Author: Alex Strauss

Alternatives | Diagnosis | Holistic | Prognosis | Updates

Cancer-fighting Lessons Learned from Mesothelioma Survivors
ByAlex Strauss October 2, 2016March 16, 2017

When a person receives a diagnosis of malignant mesothelioma, a rare and incurable cancer on the membranes that surround internal organs, it can feel hopeless. Patients may hear their doctors tell them that there are no viable mesothelioma therapies and they have only a limited time left to live. While that may be the story told by statistics, it is not the same story recounted by mesothelioma survivors, many of whom have had to chart their own paths through this rare and poorly-understood cancer. Surviving Mesothelioma has featured conversations with several of these survivors over the last few months. Here are some of the lessons their experiences can teach other mesothelioma patients. Seek a second (or third, or fourth) option…

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Multi-Modality Therapy | New Studies | Radiation Therapy | Research | Treatments | Updates

Radiotherapy Found to Boost Survival in Non-Metastatic Mesothelioma Patients
ByAlex Strauss October 1, 2016March 16, 2017

New research suggests that radiation therapy may eventually play a bigger role in the treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma. Doctors at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai found that, although only a small percentage of mesothelioma patients in their study had undergone radiation therapy, the survival rates among those who did were significantly higher than those who had had other treatment modalities. The Multi-modal Approach to Mesothelioma Care There is no cure for malignant pleural mesothelioma, a rare cancer that attacks the membrane that surrounds the lungs, but there are treatments that can extend patients’ lives. Multiple studies have found that those who have the highest mesothelioma survival are those who are treated with multiple types of mesothelioma therapies….

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Asbestos | Diagnosis | Europe | International | New Techniques | Prevention | Updates

Breath Screening May Help Detect Early Mesothelioma
ByAlex Strauss September 27, 2016March 16, 2017

Belgian scientists say a new kind of breath analysis tool holds promise as a way to screen former asbestos workers for early signs of malignant mesothelioma. Doctors in the Departments of Respiratory and Internal Medicine at Ghent University made that determination after administering breath analysis tests to 66 people, including 23 malignant pleural mesothelioma patients. A New Type of Breath Test To conduct their breath analysis study, the Belgian team used a relatively new technology called multi-capillary column-ion mobility spectrometry (MCC-IMS). The system measures the kinds and levels of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the exhaled breath of test subjects. VOCs are organic compounds that that are gaseous at room temperature such as nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, chlorine and sulfur. People…

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Alternatives | Holistic | Immunotherapy | New Drugs | Prognosis | Treatments | Updates

Maine Man Defies the Odds by Forging His Own Mesothelioma Treatment Path
ByAlex Strauss September 24, 2016March 16, 2017

When Jim McHutchison, an otherwise healthy 72-year-old from York, Maine, developed a cough and shortness of breath in the Fall of 2012, neither he nor his doctors had reason to suspect it was pleural mesothelioma. “I never worked near asbestos in a shipyard or around heavy construction. I’m an advertising guy. I work in an office,” McHutchison told Surviving Mesothelioma. Noting that Jim had fluid around his left lung, his doctors removed it and pathologists confirmed that there were no signs of malignancy. But two weeks later, another pathology report told a different story. Jim was diagnosed with malignant pleural mesothelioma in March of 2013 and told he had less than a year to live. “I said ‘What can we…

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Europe | International | Multi-Modality Therapy | Radiation Therapy | Treatments | Updates

Italian Mesothelioma Patient Doing Well More Than a Year After IMRT
ByAlex Strauss September 24, 2016March 16, 2017

A new case report has researchers cautiously optimistic about the potential benefits of a highly targeted radiotherapy technique called IMRT in people with malignant pleural mesothelioma. The Italian case report comes on the heels of study earlier this summer at Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York that called IMRT part of a “new lung-sparing paradigm” in multimodality therapy for patients with locally advanced pleural mesothelioma. This week, radiotherapy researchers in Italy released a case report on a pleural mesothelioma patient who has experienced 14 months of progression-free mesothelioma survival after IMRT. IMRT for Mesothelioma IMRT (Intensity Modulated Radiotherapy) is a form of radiotherapy that allows radiologists to precisely deliver radiation in a shape that conforms to the shape of a…

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Alternatives | Asbestos | Biological Therapy | Europe | International | New Drugs | Research | Treatments | Updates

Attacking Pleural Mesothelioma From the Inside Out
ByAlex Strauss September 19, 2016March 16, 2017

There is new evidence that manipulating the process of protein synthesis inside cancer cells could be the key to improving mesothelioma outcomes for certain patients. A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Oncology suggests that using a drug to lower the levels of the amino acid arginine can slow the spread of pleural mesothelioma and extend survival in patients who are deficient in a particular enzyme. Overcoming Mesothelioma Treatment Resistance One of the most challenging aspects of malignant mesothelioma is that it is highly resistant to most kinds of cancer treatments. Patients and their doctors are often at a loss as to what to try next when chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation fail. Although not…

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Alternatives | Diagnosis | Holistic | Immunotherapy | Prognosis | Treatments | Updates

Maine Man Surviving Mesothelioma with Tenacity and Keytruda
ByAlex Strauss September 17, 2016December 17, 2018

A Maine man diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma three years ago says a newly-approved immunotherapy drug and his own unwillingness to accept the grim prognosis he was given are helping to keep him alive. James “Jim” McHutchison of York, Maine, was diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma on Good Friday in 2013, despite the fact that he had never worked in an asbestos industry. The devastating news came just a few weeks after doctors had removed several liters of fluid from his chest and told him there was no evidence of cancer. “My family doctor called me just after 5 o’clock and 15 minutes later my wife, Pepper, and I were in his office,” recalls McHutchison. “He said, ‘You have an incurable cancer…

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Immune Systems | Immunotherapy | Multi-Modality Therapy | New Studies | Research | Surgery | Treatments | Updates

Baylor to Test New Combination Therapy for Mesothelioma
ByAlex Strauss September 13, 2016March 16, 2017

One of the nation’s largest mesothelioma treatment centers is recruiting patients for a new kind of clinical trial combining immunotherapy and cytoreductive surgery for pleural mesothelioma. The trial being conducted at Baylor’s Mesothelioma Treatment Center and Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center is the first-in-human mesothelioma clinical trial in which an immunotherapy drug will be given prior to surgery. Combining Immunotherapy and Surgery Like other types of cancer, mesothelioma tumors produce compounds that enable them to effectively “hide” from the immune system. Immunotherapy is a mesothelioma treatment approach aimed at inhibiting the function of those compounds so that the body’s immune system recognizes and fights the cancer instead of ignoring it. Dr. Bryan Burt, assistant professor of surgery at Baylor and the…

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Asbestos | Compensation | Diagnosis | Occupations | Scans | Updates

Mesothelioma Diagnosis Still a Possibility for 9/11 Survivors
ByAlex Strauss September 11, 2016March 16, 2017

Fifteen years after the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, some of the wounds inflicted that day have begun to heal. Unfortunately others, including many anticipated cases of malignant mesothelioma, have yet to be revealed. Malignant mesothelioma is the most deadly of several serious health conditions associated with the fibrous mineral, asbestos. It can take decades after people inadvertently inhale or swallow the fibers for them to develop symptoms of the disease. Asbestos was a popular insulator and building component additive at the time the Twin Towers were constructed. Some four hundred tons of the toxin was used in the building. When the towers came down, thousands of first responders and New Yorkers were exposed to enormous clouds of dust…

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Chemotherapy | Europe | International | New Studies | Prognosis | Research | Surgery | Treatments | Updates

Mesothelioma Survival May Depend on the Timing of Chemotherapy
ByAlex Strauss September 8, 2016March 16, 2017

People with one of the rarer subtypes of mesothelioma may live longer if they have chemotherapy as soon as possible after their mesothelioma surgery. That is the finding of an international team of mesothelioma researchers studying the timing of mesothelioma chemotherapy. Their new report has just been published in the prestigious journal, Lung Cancer. Chemotherapy for Mesothelioma Most patients diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma will have chemotherapy during the course of their treatment. A combination of pemetrexed (Alimta) and cisplatin is the primary first-line treatment for the asbestos cancer. However, the timing of chemotherapy can vary widely, particularly in patients who also undergo mesothelioma surgery. Neo-adjuvant chemotherapy is administered prior to mesothelioma surgery in an effort to reduce tumor size for more complete removal….

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