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Immune System May Help Fight Mesothelioma
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Immune System May Help Fight Mesothelioma

ByAlex Strauss

Proteins and toxins produced by the body’s own immune system could prove to be powerful weapons in the fight against malignant mesothelioma. Manipulating the immune system to fight cancer is known as immunotherapy. One type of immunotherapy is utilizing natural immunotoxins, or cell killers, produced by the white blood cells to attack tumors. Preliminary data shows that a protein produced by these cells called interleukin-4 or IL-4, may have potent cancer-fighting properties. Researchers with the Pacific Heart Lung & Blood Institute in California are planning studies to test the toxin’s value as a way to combat mesothelioma. Their first challenge will be to produce enough IL-4 to conduct tests. When enough of the immunotoxin can be synthesized according to FDA…

Worldwide Mesothelioma Rate Higher Than Expected
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Worldwide Mesothelioma Rate Higher Than Expected

ByAlex Strauss

The global rate of the asbestos-related cancer mesothelioma is probably much higher than was previously thought. A new study published in the National Institute of Health’s (NIH) environmental health sciences journal, Environmental Health Perspectives, estimates that for every four or five cases of mesothelioma worldwide, there is at least one more case that goes unreported. Malignant mesothelioma is an aggressive form of cancer that usually develops 20 to 50 years after exposure to asbestos, a mineral used for many years in a wide variety of products and applications.  The popularity of asbestos declined after it was associated with mesothelioma and other serious health problems in the 1980’s, but there is still no asbestos ban in the USA.  In addition, because it…

Legal Settlements Highlight Mesothelioma Risk
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Legal Settlements Highlight Mesothelioma Risk

ByAlex Strauss

Recent large legal settlements in the Northeast highlight the continuing legacy of mesothelioma and asbestos exposure for U.S. industrial workers. Courts in New York and New Jersey have awarded more than $8 million dollars in recent weeks to workers who contracted mesothelioma from working around asbestos. A naturally occurring mineral once mined by the ton, asbestos can become deadly when inhaled or ingested.  Its tiny rock-like fibers lodge in the lungs or other organs, triggering inflammation that can lead to asbestosis, lung cancer or mesothelioma over time.  Mesothelioma can take 20 to 50 years to develop and is very difficult to cure. Asbestos was used in many products including the roofs and wallboard of houses, oven mitts used in kitchens, the boiler…

Handheld PET Scanners May Improve Mesothelioma Surgery
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Handheld PET Scanners May Improve Mesothelioma Surgery

ByAlex Strauss

Surgeons from one of the country’s most respected cancer centers say hand-held PET scanners could be a valuable tool for combating deadly mesothelioma cancer. Researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York used the new handheld PET technology to pinpoint and remove 17 suspicious lesions in mice during surgery. The mice had been inoculated with mesothelioma, an aggressive cancer of the tissue that surrounds internal organs. Mesothelioma is caused by exposure to asbestos. Positron Emission Tomography or PET scanning is a nuclear medicine test that is often used, along with MRI and CT scanning, to diagnose, stage and monitor mesothelioma and other cancers. PET scanning can produce detailed 3-dimensional functional images of internal tissues. The machine detects gamma rays…

Rise in Mesothelioma Linked to Australian Asbestos Mine
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Rise in Mesothelioma Linked to Australian Asbestos Mine

ByAlex Strauss

The asbestos-linked cancer mesothelioma is growing at an alarming pace in part of Australia and the government is coming under fire for not doing enough to fight the source of the problem. According to a report in the Australian newspaper The Herald Sun, the number of people killed by mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases in New South Wales will soon overtake the number of people killed in car accidents. Ombudsman Bruce Barbour told the newspaper that the annual total of accident victims of 397 in NSW in 2008 would soon be “dwarfed” by the number of people dying from asbestos cancers. By 2020, the country is expected to see 13,000 cases of mesothelioma annually and 40,000 cases of other asbestos-related…

Mesothelioma Causes Turkish Village To Be Evacuated
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Mesothelioma Causes Turkish Village To Be Evacuated

ByAlex Strauss

The Associated Press is reporting that an epidemic of mesothelioma cases is forcing the evacuation of a small Turkish village. Turkey has long been a favorite setting for researchers around the world studying mesothelioma.  A prevalence of a mineral in the soil called erionite appears to dramatically increase the risk that some residents will get the cancer most closely associated with asbestos exposure. According to the AP report, the town of Tuzkoy has a rate of mesothelioma that is 600 to 800 times higher than it is elsewhere in the world.  About 48 percent of deaths in that town, as well as in the nearby villages of Sarihidir and Karain, are from mesothelioma. Tuzkoy was declared a hazardous zone in 2004 and…

Firefighters Want Lifetime Monitoring for Mesothelioma
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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…

New Mesothelioma Test May Help in Diagnosis
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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…

New Mesothelioma Test May Detect Disease Earlier
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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…

Taiwan EPA to Phase Out Asbestos to Reduce Mesothelioma and Other Diseases
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Taiwan EPA to Phase Out Asbestos to Reduce Mesothelioma and Other Diseases

ByAlex Strauss

After decades of asbestos related illnesses and tens of thousands of deaths from mesothelioma, an official with Taiwan’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says plans are in the works to ban the substance by the year 2020. Asbestos was widely used for more than 50 years as an inexpensive and superior insulator and building material additive. It is resistant to heat and flame, resists corrosion, and is made of rock-like fibers that add strength to products like brake pads and concrete. But those same fibers can become deadly when lodged in the lungs. Industrial workers who have inadvertently disturbed and then inhaled the substance have contracted serious illnesses ranging from lung scarring to lung cancer, autoimmune disorders, and malignant mesothelioma. Although…