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Treating Lung Metastases: Aerosolized Chemotherapy
When osteosarcoma metastasizes, 85 percent of the time it goes to the lungs. Chemotherapy may be given to control the growth and/or slow the spread of the cancer. But the treatment can have serious side effects, like hair loss, fatigue and an increased risk for infection. The side effects occur because the anti-cancer drugs have to travel through the body to get at the cancer site in the lungs, damaging healthy cells along the way.Researchers are now testing a new way to treat osteosarcoma lung metastases, by using inhaled chemotherapy.
The treatment, delivered through an inhaler, uses GM-CSF (granulocyte macrophage colony stimulating factor), also known as LEUKINE® (sargramostim), to stimulate the production of white blood cells that fight the tumor. Pete Anderson, MD, PhD, Cancer Researcher with MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, says the drug is normally given as a shot under the
skin. But as white blood cells numbers increase, patients can experience a significant amount of aches and bone pain. When the treatment is given in an inhaled form, the drug goes directly into the airways and only the lung cells are affected. Thus, patients don’t experience the painful side effects.
The inhaled chemotherapy is combined with another treatment, an experimental drug called mifamurtide, or L-MTP-PE. This medication binds to white blood cells and boosts their activity. Although given intravenously, it readily travels to the lungs where it, hopefully, strengthens the ability of the white blood cells to fight the tumor. Anderson says MTP-PE can cause high fever and chills, so patients are usually pretreated with medications, like ibuprofen or acetaminophen, to prevent the side effects.
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