Photodynamic Therapy – A New Light For Mesothelioma Patients?
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Photodynamic Therapy – A New Light For Mesothelioma Patients?

ByAlex Strauss

A system that uses intense light to destroy cancer cells might be able to enhance current mesothelioma treatments and improve survival. That’s the theory of scientists studying photodynamic light therapy (PDT) and its application for hard-to-treat mesothelioma. During PDT, cells that have been treated with a light sensitizing drug are exposed to a light source on the end of an endoscope. The light has the power to disrupt cellular functions and kill the cells. PDT is being tested as an adjuvant therapy for people who are having mesothelioma surgery. When PDT is delivered intraoperatively, tumor cells can absorb more of the light, while surrounding tissues are unaffected. Advantages of PDT Malignant mesothelioma is highly resistant to conventional therapies. Because PDT…

UK Mesothelioma Families Win Supreme Court Victory
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UK Mesothelioma Families Win Supreme Court Victory

ByAlex Strauss

Mesothelioma patients in the United Kingdom have won an important legal victory in the country’s Supreme Court. The high court has upheld the cases of two women who died of mesothelioma after exposure to relatively low levels of asbestos. Enid Costello was a secretary at a packaging factory where she claims to have been exposed to asbestos dust on the job. Costello died of mesothelioma in 2006 at the age of 74. Her employer, Greif UK, Ltd. claimed that her asbestos exposure at work was not enough to cause her mesothelioma and denied that they were at fault in her death. The second subject of the Supreme Court case was Dianne Willmore of North Wales, who died of mesothelioma in…

PET Valuable for Diagnosing and Staging Mesothelioma
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PET Valuable for Diagnosing and Staging Mesothelioma

ByAlex Strauss

Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scans are one of the most effective tools for predicting how well a mesothelioma patient will respond to treatment, and for planning that treatment. That’s the conclusion of a team of British researchers who analyzed 15 different studies comparing PET to other types of tools for diagnosing and staging mesothelioma and for predicting survival and mortality. Eleven of the studies evaluated the role of FDG-PET (PET scanning using a fluorodeoxyglucose marker). Several of those studies found that malignant mesothelioma cells absorbed more of the FDG marker than healthy cells, making FDG-PET a good method for determining the extent of the mesothelioma. In these studies, patients whose bodies were seen on FDG-PET scan to absorb the most…

Blood Protein Predicts Treatment Response in Mesothelioma
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Blood Protein Predicts Treatment Response in Mesothelioma

ByAlex Strauss

A blood protein that is overexpressed in mesothelioma tumor cells may be one of the best ways to predict how well a patient will respond to treatment. is a serious malignancy of the mesothelium, or tissue that surrounds and encases the lungs, abdomen or heart.  It is almost always caused by exposure to the mineral asbestos.  A protein called mesothelin, which is present in all mesothelial cells, is produced in greater amounts by cancerous mesothelial cells.  Scientists have long believed that this protein may be an important way to gain information about a patient’s mesothelioma cancer. A study recently published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research appears to confirm that idea.  A group of Australian researchers enrolled 97 mesothelioma patients…

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…

Mesothelioma Study Could Lead to Drug for Prevention
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Mesothelioma Study Could Lead to Drug for Prevention

ByAlex Strauss

Asbestos exposure is the biggest risk factor for the development of malignant mesothelioma, a rare but aggressive cancer that usually carries a poor prognosis.  The numbers of mesothelioma patients is rising as more people pay the price for years of asbestos exposure.  While researchers around the world search for more effective treatments, a group of scientists in Italy have discovered information that may eventually be used not only to treat but to prevent mesothelioma in high risk patients. Researchers in the Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine at the University of Ferrara are studying the presence of adenosine receptors (ARs) in the pleura, or lung lining, of patients with and without malignant mesothelioma.   Adenosine receptors are involved in processes such as…

Predicting Mesothelioma Outcomes Based on New Research
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Predicting Mesothelioma Outcomes Based on New Research

ByAlex Strauss

Certain clinical and laboratory results can help doctors predict which patients are likely to do better than others in their battle against malignant pleural mesothelioma.  That’s the conclusion of a group of researches in Turkey who evaluated the medical charts of 363 malignant pleural mesothelioma patients who had been diagnosed over a span of 20 years. Malignant pleural mesothelioma is a rare but aggressive cancer of the lining around the lungs, also called the pleura.  While it is always a serious health challenge, understanding an individual patient’s prognosis can help doctors with treatment and palliative planning – without having to perform invasive procedures. For this latest study, to be published in the peer-reviewed journal Respiration, The Turkish researchers looked at…

New Treatment for Mesothelioma Highlighted at Conference
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New Treatment for Mesothelioma Highlighted at Conference

ByAlex Strauss

Experts from around the globe will be meeting in Barcelona, Spain this month to discuss the benefits of a targeted type of radiation therapy that has shown promise in the treatment of malignant mesothelioma. TomoTherapy is the brand name for an Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy system designed to deliver high doses of radiation directly into tumor cells, while minimizing the damage to surrounding healthy tissues. The developers of the technology will present 82 new studies of its impact on various cancers, including mesothelioma, at the conference sponsored by the European Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ESTRO). Mesothelioma, which involves the lining of the lungs and chest wall, is notoriously difficult to treat with radiation therapy because of the size…

For Select Mesothelioma Patients EPP Improves Survival
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For Select Mesothelioma Patients EPP Improves Survival

ByAlex Strauss

A new study has confirmed the value of the surgical approach known as extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP) for the treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma in select patients. The pleural membrane separates the lungs from other internal organs. Pleural mesothelioma starts in the pleural tissue where it can cause the membrane to thicken and stiffen, restricting the ability of the lungs to expand. Eventually, the pleural cancer may metastasize into the lungs and other internal membranes. Extrapleural pneumonectomy attempts to prevent the mesothelioma cancer from further spreading to other parts of the body cavity by removing the tissues most likely to be effected. During an extrapleural pneumonectomy, the surgeon removes part of the parietal pleura, or lung lining, as well as part…

Study Predicts Survival in Mesothelioma Patients
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Study Predicts Survival in Mesothelioma Patients

ByAlex Strauss

People who are older than 70, have a high white blood cell count, or high levels of a particular protein in their blood may be less likely to survive malignant mesothelioma than other patients. This is the finding of a group of researchers from the University of Tokyo.  The researchers studied 314 patients who had been diagnosed with malignant pleural mesothelioma, a rare and aggressive cancer linked to asbestos exposure.  The survival of these patients was tracked using the Kaplan-Meier method, which takes into account the fact that certain patients may drop out of such a study prior to its completion. In addition to finding that older patients, those with high white blood cell counts, and those with high C-reactive protein levels were…