mesothelioma

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    Studies Highlight Global Mesothelioma and Asbestos Problem

    ByAlex Strauss

    Two new reports highlight the fact that mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases are global issues. Reporting in a recent issue of Global Health Action, scientists from South Africa’s National Institute for Occupational Health and the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg say the country is facing an epidemic of environmentally-linked asbestos-related diseases like mesothelioma because of abandoned asbestos mines. The same report also found that many of these mesothelioma patients are not receiving any compensation for their injuries. South Africa was once a top exporter of asbestos, which was used for thousands of industrial applications, including insulation, construction materials, asbestos cement, and friction products like brake and clutch pads. Although all of South Africa’s asbestos mines are now closed because of the…

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    Doctors Test New Intra-Pleural Mesothelioma Drug

    ByAlex Strauss

    Doctors at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York have treated the first patient in a new trial that could offer hope to people with malignant mesothelioma and one of its most common complications. The trial is a dose-escalation test of a new drug called GL-ONC1, a genetically modified vaccinia virus produced by the California biopharmaceutical company Genelux Corporation. GL-ONC1 is designed to be both therapeutic – actually treating the cancer – and diagnostic (via green fluorescent proteins) in people with mesothelioma and non-small cell lung cancer who have a buildup of lung fluid called malignant pleural effusion. In the new mesothelioma trial, which is sponsored by Memorial Sloan Kettering in collaboration with Genelux, GL-ONC1 will be administered in a single…

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    Can Chest X-rays Help Prevent Mesothelioma?

    ByAlex Strauss

    A mesothelioma doctor believes that lives might be saved if people exposed to asbestos in the workplace received annual chest X-rays. Asbestos is the cause of malignant mesothelioma, an aggressive cancer that affects the membranes around the lungs, heart or abdomen. Asbestos is still used in some industrial applications and is present in the insulation, floor tiles and shingles of tens of thousands of older homes and buildings. People who work or live around asbestos are at significantly higher risk of eventually developing mesothelioma. There is, as yet, no way of predicting which asbestos exposed individuals will develop mesothelioma, but, as with many cancers, early detection improves the odds of survival. Because mesothelioma usually does not cause many symptoms until in its…

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    Chicken Virus Key to Experimental Mesothelioma Treatment

    ByAlex Strauss

    An experimental treatment using a modified bird virus may hold promise for people with advanced malignant mesothelioma. Fowlpox is a viral infection that primarily affects chickens and turkeys. It is caused by an avipoxvirus from the Poxviridae family.  Recently, some of the world’s top mesothelioma researchers at the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii used an altered form of the Fowlpox virus to successfully stimulate an anti-tumor immune response in mice with mesothelioma cancer. The treatment focused on a protein called survivin which is overexpressed by most human cancers, including mesothelioma, but rarely found in healthy tissues. In an effort to jump-start the immune systems of lab mice into targeting and attacking survivin-producing mesothelioma cells, the…

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    Biomarker Test Next Step for New Mesothelioma Drug

    ByAlex Strauss

    A company that makes stem cell-focused treatments for cancer has taken an important step closer to testing a promising new mesothelioma drug. The biopharmaceutical company Verastem, Inc. specializes in agents that destroy cancer by killing cancer stem cells. One of its lead medicines is VS-6063, a focal adhesion kinase inhibitor scheduled to be the subject of a mesothelioma study later this year. In a Phase I safety study of 36 patients conducted by Pfizer (original developers of VS-6063), the drug was “well-tolerated” and showed enough efficacy to warrant further, larger studies. A focal adhesion kinase (FAK) inhibitor is an agent that regulates the growth and spread of tumor cells by inhibited a crucial signaling pathway. In preclinical cancer models, when this…

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    Pakistan May Ban Asbestos to Reduce Mesothelioma

    ByAlex Strauss

    Pakistan may be on the brink of banning the leading cause of mesothelioma. The mineral asbestos, used for decades in various industries, is believed to be responsible for nearly all cases of mesothelioma, an intractable cancer of the linings around organs. Now, the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Human Resource Development in Pakistan is recommending that the use and importation of asbestos be permanently banned in the country. The committee made the recommendation after a series of hearings on asbestos and its link to mesothelioma. Federal Human Resource Secretary Raja Ahsan told the committee that asbestos presents a “major threat” for mesothelioma and cancer among Pakistan’s industrial workers. Asbestos consumption continues to rise in Pakistan; One study shows that the figure…

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    Implantable Catheter May Provide Mesothelioma Symptom Relief

    ByAlex Strauss

    An implantable catheter that allows cancer patients to drain their own excess lung fluid at home may improve quality of life for some mesothelioma patients. A company-sponsored study of the PleurX drainage system conducted in Germany and published in a German medical journal, suggests that the system may be especially beneficial for late-stage mesothelioma patients. Pleural mesothelioma is a malignancy of the pleural lining which surrounds the lungs. In its later stages, mesothelioma often results in pleural effusions, or a build-up of fluid in the space between the inner and outer parts of the pleura. The problem is also common in the later stages of lung cancer and breast cancer. Pleural effusions limit the ability of the lungs to expand, resulting in…

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    Mesothelioma Study Could Improve Immunotherapy

    ByAlex Strauss

    Scientists have made an important discovery about a component of the immune system that could have an impact on mesothelioma, one of the rarest and most aggressive cancers. Although mesothelioma is rare, it claims about 2,500 lives in the U.S. annually. Scientists around the globe are searching for a method to keep this cancer from spreading across the membranes that surround the lungs or line the abdomen. As mesothelioma tumors on these membranes grow larger, the likelihood that the cancer will spread to the lungs or other internal organs increases. The immune system is designed to help stop the spread of invaders or out-of-control cancer cells. One immune cell, the Natural Killer or NK cell, is known to exert an anti-tumor effect…

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    New Radiotherapy Preserves Healthy Lung in Mesothelioma

    ByAlex Strauss

    A method for targeted delivery of radiotherapy may be safer than conventional radiotherapy for slowing the spread of malignant pleural mesothelioma in patients who have had surgery. Mesothelioma is a virulent cancer caused by exposure to asbestos. Although it can take up to 40 year to develop, when it does, it often spreads quickly across the mesothelium which surrounds the lungs. For most patients, prognosis is poor unless the spread of mesothelioma can be slowed down or stopped. Some patients undergo a surgical procedure called pleurectomy/decortication to remove the diseased pleural lining and as much of the cancerous tissue as possible from the lungs or chest wall. The concern following any cancer surgery is that the cancer can re-grow from cells that…

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    Medicinal Plant for Mesothelioma?

    ByAlex Strauss

    A new study suggests that a plant used for centuries in Indian Ayurvedic medicine may be a powerful weapon in the fight against deadly malignant mesothelioma. The bioactive compound Withaferin A (WA) is isolated from the root of Withania somnifera, a plant in the nightshade family also known as Indian ginseng.  A number of previous scientific studies have found evidence to suggest that WA has anti-inflammatory, immuno-modulatory, anti-angiogenic, and anti-cancer properties. In the latest study, published online in the open-access peer-reviewed journal PLos One, researchers at the Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit tested the compound in live mice (in vivo) as well as in mesothelioma cells taken from human patients (in vitro). Their objective was to determine whether WA would have…