Author: Alex Strauss

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    Firefighters Want Lifetime Monitoring for Mesothelioma

    ByAlex Strauss

    A group of firefighters in Washington State may pave the way for better protection of others who are at risk of mesothelioma cancer. The firefighters in Everett, Washington were exposed to asbestos, a known carcinogen, during training exercises in city-owned homes in 2007.  Because it was a training exercise, the firefighters were not wearing the type of gear that would normally protect them from deadly asbestos fibers and health risks like mesothelioma.  Now, they are asking their city to pay to have doctors monitor them for mesothelioma throughout their lives, or face a possible lawsuit. According to the Everett online news source, HeraldNet, dozens of firefighters and their families are asking for $9 million from the city to provide lifetime monitoring for…

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    New Mesothelioma Test May Help in Diagnosis

    ByAlex Strauss

    Getting an accurate diagnosis is one of the biggest challenges for patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma.  Because mesothelioma is such an aggressive cancer, survival often hinges on getting a diagnosis and starting appropriate treatment as early as possible. Unfortunately, mesothelioma symptoms, which can include shortness of breath, cough and chest pain, mimic many other conditions, including other types of lung cancer. Now, scientists with a company called Rosetta Genomics, a developer of microRNA-based molecular diagnostics, believe they have found a better way to distinguish mesothelioma cancer from other types of lung cancers that may also affect the pleura, or the lining around the lungs. In an online press release, Tina Edmonston, MD, Medical Director and Head of Clinical Laboratory at…

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    Peritoneal Mesothelioma Gene Expression May Predict Survival

    ByAlex Strauss

    Scientists in Baltimore believe they may have found a way to predict – and eventually improve – survival in people with malignant peritoneal mesothelioma (MPM). Peritoneal mesothelioma is a rare cancer of the membranes that line the abdominal cavity.  Like other forms of mesothelioma, it is caused by exposure to fibers of the mineral asbestos.  While it is almost always fatal, people with peritoneal mesothelioma tend to exhibit very different responses to the disease.  Writing in the journal Cancer, the Maryland researchers note, “There is marked variability in its clinical behavior.  Some patients die rapidly, and others survive for many years.” The researchers set out to determine reasons for this variability and believe the answer may lie in signaling pathways that…

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    New Mesothelioma Test May Detect Disease Earlier

    ByAlex Strauss

    Malignant mesothelioma is on the rise around the world.  As with many cancers, early detection is the key to survival and better quality of life for patients.  Now, a group of Japanese researchers is paving the way for a laboratory test that could help doctors identify the disease – and start aggressive treatment – earlier. Writing in the journal, Modern Pathology, the researchers explain how a protein called CD146 can serve as a biomarker for mesothelioma.  The protein has already been shown to be present in patients with advanced malignant melanoma, prostate cancer and ovarian cancer.  Now, for the first time, researchers have also identified its presence in the lung fluid of mesothelioma patients. The research team tested the lung fluid of…

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    New Treatment for Mesothelioma Highlighted at Conference

    ByAlex Strauss

    Experts from around the globe will be meeting in Barcelona, Spain this month to discuss the benefits of a targeted type of radiation therapy that has shown promise in the treatment of malignant mesothelioma. TomoTherapy is the brand name for an Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy system designed to deliver high doses of radiation directly into tumor cells, while minimizing the damage to surrounding healthy tissues. The developers of the technology will present 82 new studies of its impact on various cancers, including mesothelioma, at the conference sponsored by the European Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ESTRO). Mesothelioma, which involves the lining of the lungs and chest wall, is notoriously difficult to treat with radiation therapy because of the size…

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    For Select Mesothelioma Patients EPP Improves Survival

    ByAlex Strauss

    A new study has confirmed the value of the surgical approach known as extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP) for the treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma in select patients. The pleural membrane separates the lungs from other internal organs. Pleural mesothelioma starts in the pleural tissue where it can cause the membrane to thicken and stiffen, restricting the ability of the lungs to expand. Eventually, the pleural cancer may metastasize into the lungs and other internal membranes. Extrapleural pneumonectomy attempts to prevent the mesothelioma cancer from further spreading to other parts of the body cavity by removing the tissues most likely to be effected. During an extrapleural pneumonectomy, the surgeon removes part of the parietal pleura, or lung lining, as well as part…

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    Study Predicts Survival in Mesothelioma Patients

    ByAlex Strauss

    People who are older than 70, have a high white blood cell count, or high levels of a particular protein in their blood may be less likely to survive malignant mesothelioma than other patients. This is the finding of a group of researchers from the University of Tokyo.  The researchers studied 314 patients who had been diagnosed with malignant pleural mesothelioma, a rare and aggressive cancer linked to asbestos exposure.  The survival of these patients was tracked using the Kaplan-Meier method, which takes into account the fact that certain patients may drop out of such a study prior to its completion. In addition to finding that older patients, those with high white blood cell counts, and those with high C-reactive protein levels were…

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    Mesothelioma Treatment Provides Survival Advantage to Women

    ByAlex Strauss

    A new study suggests that women have a survival advantage over men when it comes to treatment for the most common type of malignant pleural mesothelioma. Although as many as 90 percent of people who contract the asbestos-linked cancer are men, women who contract the disease in its most common form are more likely to respond well to aggressive treatment.  The study published in the Annals of Thoracic Surgery reviewed 702 cases of malignant pleural mesothelioma.  Of those, 145 were women. The researchers found a definite difference in survival for men and women with one type of mesothelioma but they found no gender difference with the other type. Among the 450 men and women with the most common histological type…

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    Mesothelioma Survival is Higher with Radical Lung-Sparing Surgery

    ByAlex Strauss

    Open radical lung-preserving surgery appears to offer a significant survival advantage over non-radical, palliative surgery in patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma. That is the finding of a new study published in the European Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery. Pleural mesothelioma is caused by inhaling asbestos fibers, which irritate the delicate lung tissue, leading to chronic inflammation and, sometimes, malignancy. Lung-preserving (or debulking) surgery for mesothelioma falls into two categories: radical, an invasive procedure during which affected lung tissue is removed, and non-radical, which is aimed at releasing the contracture in the mesothelium surrounding the lungs to allow for more comfortable breathing. Researchers from Nottingham, England compared the outcomes of 13 mesothelioma patients who had had the more invasive radical decortication with…

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    IMRT Multimodality Therapy for Mesothelioma Appears Safe

    ByAlex Strauss

    Pleural mesothelioma, a malignancy of the lung lining caused by breathing asbestos, is notoriously difficult to treat. While they can improve quality of life, traditional cancer therapies, including chemotherapy, radiation and surgical intervention have not been shown to improve survival rates in most mesothelioma patients beyond a few months. Researchers around the world are experimenting with advanced treatment options that may give mesothelioma patients new hope. A new study on Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) as part of a multi-modality treatment protocol appears to show improved safety over earlier studies that incorporated the same technology. IMRT is an advanced method of radiotherapy that uses a linear accelerator to deliver precise high doses of radiation directly into a tumor. One of…