Malignant pleural mesothelioma is an asbestos-related multi-resistant tumour with increasing incidence worldwide. To date, no effective curative treatment has been developed, and patients with mesothelioma have a lifespan of 6-18 months. Studies unravelling the biology of mesothelioma and identifying novel molecular targets for treatment are thus urgently warranted. The role of inflammation in tumourigenesis processes is well-established in various cancers including mesothelioma. The pro-inflammatory cytokine MIF and its receptor, CD74, are interesting targets, and our study was the first to investigate the involvement of the MIF/CD74 pathway in human mesothelioma.

In this thesis, I presented our research results that identified the MIF signalling pathway as a new therapeutic target for pleural mesothelioma. We established reliable pre-clinical in vitro and in vivo models that allowed us to evaluate the effectiveness of a MIF inhibitor on mesothelioma development. Finally, we open the way for the development of mesothelioma therapy with inhibitors of the MIF signalling pathway, which we are pursuing in my laboratory. We believe that this research will be the first step in the development of new therapeutic strategies for mesothelioma patients. These new therapeutic strategies could be tested in the treatment of patients with lung cancers.