No effective standard treatment can improve significantly the prognosis of malignant mesothelioma (MM) patients. However, there is evidence that MM patients may benefit from immunotherapeutic agents.~Clinical studies examining CTLA-4 blockade are providing convincing evidences on the immunobiological effects and on the clinical activity of this new class of immunomodulating therapeutic agents, likely due to their ability to stimulate patients'immune system to more effectively attack tumor cells by blocking a negative regulatory signal.~Tremelimumab is a fully human anti-CTLA-4 monoclonal antibody (mAb), developed as an IgG2 isotype to minimize complement activation and reduce the risk of cytokine storm. As a single agent, Tremelimumab can induce durable tumor regression in 7-10% of patients with advanced melanoma. Tremelimumab has been tested in several clinical trials as single-agent or in combination with other agents in different solid tumors.~The evidences above unveil a strong immunologic potential of treatment with Tremelimumab also in MM patients.
The study is designed to define the immunologic and clinical activity of Tremelimumab in patients with advanced mesothelioma.