Defense Department Combats Mesothelioma
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Defense Department Combats Mesothelioma

ByAlex Strauss

The U.S. Department of Defense is stepping up its efforts to combat the threat of mesothelioma cancer among veterans.  For the fourth consecutive year, the DOD has agreed to provide grant funding to researchers exploring the causes and possible treatments for malignant mesothelioma, a disease triggered almost exclusively by exposure to asbestos. Because as many as a third of the approximately 2,500 cases of the disease reported annually in the U.S. occur among veterans, mesothelioma has been designated by the DOD since 2008 as an eligible disease under the Peer Reviewed Cancer Research Program (PRCRP).  This year, the program will provide $16 million in grants for the study of a range of cancers, including colorectal, bladder, kidney, pancreatic, mesothelioma and others.  The…

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…