Southampton based trial finds drug to delay progression of a cancer
About 2,700 people are diagnosed with mesothelioma each year
Last updated 6th May 2025
There's new hope for patients with aggressive asbestos-linked cancer as teams from Southampton trial treatment for improved survival.
Researchers have said the discovery that a drug can control the growth of mesothelioma could provide "enormous hope" for patients.
A clinical trial run by Cancer Research UK Southampton Clinical Trials Unit and the University of Leicester©Unsplash tested a class of drug known as PARP inhibitors.
The drugs work by blocking the repair of damaged DNA in cancer cells, causing the cancer cells to die and have previously been shown to improve the survival rate of patients with some types of breathing and ovarian cancers.
But now the results of the Nero clinical trial, which have been presented at the American Association of Cancer Research conference, have been shown to delay the worsening of mesothelioma for patients whose other treatment had stopped working.
Mesothelioma is an aggressive cancer that forms in the lining of the lungs or abdomen and is linked to breathing in or ingesting dangerous asbestos fibres.
About 2,700 people are diagnosed with the disease each year.
Only about 5% survive for five years or more.
A total of 88 patients at 11 hospitals around the UK took part in the trial, funded by the charity Asthma + Lung UK.
The researchers found that those given a PARP inhibitor called niraparib were found to have a 27% reduction in the risk of the cancer progressing or death, delaying the worsening of the disease by an average of 1.5 months, with some seeing a much longer period of time where the cancer is being controlled.
Retired architect James Fox, who was diagnosed with mesothelioma in 2018, is one of the trial patients who has shown a positive response to the treatment.
The 83-year-old grandfather-of-five from west Dorset, who previously had surgery, chemotherapy and immunotherapy, was invited to join the trial after his treatment had stopped working.
"I was told that it was a bit of a lottery to get on to it.
"But I thought, let's try it. I mean, what else, I'd gone well past the prognosis by then, so I'd try anything that was offered.
"Obviously, it seems to have worked for me so far. I feel very tired at times, but if I manage it properly, I'm fine."
Professor Gareth Griffiths, director of the Southampton Clinical Trials Unit and co-lead of the trial, said: "Although this increase may seem small, for this group of patients who have very few treatment options and a generally poor prognosis, this is a significant step forward.
"We have shown for the first time that this kind of drug can improve progression-free survival for mesothelioma patients compared with their usual treatment in the NHS.
"This gives enormous hope to those patients and their families and means we can now carry out further research to find out more about how these treatments could be tailored and enhanced to stimulate an even better response in more people."
Dr Samantha Walker, director of research and innovation at Asthma + Lung UK, said: "This trial has made a meaningful difference to people with mesothelioma who were out of treatment options."
The team are now continuing their research to look for genetic biomarkers in a bid to identify those who are more likely to respond to the treatment as well as use artificial intelligence to help spot when the treatment is working.