Author: Alex Strauss

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    New Clues How Asbestos Causes Mesothelioma

    ByAlex Strauss

    A team of Japanese researchers believe they may have found another piece of the puzzle explaining why asbestos causes malignant mesothelioma. Asbestos is a naturally occurring soil mineral, mined for decades for use in various industrial applications.  Since its use was first linked to deadly malignant mesothelioma around the middle of the century, researchers around the world have been trying to uncover exactly what makes the material so toxic. Now, a new laboratory study of several types of asbestos may have found part of the answer. Using an advanced system known as ‘matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry’, the Japanese team identified a number of cellular proteins that tend to attach themselves to the surface of asbestos molecules once those molecules…

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    Rare Form of Mesothelioma Appears after Multimodal Treatment

    ByAlex Strauss

    Advanced mesothelioma treatment approaches like multimodal therapy may not only prolong survival in some patients; they may also cause fundamental changes in the way the disease presents itself. Pleural mesothelioma is a malignancy of the thin lining that encases the lungs. It is caused by exposure to asbestos. Typically, the prognosis is poor. But a multinational study in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology finds that more efficient chemotherapy protocols and aggressive management strategies are resulting in more longer-living patients. The researchers single out the powerful trimodal combination of induction chemotherapy, extrapleural pneumonectomy surgery, and adjuvant high-dose hemithoracic radiation for its impact on survival. Although this therapy combination may hold mesothelioma at bay in some cases, it usually returns eventually. The…

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    Mesothelioma Risk Still Exists After 9/11

    ByAlex Strauss

    A decade after the attack on the World Trade Centers, health officials are bracing for latent health effects such as mesothelioma among the tens of thousands of people exposed to toxic dust at the scene. The collapse of the World Trade Centers in 2001 released huge clouds of dust and spread high levels of airborne pollutants across Manhattan and part of Brooklyn, New York.  Asbestos fibers, which causes mesothelioma, was one of the pollutants released.  Malignant mesothelioma is a disease in which a cancer grows on the mesothelium, the membrane that forms the lining of several body cavities. An estimated 60,000 to 70,000 responders suffered the most concentrated exposure, but thousands of other people who were just in the area at the…

  • Study Confirms Mesothelioma Danger for Home Renovators

    ByAlex Strauss

    An Australian study reconfirms that performing home renovations on homes built before the 1980’s can put a person at increased risk for mesothelioma if proper precautions are not taken. Australian workers unions that have been vocal in recent months about the risk of mesothelioma to home renovators now have a published study to back them up.  Researchers from the University of Western Australia have just published a study on the incidence of malignant mesothelioma in their region and the news is not good. Using the Western Australian Mesothelioma Register, the team reviewed all cases of malignant mesothelioma diagnosed in western Australia from 1960 to the end of 2008 and determined the primary source of asbestos exposure in each case. Of the…

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    Multi-Modality Mesothelioma Treatment Well Tolerated

    ByAlex Strauss

    The combination of pleurectomy/decortication, hyperthermic pleural lavage and adjuvant chemotherapy is an effective alternative to more traditional mesothelioma treatment combinations. So say the London scientists who tested the method on 36 mesothelioma patients over a five-and-a-half year period. The mesothelioma patients were all treated at a London hospital between October 2004 and May 2010. Each patient first underwent pleurectomy/decortication, a surgical method for removing as many malignant mesothelioma tumor cells as possible. The method is considered by many to be a safer alternative to the more extensive surgery called extrapleural pneumonectomy, which involves removing a lung and part of the diaphragm. Before their surgical wounds were closed, each patient’s chest cavity was rinsed with a warmed povidone-iodine solution, designed to…

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    9/11 Firefighters Could Get Help for Mesothelioma

    ByAlex Strauss

    New York Firefighters who develop mesotheliomaand other cancers in the wake of the 9/11 attacks may be a step closer to receiving federal health benefits to cover their illnesses, thanks to a new study. A decade after the World Trade Center bombings, the study has found that firefighters who responded are 19 percent more likely to get cancer of all types than the general population.  The study published this week in The Lancet is the first to look specifically at cancer rates among those exposed to the toxic dust and smoke. An earlier study conducted at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and published in Environmental Health Perspectives used air analysis to confirm that the air in and around the site was…

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    Genetic Mutation Linked to Mesothelioma

    ByAlex Strauss

    Medical science may finally be a step closer to understanding why some people exposed to asbestos contract malignant mesothelioma and others do not. A new study funded by the National Cancer Institute and conducted by researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia and the University of Hawaii Cancer Center has found that people who have a genetic mutation on their BAP1 gene are more susceptible to mesothelioma and several other types of cancer. The study, published in a recent issue of Nature Genetics, followed two families that have an unusually high incidence of mesothelioma, which is typically very rare. In the U.S., mesothelioma affects fewer than 3,000 people each year. This, despite the fact that tens of thousands of…

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    Mesothelioma Responds Best to Multi-Modality Treatment, Expert Says

    ByAlex Strauss

    Patients with mesothelioma have a better chance of survival when they are treated with multiple treatment modalities rather than chemotherapy alone. That is the advice of renowned mesothelioma expert Dr. Robert Cameron of UCLA. Dr. Cameron is a cardiothoracic surgeon and surgical oncologist who pioneered the lung-sparing surgical technique for mesothelioma known as pleurectomy/decortication and has treated mesothelioma patients for more than 20 years. In an article for the Pacific Heart Lung and Blood Institute’s website, he cautions patients and oncologists against relying too heavily on Alimta/cisplatin, the only FDA-approved chemotherapy combination approved for mesothelioma. “Lost in the hype [over Alimta/cisplatin] is the fact that the FDA’s approval is limited to use with patients who are not eligible for surgery,”…

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    Finding May Strengthen New Mesothelioma Therapy

    ByAlex Strauss

    NIH scientists believe they may have found a way to help ensure the effectiveness of a new mesothelioma drug called SS1P. SS1P is currently in clinical trials for malignant pleural mesothelioma, a rare but virulent cancer caused by asbestos inhalation. SS1P works by targeting mesothelin, an antigen expressed on the surface of several types of human cancer cells. In mesothelioma cells, mesothelin is frequently ‘shed’ and ends up in the fluid around the lungs, where it is often used to help make a diagnosis. Unfortunately, this ‘shedding’ reduces the effectiveness of SS1P and other therapies that attempt to use mesothelin to find and target mesothelioma cells with anti-cancer drugs. Like the shed mesothelin, the anti-cancer drugs can simply end up…

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    Mesothelioma on the Rise in Aussie Women

    ByAlex Strauss

    An Australian news service is reporting a spike in the number of women contracting mesothelioma and they are blaming the growing popularity of do-it-yourself home renovation. According to The Mercury.com, the number of Tasmanian female mesothelioma patients is up sharply in recent years.  The website quotes the president of Australia’s Asbestos Diseases Foundation, Barry Robson, as saying the new state-by-state government mesothelioma statistics due out soon could prove to be “stark reading”. “But we have already seen an increase in the number of women affected by asbestos-related conditions over the past decade or so and that is increasing,” Robson told the news source. In Australia, as well as elsewhere in the world, asbestos-related diseases like mesothelioma have affected far more…