mesothelioma patients

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    Red Wine for Mesothelioma?

    ByAlex Strauss

    Patients battling mesothelioma may want to discuss with their licensed healthcare provider the idea of adding red wine to their treatment strategy. There’s new evidence that the component in red wine that has long been known to fight heart disease and some cancers may help do the same for malignant mesothelioma. Resveratrol is a natural phenol derived from the skin of red grapes.  It has been linked to the “French affect” wherein the French appear to enjoy some cardiovascular protection against dietary fat. In recent years, resveratrol has also been the subject of numerous cancer studies.  The Korean study represents the first time resveratrol has been tested against mesothelioma, an especially virulent and hard-to-treat cancer. To test the impact of resveratrol…

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    “Encouraging” Mesothelioma Approach Combines Surgery and Light

    ByAlex Strauss

    A mesothelioma treatment approach that includes light-activated chemicals and a lung-sparing surgery is being called “safe” and “encouraging” by some of the nation’s top mesothelioma researchers. Radical pleurectomy and decortication (P/D) involves the removal of the thickened pleural membrane around the lungs and separation of the pleura from the chest wall. The goal is to allow the lung to expand more easily.  Because it is less likely to remove all of the mesothelioma cells than the more extensive approach known as Extrapleural Pneumonectomy (EPP), some doctors have only considered P/D for patients who would not tolerate lung removal. The debate among the world’s mesothelioma experts continues. But at the University of Pennsylvania, doctors are achieving notable success in treating mesothelioma with a…

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    Radiotherapy for Mesothelioma: Experience Counts

    ByAlex Strauss

    When it comes to advanced radiotherapy techniques for mesothelioma, experience counts. That is the central message of a study conducted at Duke University Medical Center. Radiation Oncology researchers at Duke examined the records of mesothelioma patients who had received Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) following surgery between 2005 and 2010.  All the mesothelioma patients had undergone extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP), a radical procedure that involves the removal of the pleura and other membranes, a lung, and all or part of the diaphragm. Radiotherapy can be especially challenging for mesothelioma – a cancer of the membranes around organs – because so many critical structures are located so close to the treatment area.  IMRT is designed to help direct more radiation into tumors while…

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    Mesothelioma Study Reveals Need to Step Up Pain Control

    ByAlex Strauss

    Healthcare providers should make pain control a higher priority for their patients with mesothelioma and other lung-related cancers. That is the message of a recent University of Pennsylvania study on pain management.  The study gathered information on pain and pain control from patients with mesothelioma or lung cancer between 2005 and 2008. Participants were asked to fill out an Internet-based questionnaire that included 22 questions designed to assess their symptoms, evaluate their pain, and appraise their attitudes toward pain medication. Of the ninety people who filled out the survey, nine percent had mesothelioma, a rare cancer of the lining of the chest or abdominal cavity.  The other 91 percent had either small-cell or non-small-cell lung cancer. Most were men and 89 percent…

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    Leukemia Drug Fails Mesothelioma Trial

    ByAlex Strauss

    An oral leukemia medicine doctor’s had hoped might help certain mesothelioma patients won’t be moving on to the next level of clinical trials. Phase II drug trials use human subject to determine a drug’s safe dose and measure its effectiveness.  In Phase II trials of dasatinib, a drug currently used for leukemia patients that have failed other treatments,  mesothelioma researchers found the medicine had “no activity” and was too toxic to justify its use. Caused by exposure to asbestos, mesothelioma is challenging to treat and effective therapies are limited.  Because of dasatinib’s success as a second-line treatment for chronic myeloid leukemia, doctors reasoned that it might help patients with inoperable mesothelioma.  In the study to test this hypothesis, 46 mesothelioma patients were…

  • Mesothelioma Clinical Trials Always Recruiting

    ByAlex Strauss

    Malignant pleural mesothelioma is an aggressive cancer with a poor prognosis.  Because it spreads quickly and there is no single cure with standard therapies, participating in a clinical trial can be one way for mesothelioma patients to access promising treatments without waiting for FDA approval. Every clinical trial has its own set of requirements for participation. Some are open to newly diagnosed mesothelioma patients while others are reserved for those who have failed to respond to other treatments.  Participants usually must agree to a full physical exam, including urine and blood samples, and must agree to follow study protocols and have regular follow-up appointments. The National Cancer Institute provides a online database of clinical trials for mesothelioma and every other cancer.  Currently…

  • MesoMark Falls Short for Early Mesothelioma Diagnosis

    ByAlex Strauss

    The Mesomark blood test for mesothelioma may miss the mark when it comes to diagnosing mesothelioma in its earliest stages. That is the conclusion of a large new study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.  The report was a meta-analysis of patients in 16 studies on the value of serum mesothelin as a marker for mesothelioma.  The studies included data on 4,491 patients, including 1,026 patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma and various control groups. All were measured for the level of mesothelin in their blood serum using the Mesomark test. Mesothelin is a protein present in the cells of the mesothelial membrane which surrounds the lungs and other internal organs. However, mesothelin is overexpressed in several types of tumors, including mesothelioma….

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    New Radiotherapy Technique May be Safer for Mesothelioma

    ByAlex Strauss

    There’s more evidence that an advanced method for delivering radiotherapy may improve survival for mesothelioma patients after surgery. Extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP) is a surgical procedure for malignant pleural mesothelioma that involves removing the mesothelioma tumor, as well as the pleural lining where the tumor is located, the nearest lung, all or part of the diaphragm, and other internal membranes. It is often followed by adjuvant radiotherapy to kill remaining tumor cells. Because the radiation target area in post-operative mesothelioma patients is irregular in shape and located close to critical internal organs, many patients receive a targeted type of radiotherapy called intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT). But postoperative IMRT also carries a high risk of a potentially fatal lung condition called…

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    Cell Protein Linked to Mesothelioma Survival

    ByAlex Strauss

    A protein imbedded in the outer wall of their cells appears to have an impact on survival for mesothelioma patients. That’s the conclusion of researchers with a French mesothelioma study panel known as MESOPATH.  After examining 157 cases of malignant pleural mesothelioma, the group found that a protein called c-mesenchymal-epithelial transition factor (c-MET) could be correlated with survival in more than 75% of them. C-MET is one of many regulatory proteins found both inside and on the outer membrane of cells.  It is responsible for helping direct critical cell functions such as growth, survival, migration and invasion. But it has also been found to be overexpressed and mutated in a variety of malignancies. When the MESOPATH researchers tested mesothelioma cell samples,…

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    Proton Therapy – “Clear Advantages” in Treating Mesothelioma

    ByAlex Strauss

    A new study suggests that an up-and-coming type of radiotherapy may do more good – with less damage – than the current gold standard radiation treatments for mesothelioma. Currently, most mesothelioma patients who are treated with radiotherapy receive the conventional electron-based variety. While radiation can sometimes shrink a tumor, one of the major risks is that the ionized particles will also do permanent damage to the healthy tissue around it. This can be particularly challenging in mesothelioma because the tumors tend to be thin, spread across a large area, and are located close to critical organs such as the heart and lungs. Like electron-based radiotherapy, proton-based radiotherapy works by ionizing radiation to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors. But in…