Shining new light on treatment for people with mesothelioma

Mesothelioma is a rare and aggressive type of cancer that most commonly affects the lining of the lungs. The main cause of mesothelioma is breathing in asbestos dust. There’s currently no cure and survival rates are very poor, with only about 5% of people surviving for 5 years or more after their diagnosis. Some 2,700 people are diagnosed with the aggressive cancer in the UK each year. It primarily affects older men because asbestos exposure was a greater risk in occupations like ship building and construction work.

Mesothelioma is very challenging to treat

Mesothelioma is one of the most challenging cancers to treat. This is partly because it’s often not diagnosed until it’s in advanced stages but also because current cancer treatments often don’t work well. Sometimes small areas of mesothelioma, like painful tumours, can be controlled by conventional radiotherapy. But it can’t usually be used to treat the full lining of the lung, where the cancer spreads, because it risks damaging vital organs like the heart, lungs and liver. 

We’re the first to investigate a new type of therapy

We’re looking at whether a different type of radiotherapy – known as proton beam therapy (PBT) – could be used to treat mesothelioma instead. PBT uses targeted beams of protons that deposit most of their energy directly in the tumour, minimising radiation exposure to surrounding healthy tissue. While this doesn’t mean there’ll be no side effects, using this approach could dramatically reduce radiation to critical organs, potentially allowing safer and more effective treatment.

PBT has been used to treat other types of cancer successfully, but the HIT-MESO trial is the first randomised clinical trial in the UK to investigate PBT for mesothelioma. We hope the treatment could increase two-year survival rates from around 30 per cent to 50 per cent, potentially reshaping national treatment guidelines.

We’re using cutting-edge technology

About 60 patients from across England and Wales have so far been recruited, with the trial aiming to find up to 148 people from 23 NHS centres. Participants receive daily proton beam therapy, Monday to Friday, for five weeks at either University College London Hospital or The Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester. The centre in London is huge, with a vast cyclotron buried five storeys underground and powering the proton beam 24 hours a day. It's a phenomenal piece of infrastructure. 

It brings real hope for people with mesothelioma 

In the UK, we have the highest rate of mesothelioma in the world and it’s a devastating condition for those affected. This trial gives people real hope of being able to spend more time with their families and have a better quality of life. We want to not only help people to live longer, but to live better. Through this trial, we hope to show that this approach can significantly improve survival and quality of life for patients. If successful, it could fundamentally change how mesothelioma is treated in the UK.