New Regimen May Help Mesothelioma Patients Avoid Chemotherapy Skin Rash

New Regimen May Help Mesothelioma Patients Avoid Chemotherapy Skin Rash

ByAlex Strauss

A single dose of medicine prior to chemotherapy may be enough to ward off an uncomfortable side effect for mesothelioma patients, giving them one less thing to worry about prior to treatment. Doctors from four different US medical centers just released their findings on a new and potentially easier protocol for preventing pemetrexed-related skin rash. Pemetrexed (Alimta) is the most popular drug for malignant pleural mesothelioma and remains the only drug approved specifically for this rare cancer.  It is also used to treat non-small cell lung cancer. Most patients on pemetrexed experience side effects, one of which is an itchy, blistering skin rash. While the rash is not usually serious, in some rare cases it can progress and even be…

Mesothelioma: The Deadly Legacy of Cement Plants
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Mesothelioma: The Deadly Legacy of Cement Plants

ByAlex Strauss

A new study out of Italy demonstrates the deadly legacy of asbestos cement plants around the world. Researchers found a higher incidence of malignant pleural mesothelioma not only not only among former plant workers, but also in people who just lived near the plants, including many women. The study involved more than 15 thousand Italians diagnosed with mesothelioma between 1993 and 2008. Because mesothelioma is directly related to asbestos exposure, the researchers analyzed the lives of these patients including where they lived, the industries in which they worked, and their family histories to see how they may have come in contact with the toxin. When all of these mesothelioma cases were plotted on a map of Italy, it became clear that some…

Diagnosing Mesothelioma from Pleural Fluid: The Cell Block Technique
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Diagnosing Mesothelioma from Pleural Fluid: The Cell Block Technique

ByAlex Strauss

Turkish researchers say a method for concentrating cancer cells from the lung fluid of mesothelioma and lung cancer patients into a single “block” for examination may result in a more accurate diagnosis than traditional fluid analysis. Pleural effusion or excess lung fluid is often one of the first signs of mesothelioma. Patients may experience this fluid collection as chest pressure, pain, or inability to take a full breath. Suspected mesothelioma patients with pleural effusion will often undergo thoracentesis, a technique for removing some of the fluid for examination. In the current study, researchers compared the traditional method of analyzing cancer cells in pleural fluid with a method that involves concentrating those scattered cells into a “block” that can be cut through and examined…

Mesothelioma and Hematologic Cancers: The Radiation Connection
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Mesothelioma and Hematologic Cancers: The Radiation Connection

ByAlex Strauss

A multi-center study involving mesothelioma patients from around the world has revealed some new information about the possible connection between mesothelioma, hematologic malignancies and radiation treatment. The study found that, among patients who had both a hematologic malignancy (like lymphoma or leukemia) and mesothelioma, those that had been treated with radiation for their hematologic cancer had better odds of surviving their mesothelioma than those who had not received radiation. Hematologic malignancies are cancers affecting the blood-forming tissues. They include diseases such as Hodgkin lymphoma, Non Hodgkin lymphoma and leukemia. Many people with these types of malignancies are treated with ionizing radiation. Unfortunately, this kind of radiation has been shown to raise the risk of developing mesothelioma later in life. To…

Fast Neutron Radiotherapy Not an Answer for Mesothelioma
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Fast Neutron Radiotherapy Not an Answer for Mesothelioma

ByAlex Strauss

A special kind of targeted radiotherapy that uses high energy neutrons instead of protons or electrons to kill cancer cells is unlikely to significantly improve outcomes for patients with mesothelioma. That word comes from a top radiation oncologist at one of the few cancer centers in the United States where “fast neutron” radiotherapy is available. Because high-energy neutrons can do more serious damage to the DNA of cancer cells than other types of radiotherapy, fast neutron radiotherapy is sometimes considered more effective for certain types of cancer, particularly if the cancer is inoperable as is often the case with mesothelioma. This type of treatment can also produce more serious side effects than standard radiation therapy. It is considered one of the…

A New Prognostic Index for Mesothelioma?
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A New Prognostic Index for Mesothelioma?

ByAlex Strauss

Researchers in Japan have come up with what they say is the most up-to-date way to accurately predict outcomes in newly-diagnosed malignant pleural mesothelioma patients. Many factors can affect mesothelioma prognosis. Some of them are related to the patient’s overall health and disease stage or type while others have to do with the type of therapy the patient undergoes. Scientists at Kyoto University, Hyogo College of Medicine, and Fukushima Medical University analyzed the outcomes of 283 mesothelioma patients between 2007 and 2013 to determine which factors were most likely to impact their outcomes and to what degree. “Existing prognostic indices for malignant pleural mesothelioma do not incorporate the recent advances in oncology care,” notes study author Yoshiko Kataoka with Kyoto…

Immunotherapy Drug: More May be Better for Advanced Mesothelioma
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Immunotherapy Drug: More May be Better for Advanced Mesothelioma

ByAlex Strauss

The same team of Italian researchers that first reported on the safety and efficacy of the immunotherapy drug tremelimumab for mesothelioma now say that giving more of the drug might be even more effective. Tremelimumab is a monoclonal antibody that acts on a particular downregulator of the immune system called cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA4). The goal of tremelimumab is to inhibit the immune system tolerance to tumors, which tends to allow them to grow unchecked. When CTLA4 is reactivated with a drug like tremelimumab, it regains its ability to attack tumors. Based on the results of their 2013 study that showed a 31% rate of disease control in patients with unresectable mesothelioma who were given tremelimumab, the team tested…

When “Breast Cancer” is Actually Mesothelioma
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When “Breast Cancer” is Actually Mesothelioma

ByAlex Strauss

A new case study out of Italy highlights the importance of using all of the available tools – including patient history – to distinguish mesothelioma from other types of cancer. Oncologists in the Ob/Gyn department at Umberto I Hospital in Rome have just published the details of a female patient who was originally believed to have breast cancer. The 49-year-old hairdresser was found to have a hard lump, about 3 centimeters in diameter, lying against the lowest layers of her right breast. But when her doctors performed a biopsy and tested the cells, they discovered that the lump was not what they thought it was. “Estrogen receptors and progesterone receptors were negative,” writes Dr. Marialuisa Framarino-Dei-Malatesta, the paper’s lead author….

Could Deliberate Lung Collapse Make Mesothelioma Procedure Safer?
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Could Deliberate Lung Collapse Make Mesothelioma Procedure Safer?

ByAlex Strauss

A group of researchers in the Oxford University Centre for Respiratory Medicine have evidence that, in certain cases,deliberately collapsing a lung could improve treatment for people with malignant pleural mesothelioma. In a recently published study in the journal Thorax, the group reported data that deliberately deflating a lung, called pneumothorax induction, can sometimes make it easier and safer to perform a surgical procedure called thoracoscopy. Local anesthetic thoracoscopy (LAT) is a minimally invasive method for examining or performing biopsies or surgeries in the pleural cavity around the lungs where mesothelioma starts. It utilizes an instrument called a thorascope with a light source and a lens. Using a thorascope, surgeons can perform procedures on mesothelioma patients without having to use general anesthetic…

Mesothelioma Patients Live Longer with Multimodal Treatment
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Mesothelioma Patients Live Longer with Multimodal Treatment

ByAlex Strauss

Another new study has confirmed that a multimodal approach – in which multiple treatments are used together – is the most reliable way to improve survival in patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma. Doctors in England and Italy have just published their findings on a mesothelioma treatment combination that includes surgery, pleural lavage, radiotherapy and systemic chemotherapy. The study included 102 mesothelioma patients treated between 2004 and 2013 at one of two London hospitals or at the University of Milan. About three quarters of the patients in the study had the epithelioid variety of mesothelioma, which is the most common form. Eighty percent were male. All of the patients underwent the lung-sparing mesothelioma surgery called pleurectomy/decortication (PD) during which the diseased…