Allied Health section.
For more information on mesothelioma clinical trials, and to download the Meso Foundation’s free clinical trials booklet, visit curemeso.org.
