Author: Alex Strauss

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    Subtype and Stage Affect Mesothelioma Surgery Survival

    ByAlex Strauss

    Another study of mesothelioma treatments has confirmed that the best candidates for aggressive therapy, including radical surgery, are those patients who are in overall good physical condition and have the epithelial subtype of mesothelioma. The new study followed 40 mesothelioma patients for at least 3 years. The goal was to evaluate what factors had the greatest impact on mesothelioma prognosis.  Each case was analyzed based on epidemiological factors, stage and subtype of mesothelioma, treatment method and complications, and other factors that influence patient survival. Statistics In keeping with the higher rate of mesothelioma in men worldwide, the ratio of men to women in the study was 13 to 1.  The average age of the patients was 55 and more than half of…

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    Employer ‘Duty-Bound’ to Protect Families from Mesothelioma

    ByAlex Strauss

    People who contract mesothelioma or other asbestos diseases because of second hand exposure to asbestos through a company’s employee, have a right to hold the company accountable. An appellate court in Illinois made the decision after hearing the case of a woman who got mesothelioma, a rare and aggressive form of cancer, after years of washing her husband’s contaminated work clothes. Annette Simpkins brought suit against the CSX Corporation, claiming that she got sick because of repeatedly handling the toxic fibers while doing laundry. Her husband, Robert Simpkins, was a steelworker, welder, railroad fireman and laborer for CSX’s predecessor, B & O Railroad.  When Annette Simpkins died in April 2007, her daughter Cynthia took over as plaintiff. The mineral asbestos, used for…

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    Wall Covering May Prevent Mesothelioma

    ByAlex Strauss

    A British company has developed a way to help protect construction workers and building occupants from the threat of mesothelioma, a cancer caused by asbestos.  Birmingham, England-based Datatecnics has released the world’s first asbestos-sensing film.  When walls containing asbestos are papered with the polymer, an alarm will sound if the film is breached. In an interview with Electronics Weekly, Datatecnics CEO Mohammed Zulfiquar explains, “Asbestos is in a lot of public buildings. The Government estimates that 70 percent of UK schools contain it and the guidance from the Health and Safety Executive is to manage most of it, not remove it.” Asbestos has long been linked to mesothelioma, a malignancy affecting the membranous tissue encasing internal organs.  Asbestos was once commonly…

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    Experience Improves Mesothelioma Surgery Outcomes

    ByAlex Strauss

    Mesothelioma patients who are candidates for surgery will have better outcomes and longer survival if their procedure is done in a specialty treatment center by a surgeon experienced in mesothelioma surgery. That is the conclusion of a team of surgeons in the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney, Australia. The group set out to determine if survival statistics for mesothelioma surgery have improved over the years as doctors have gained more experience treating mesothelioma and adjuvant therapies have advanced. They analyzed the surgical treatments and survival results of 540 consecutive patients with malignant plural mesothelioma. The group was divided into two segments of 270 patients each. The first group was comprised of mesothelioma patients who…

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    Major Boost for Mesothelioma Research

    ByAlex Strauss

    Mesothelioma research was given a valuable shot in the arm recently when one of the world’s top research centers for the disease received its second largest donation ever. The $3.58 million anonymous gift to the University of Hawaii Cancer Center will fund studies on ways to treat and prevent mesothelioma, a rare but virulent cancer that is caused by exposure to asbestos. Dr. Michael Carbone, director of the UH Cancer Center, is one of the nation’s top experts on mesothelioma. Dr. Carbone and his team dramatically advanced the understanding of mesothelioma in 2010 with their published study on the mechanism by which asbestos affects the body at the cellular level to trigger the disease. Their research showed that inflammation, caused…

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    Mesothelioma May Masquerade as Ovarian Cancer

    ByAlex Strauss

    Some cases of ovarian cancer in women with a history of asbestos exposure may actually be misdiagnosed peritoneal mesothelioma.  That is the conclusion of scientists from the University of Western Australia who are trying to evaluate a possible link between asbestos and ovarian cancer. Doctors have known of the link between mesothelioma and asbestos for decades.  Over the years, other cancers, including gastrointestinal, kidney, throat and gallbladder, have also been associated with exposure to this toxic mineral.  But, because fewer women traditionally work in industrial jobs and, thus, have less occupational asbestos exposure, the link with ovarian cancer has been harder to prove. Adding to the challenge is the possibility that some cases of peritoneal mesothelioma may have been misdiagnosed as…

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    Radiotherapy ‘Comparable to Chemo’ for Mesothelioma

    ByAlex Strauss

    A recent study has concluded that palliative radiotherapy produces a response rate in malignant pleural mesothelioma that is comparable to chemotherapy. A recent analysis of 54 mesothelioma cases at a hospital in Cheltenham, England found that 43 percent of patients who received palliative radiotherapy according to their hospital’s policy, responded to the treatment. Based on the results of their pre- and post-therapy CT scans, 22 of the 54 mesothelioma patients analyzed experienced a partial response and 1 patient had a complete response. Fifty-seven percent reported some improvement in their symptoms. In an effort to help determine which mesothelioma patients are most likely to respond to radiotherapy, the research team correlated treatment responses with the European Organisation for Research and Treatment…

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    New Blood Test May Detect Mesothelioma Earlier

    ByAlex Strauss

    In the ongoing worldwide quest for an easier and more accurate way to diagnose malignant mesothelioma, one of the nation’s top mesothelioma research teams claims to have found a ‘promising’ new method. The blood test, developed by SomaLogic, Inc. and tested at New York’s Lagone Medical Center, detects the presence and quantity of 19 different proteins (biomarkers) that can be secreted by tumor cells in the early stages of mesothelioma. In National Cancer Institute-funded studies on the new test, researchers used 90 blood samples from patients who had been diagnosed with mesothelioma, and 80 samples from people who had been exposed to asbestos but did not have a mesothelioma diagnosis.  The SomaLogic test accurately detected 15 out of 19 cases…

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    Genes May be Targets for Mesothelioma Treatment

    ByAlex Strauss

    The same genes that can help predict which mesothelioma patients will do well after surgery, might also be good targets for gene therapy to combat the disease. That’s the conclusion of one of the nation’s top mesothelioma experts, Dr. David Sugarbaker, and his colleagues at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston. After publishing research showing that certain genes can affect patients’ post-surgical prognosis, the team looked further into the genes themselves and how they relate to mesothelioma. Mesothelioma is highly resistant to standard treatments. Gene therapy, which harnesses and uses the body’s own nature defense system, is being studied as a promising alternative. Starting with lung tissue from both healthy patients and those with malignant pleural mesothelioma, the researchers used…

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    Light-Based Mesothelioma Treatment Shows Promise

    ByAlex Strauss

    There is more evidence that Photodynamic Therapy may be a valuable adjuvant treatment for people undergoing mesothelioma surgery. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a light-based cancer treatment that uses a sensitizing drug and a light to destroy cancer cells several millimeters into the targeted tissue. Although it is not yet widely used for mesothelioma, PDT is considered particularly suitable for tumors on the mesothelium, which tend to be wide but not very deep. To test the effectiveness of PDT, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania analyzed the surgical outcomes of 28 patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma between 2004 and 2008. The patients were similar in age, sex, stage of disease and histological type of mesothelioma. Eighty-six percent of the patients were…