Search Results for: cytoreductive surgery

New ‘Calculator’ May Help Guide Mesothelioma Treatment
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New ‘Calculator’ May Help Guide Mesothelioma Treatment

ByAlex Strauss

An NIH study claims to have found a better way to predict treatment response and survival in peritoneal mesothelioma patients. The information could be used to individualize treatment planning and determine which patients are most likely to benefit from aggressive therapies. Peritoneal mesothelioma is a rare type of cancer that arises in the thin membrane that lines the walls of the abdomen. Like all forms of mesothelioma, it is highly aggressive, spreading across the membrane quickly and metastasizing to other parts of the body. It is usually caused by exposure to asbestos sometime in the patient’s past. Treatment for peritoneal mesothelioma usually consists of surgery to remove as much of the tumor as possible (cytoreductive surgery) followed by a wash of heated…

Study Supports CRS/HIPEC for Peritoneal Mesothelioma
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Study Supports CRS/HIPEC for Peritoneal Mesothelioma

ByAlex Strauss

Another study supports the safety of a new treatment approach for peritoneal mesothelioma that combines cytoreductive surgery (CRS) with hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemoperfusion (HIPEC). The study finds the procedure safe, even when it is performed by surgeons who are new to the technique. HIPEC is a secondary treatment for mesothelioma and other cancers used in combination with open surgery. It involves bathing the open body cavity with a mixture of heated chemotherapy medicines. The drugs are designed to attack mesothelioma and other cancer cells left behind after cytoreductive surgery and to prevent new cancer cells from forming. The heat is believed to help the drugs more easily penetrate into tissue. Cancer researchers at the University of Arizona, which has recently begun using CRS/HIPEC,…

Second Treatment Effective for Peritoneal Mesothelioma
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Second Treatment Effective for Peritoneal Mesothelioma

ByAlex Strauss

There is some good news from the Wake Forest School of Medicine for patients with peritoneal mesothelioma. In many cases, after a mesothelioma patient has been treated with one therapy, that therapy is not used again.  This means that when a treatment fails, many mesothelioma patients often run out of treatment options. But researchers at Wake Forest have confirmed that, for patients whose peritoneal mesothelioma recurs after surgery and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC), a second treatment may be just as effective at prolonging survival. Peritoneal mesothelioma occurs in the lining of the abdomen.  It is the result of ingestion or inhalation of asbestos fibers. Cytoreductive (CRS) surgery involved a scraping away of the tumor from the peritoneum. When it is followed …

Outlook Better for Women with Peritoneal Mesothelioma
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Outlook Better for Women with Peritoneal Mesothelioma

ByAlex Strauss

Women with diffuse malignant peritoneal mesothelioma have a better chance of success with surgery and chemotherapy than their male counterparts. That is the conclusion of researchers at the Baird Institute for Applied Heart and Lung Surgical Research in Sydney, Australia.  Using the records of 294 peritoneal mesothelioma patients treated at multiple institutions in the past two decades, the researchers set out to measure the impact of gender on overall survival after treatment. Peritoneal mesothelioma is a type of mesothelioma that spreads quickly across the mesothelial lining of the abdomen. Asbestos exposure is its only known cause. Because of the aggressive nature of the disease, mesothelioma is typically treated using a multi-modal approach. The subjects of the Australian study had all been…

New Mouse Model for Mesothelioma Drug Testing
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New Mouse Model for Mesothelioma Drug Testing

ByAlex Strauss

Mesothelioma is among the most challenging cancers to treat. Increasingly, doctors are taking a multi-modal approach to treatment including surgery and some combination of adjuvant therapies such as chemotherapy, radiation or other, newer modalities. But it has always been difficult to test the effectiveness of these mesothelioma therapies in the lab since they depend on the test subject having had surgery first. Now, a group of researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston have come up with a more reliable way to conduct these tests. By grafting human malignant mesothelioma cells into the peritoneal cavities of laboratory mice, the researchers were able to simulate mesothelioma. The mesothelioma cells were allowed to take hold for 14 days, after which time…

White Blood Cells May Predict Mesothelioma Survival
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White Blood Cells May Predict Mesothelioma Survival

ByAlex Strauss

Certain types of white blood cells may hold important survival clues – as well as a new treatment target – for mesothelioma patients and their doctors. Malignant pleural mesothelioma can result when inhaled asbestos fibers trigger physiological changes in the lung tissue. Medical science has yet to find a reliable way to stop the spread of mesothelioma once it begins and many patients succumb to this disease within a year or two after diagnosis. But mesothelioma tumors are known to produce an abundance of myeloid cell stimulating factors, chemicals that trigger the body to produce extra white blood cells. Now, a team of researchers at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston believe that looking at the levels of these white…

Longer Mesothelioma Survival Possible with Aggressive Treatment
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Longer Mesothelioma Survival Possible with Aggressive Treatment

ByAlex Strauss

A “significant proportion” of patients diagnosed with mesothelioma can expect to live three years or longer with the right treatment protocol. That’s the conclusion of one of the nation’s leading mesothelioma experts. Reporting in the European Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Dr. David Sugarbaker writes that, although many patients diagnosed with mesothelioma are told they have less than a year to live, his latest research confirms that, when properly selected and given aggressive multimodality treatment, it is possible to survive mesothelioma for much longer. Numerous studies have shown that cytoreductive surgery through extrapleural pneumonectomy along with adjuvant chemotherapy and radiation can be effective at battling mesothelioma. However, because the surgery itself is so invasive and carries its own health risks, proper…

Mesothelioma Treatment Becoming More Individualized
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Mesothelioma Treatment Becoming More Individualized

ByAlex Strauss

A respected team of mesothelioma experts predicts that treatment for this aggressive cancer will become increasingly personalized in the next five to ten years. A malignancy in the lining around the lungs and other organs, mesothelioma is caused almost exclusively by asbestos exposure. Although its occurrence in the U.S. is believed to have leveled out at about 3,000 cases per year, the number of cases around the world is continuing to increase. Because the disease is so difficult to treat, many patients succumb within a year of diagnosis, even with the best therapies now available. For this reason, researches continue to look for ways to predict which treatments are most likely to work for which patients. In a recent article…

Mesothelioma Treatment Roadmap: Connecting Chemotherapy Response and Surgical Outcomes
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Mesothelioma Treatment Roadmap: Connecting Chemotherapy Response and Surgical Outcomes

ByHolly Zink

Mesothelioma patients who do not respond well to chemotherapy before surgery are likely to have poor outcomes after the procedure. This is the finding of a group of researchers from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. How Chemotherapy Response Shapes Mesothelioma Surgery Outcomes Mesothelioma is a rare type of cancer that is hard to diagnose and treat. It develops from the thin layer of tissue that covers many of the body’s internal organs. Mesothelioma is caused by exposure to a toxic mineral called asbestos. In most cases, doctors will use more than one type of treatment to remove as many cancer cells as possible from a patient’s body. The standard therapies include chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery. Of all…

Over Forty Clinical Trials for Mesothelioma
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Over Forty Clinical Trials for Mesothelioma

ByAlex Strauss

Mesothelioma is still a difficult cancer to treat. Today, there are at least 42 active clinical trials for mesothelioma, each trying to demonstrate a better treatment outcome than standard therapies. While there are still trials of chemotherapy, radiation and surgery, today the emphasis is on newer therapies that can better target the tumor cells instead of indiscriminately harming cancer and healthy cells alike. These better targeted therapies go by different names depending on the type and include terms like: anti-cytokine, antiangiogenesis, enzyme inhibitor therapy, kinase inhibitor therapy, gene therapy, biological therapy, and immune therapy. As of March 2009 there were at least sixteen trials of these newer therapies plus eight combination regimes of a newer therapy and chemotherapy and another…