Author: Alex Strauss

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    New Studies Question Radical Mesothelioma Surgery

    ByAlex Strauss

    Calling it “a harmful procedure” a team of Italian surgeons is recommending against a controversial and radical type of surgery for early-stage mesothelioma. Mesothelioma is a rare but virulent cancer that starts in the membrane that encases the lungs or other organs. As mesothelioma spreads, it can metastasize into the lungs and other parts of the chest cavity. Extrapleural Pneumonectomy (EPP) is an extensive surgery that involves not only removal of the cancerous pleural lining, but also the lung closest to it, the membranes around other organs, and all or part of the diaphragm. It carries a high risk of complication and death, prompting many of the world’s top mesothelioma experts to reject it completely. In the latest study of…

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    Common Cold Virus – Uncommon Mesothelioma Treatment

    ByAlex Strauss

    Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania are fighting malignant mesothelioma with an unexpected tool – the cold virus. The approach fits into a category of treatment known as immunotherapy, which aims to harness the body’s own immune system to find and attack cancer cells. In the current study, Penn Medicine mesothelioma researchers, led by Steven Albelda, MD, and Daniel Sterman, MD, of the Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Division, injected mesothelioma patients with a modified form of the adenovirus – a virus normally associated with the common cold. The virus had been altered to express high levels of an immune system stimulant called Interferon-a, a protein that can boost the body’s ability to fight off viral infection. Nine mesothelioma patients…

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    Surgery Provides Better Mesothelioma Diagnosis for Some Patients

    ByAlex Strauss

    For patients who can tolerate it, a Japanese research team says an operation to remove part of the chest lining may be the best way to diagnose early malignant pleural mesothelioma. Pleural mesothelioma, a rare but aggressive cancer of the membrane encasing the lungs (pleura), is often difficult to diagnose. A buildup of fluid between the layers of the pleura, known as pleural effusion, is one of the first clinical signs of mesothelioma. For this reason, pleural effusion cytology is often one of the first diagnostic tests performed in suspected cases. Doctors draw off some of the pleural fluid and test it for evidence of cancer cells. But researchers from the Department of Thoracic Surgery at Hyogo College of Medicine…

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    Navy Did Not Protect All Veterans from Mesothelioma

    ByAlex Strauss

    Calling it one of the “most knowledgeable organizations in the world regarding the health hazards of asbestos,” a San Francisco-based chemical risk assessment company says that the U.S. Navy was ahead of the curve in attempting to protect veterans and civilians from mesothelioma in the 1960’s.  Ships of that era were heavily laden with asbestos, making Navy veterans among the most common victims of mesothelioma, the most serious of the diseases caused by asbestos exposure. But according to Kara Franke and Dennis Paustenbach who examined dozens of published and unpublished documents on asbestos knowledge from 1900 to 1970, the Navy understood the health hazards of asbestos as early as the 1930’s. Although they continued to require its use on ships, the Navy…

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    New Mesothelioma Drug Granted Special FDA Status

    ByAlex Strauss

    The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) has granted orphan drug status to a medication that may help boost the effectiveness of the standard cisplatin/pemetrexed chemotherapy combination for mesothelioma. CBP501, produced by the Japanese Drug company CanBas, is a novel synthetic peptide that seems to enhance the effectiveness of cisplatin by acting on multiple pathways that govern the lifecycle of cells and the natural repair of DNA damage. By modulating the production of a certain enzyme, it allows mesothelioma cells to become more susceptible to the damaging effects of platinum (cisplatin) build-up. At the same time, it prevents the cells from properly repairing themselves. The drug has also shown the ability to resensitize mesothelioma cells that have become resistant to cisplatin. The FDA’s…

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    Demolition May Raise Mesothelioma Risk

    ByAlex Strauss

    Do not take the dangers of asbestos for granted. That warning comes directly from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) which admits to having done exactly that when it experimented with relaxing some of its own regulations for safe asbestos handling. EPA began regulating asbestos use after the material was linked to mesothelioma and a range of other health problems in the 1960’s. Airborne asbestos fibers can lodge in the lungs, triggering mesothelioma even decades after exposure. Despite the danger, beginning in 1999, EPA considered alternative methods to “augment” the Asbestos National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants, the act that governs asbestos handling during demolition. The alternative methods considered, including the Fort Worth Method and the Alternative Asbestos Control Method, leave some…

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    Vatalanib Not Effective as a ‘Single Agent’ for Mesothelioma

    ByAlex Strauss

    There has been a setback for doctors hoping the drug vatalanib would be a viable alternative to chemotherapy for mesothelioma patients. Scientists with the Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB), a research team based at the University of California, have ruled out further study on the medication as a single agent (administered by itself) after a phase II trial found no significant survival benefit among mesothelioma patients. Vatalanib is an oral medicine classified as an anti-angiogenesis drug, designed to inhibit the formation of new blood vessels necessary to ‘feed’ a growing tumor. Although vatalanib has shown promise in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer and has been compared to Avastin (bevacizumab), another anti-angiogenesis drug being tested for mesothelioma, the…

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    ‘Breast Cancer Gene’ May Impact Mesothelioma Treatment

    ByAlex Strauss

    A gene most often associated with breast cancer may also play a vital role in the effectiveness of mesothelioma treatment. BRCA1 has been shown to be closely linked to the risk of breast cancer and a number of other malignancies. But a new study out of Ireland suggests that there may also be a connection between BRCA1 expression and sensitivity to vinorelbine, an antimitotic chemotherapy drug, in mesothelioma tumors. Classified as a plant alkaloid, vinorelbine attacks tumor cells by interfering with their ability to properly divide the chromosomes in their nuclei (mitosis). To test the connection between BRCA1 and vinorelbine sensitivity in mesothelioma, the researchers tested 144 mesothelioma tissue specimens for their level of BRCA1 expression.  They found that 38.9% of…

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    New Study Finds EPP Improves Mesothelioma Quality of Life

    ByAlex Strauss

    New research out of Italy casts another vote in favor of the controversial and radical surgical approach known as extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP) for treating mesothelioma. Pleural mesothelioma occurs in the pleural membrane which separated the lungs from other internal organs. As the cancer spreads, it restricts the ability of the lungs to expand. Eventually, pleural mesothelioma can spread into the lungs themselves and other internal membranes. Extrapleural pneumonectomy attempts to prevent metastasis by removing the tissues most likely to be effected, including the lung lining, part of the pericardium (lining around the heart), a portion of the diaphragm, and the diseased lung. Because EPP is so radical and so risky (it carries a 60 percent complication rate), many of the…

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    New Asbestos Test May Help Protect Against Mesothelioma

    ByAlex Strauss

    Although it is known to cause mesothelioma and a host of other diseases, asbestos is still in use in workplaces around the world. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), as many as 1.3 million Americans are exposed to significant amounts of asbestos in the workplace. Historically, those who mine the raw material are at greatest risk for mesothelioma, along with those who work in construction or in manufacturing asbestos-containing products. Inhaled fibers can cause irritation and inflammation that can trigger mesothelioma and other asbestos related diseases even decades after exposure. Because higher concentrations of airborne asbestos increase the health risk, workplace monitoring of airborne asbestos is required to help protect workers from mesothelioma and other diseases.  Phase contrast microscopy…