Author: Alex Strauss

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    Report Highlights Mesothelioma Danger in Home Repairs

    ByAlex Strauss

    A new article published in a Danish medical journal highlights the potential mesothelioma danger of certain kinds of do-it-yourself home repairs. Mesothelioma is a highly aggressive and currently incurable cancer of body membranes caused almost exclusively by exposure to asbestos dust. Most mesothelioma patients have a history of working in an occupation, such as construction, manufacturing, or asbestos mining that exposed them to the toxin over an extended period of time. But a growing number of mesothelioma cases worldwide are being reported in people who have no occupational history with asbestos. Instead, these people are being exposed to asbestos while doing repairs or renovations in their own homes. The two newly published cases from Denmark are prime examples. Occupational medicine…

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    Targeted Radiotherapy Technique May Beat IMRT for Some Mesothelioma Patients

    ByAlex Strauss

    There is new evidence that an innovative radiotherapy technique called volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) may be even better than other targeted radiation methods for mesothelioma patients who have had surgery. VMAT is a sophisticated radiotherapy technique designed to deliver highly targeted radiation into a tumor while sparing normal tissues around it. During a VMAT treatment, single or multiple radiation beams sweep around the patient. Compared to some other types of conformal (targeted) radiotherapy, such as intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), VMAT is more customizable, faster, and appears to be less affected by air cavities left behind after mesothelioma surgery. Radiation oncologists at Hiroshima University Hospital in Japan studied the cases of 15 mesothelioma patients who were treated with VMAT…

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    A Better Way to Diagnose Mesothelioma?

    ByAlex Strauss

    New research suggests there may be a less invasive way to accurately diagnose malignant pleural mesothelioma. Right now, the gold standard for mesothelioma diagnosis is examination of suspected tumor cells under a microscope. To get those cells, doctors have to perform either an open surgery called thoracotomy or a less invasive operation called thoracoscopy using smaller incisions and a camera for guidance. But biomedical engineers at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh say analyzing cells in the fluid around the lungs may be just as effective. Unlike diagnostic methods that use tissue samples, the pleural fluid method requires only a thoracentesis, or removal of a sample of lung fluid using a needle. To maximize the diagnostic power of fluid samples, the…

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    Lymphoma Drug May Fight Mesothelioma, Too

    ByAlex Strauss

    A drug granted accelerated FDA approval for the treatment of lymphomas appears to kill some types mesothelioma cells, too. Cancer researchers at Case Western Reserve University and Case Medical Center have just released some encouraging findings on the drug called brentuximab vedotin. Sold under the brand name Adcetris, brentuximab vedotin targets CD30, a protein that acts as a regulator of programmed cell death (apoptosis) by interacting with smaller proteins called cytokines. Certain cancers, including Hodgkin’s disease and anaplastic large cell lymphoma, have been found to overexpress CD30, making it easier for tumors to grow. Based on the success of brentuximab vedotin in lymphoma trials, and given the relatively low success rate of most standard mesothelioma treatments, the team elected to test the…

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    Power Plant Mesothelioma Case May Be Just the Start for Mongolia

    ByAlex Strauss

    Mongolia has recorded its first-ever case of mesothelioma, but researchers say it is not likely to be the last. An article in the International ournal of Occupational and Environmental Health details the case of a 47-year old woman who developed mesothelioma after working for 28 years in a coal-burning thermal power plant. As in other parts of the world, asbestos has been widely used in Mongolian thermal power plants as an insulating material. Based on the prevalence of asbestos at these power plants, and the fact that more than 80 percent of mesothelioma cases worldwide have a history of asbestos exposure, the researchers recommend that Mongolia prepare for a significant rise in the disease. “We expect additional cases of mesothelioma,…

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    New Mesothelioma Trial: Radiation for Prevention?

    ByAlex Strauss

    Mesothelioma patients at risk for a serious treatment complication called procedure tract metastasis (PTM) may face a more promising prognosis when the results of a new clinical trial are in. Many mesothelioma patients undergo some type of interventional therapy, such as surgery or drainage of excess lung fluid. Unfortunately, any time an instrument is introduced into the chest of a patient with mesothelioma, there is a risk that the patient will develop new tumors along the path of the incision or catheter tract. These PTMs can not only be painful but they can also accelerate the progression of mesothelioma and make treatment more complicated. Now, a group of researchers in Great Britain have launched a new trial to determine whether giving patients some radiotherapy at the site…

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    Italian Report Details “Global Mesothelioma Epidemic”

    ByAlex Strauss

    Two Italian researchers say mesothelioma has reached epidemic proportions in some parts of the world and does not appear to be slowing down any time soon. In a new report in the Indian Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Claudio and Tommaso Bianchi of the Center for the Study of Environmental Cancer in Monfalcone, Italy analyzed data from cancer registries around the world. They supplemented their raw data with information they got from mesothelioma researchers in other countries. What they found was a disturbing upward trend in mesothelioma incidence in several European countries, as well as in Australia and New Zealand. According to the Bianchis, the UK, The Netherlands, Malta and Belgium reported the highest number of mesothelioma cases in…

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    Mesothelioma Chemotherapy: Can Supplements Make it Safer?

    ByAlex Strauss

    Vitamin B12 and folic acid supplements are often given to mesothelioma patients who are on chemotherapy in an effort to ward off neutropenia, a dangerous drop in white blood cells that can leave patients vulnerable to infection. Neutropenia has been linked to elevated levels of an amino acid called homocysteine, and pemetrexed can raise homocysteine. While some studies have found that supplementation makes chemotherapy less toxic, a team of British doctors found the supplements had little impact on a group of mesothelioma patients who were not on pemetrexed. Scientists at the Royal Marsden Hospital in Sutton, UK randomly assigned 83 patients with advanced lung cancer or malignant mesothelioma to receive platinum-based chemotherapy with or without B12 and folic acid supplementation. They were looking…

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    Experimental Drug May Offer “Brilliant Hope” for Mesothelioma Treatment

    ByAlex Strauss

    HUHS1015 is a newly-synthesized analogue (chemically similar compound) of the blood pressure drug naftopidil. In the U.S., naftopidil is sold under the brand name Flivas and is also used to treat certain prostate conditions and Raynaud’s disease. In 2014, another Japanese research team published their findings on the anticancer properties of naftopidil, which appears to increase the expression of certain microRNAs associated with programmed cell death (apoptosis). In their new report on HUHS1015, scientists with the Hyogo College of Medicine and the Hyogo University of Health Sciences say the drug not only induced apoptosis in mesothelioma cells as well as naftopidil, but it also triggered necrosis, the premature death of cancer cells. According to author Tomoyuki Nishizaki and colleagues, HUHS1015…

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    Mesothelioma Chemotherapy Side-Effect Mimics Scleroderma, Infection

    ByAlex Strauss

    The antifolate pemetrexed (Alimta) is the first and is only drug approved by the FDA specifically to treat malignant mesothelioma, the aggressive cancer most closely associated with asbestos exposure.  A combination of pemetrexed and a platinum-based drug like cisplatin or carboplatin is the first-line treatment for most mesothelioma patients. But, like every drug, pemetrexed carries the potential for side effects. Researchers at Perigueux Hospital in Perigueux, France have just published a paper warning of a serious but little-known skin-related side effect of pemetrexed that may be unrecognized by mesothelioma patients and doctors. The report, published in a French dermatology journal, details the cases of two cancer patients on pemetrexed who developed a serious skin problem with symptoms resembling the connective…