Catheter Metastasis Manageable for Mesothelioma Patients

Catheter Metastasis Manageable for Mesothelioma Patients

ByAlex Strauss

The largest study yet of mesothelioma patients with metastatic disease along the path of their lung catheters has some reassuring news for patients. Australian researchers find that the problem is usually treatable. Many later-stage mesothelioma patients have indwelling pleural catheters put in place to help them deal with pleural effusions, a buildup of fluid that is a common symptom of the cancer. Untreated pleural effusions in mesothelioma can cause severe chest pain, shortness of breath, coughing and other life-limiting problems. For mesothelioma patients who are not candidates for pleurodesis, studies have shown that the installation of a catheter to drain off the lung fluid can create other problems.The most serious problem associated with indwelling pleural catheters (IPCs) is the risk…

Spinal Procedure for Mesothelioma Pain Relief
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Spinal Procedure for Mesothelioma Pain Relief

ByAlex Strauss

Pleural mesothelioma patients with severe pain may benefit from a surgical procedure to disable certain pain-conductors in the spinal cord. The procedure, called cordotomy, is the subject of a newly-published report in BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care. Cordotomy is typically performed on patients in severe pain due to cancer or other incurable diseases. It is usually done with a needle under fluoroscopic guidance. Most mesothelioma patients who undergo cordotomies have only local anesthesia. Although the procedure is sometimes offered for patients with advanced mesothelioma, evidence of its effectiveness is still limited. To get a better sense of the value of cordotomy in mesothelioma, British Researchers from the North Wales Centre for Primary Care Research at Bangor University conducted a systematic…

Mesothelioma Surgery Debate: Experience is the Answer
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Mesothelioma Surgery Debate: Experience is the Answer

ByAlex Strauss

A pair of researchers in the UK say a cancer center’s level of experience in dealing with mesothelioma may be the most important factor in achieving good surgical outcomes – not which surgery is chosen. Their new meta-analysis is the latest in a long line of studies attempting to discern which type of mesothelioma surgery is best for patients in terms of survival and complications. The global medical community remains sharply divided over the risks and benefits of lung-sparing pleurectomy/decortication vs. lung-removing extrapleural pneumonectomy. In the newest study, authors Sotiris and Sayonara Papaspyros analyzed the results of 16 separate studies comparing P/D to EPP in the treatment of mesothelioma. They found a median survival range from 8.1 to 32 months…

Mesothelioma Survival Case Encouraging for Current Patients
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Mesothelioma Survival Case Encouraging for Current Patients

ByAlex Strauss

A new case report out of Belgium has some encouraging news for mesothelioma patients. It recounts the case of a patient who not only survived multi-modality treatment for mesothelioma, but whose cancer disappeared completely. The 50-year-old patient was suffering from malignant pleural mesothelioma, a virulent lung-related cancer usually caused by inhalation of asbestos dust. The patient had the epithelial variety of the disease and a fairly contained tumor on the surface of the lung lining. Staging showed that the mesothelioma cells had not yet spread to the lymph nodes, which can be a precursor to metastasis (spread) to other parts of the body. Doctors at the University Hospital in Leuven, Belgium treated the patient with a tri-modality approach, including chemotherapy,…

Inflammatory Markers May Predict Mesothelioma Prognosis
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Inflammatory Markers May Predict Mesothelioma Prognosis

ByAlex Strauss

Researchers say they have identified several signs of inflammation in patients with malignant mesothelioma that might be used to predict how patients will respond to treatment. Doctors from the Department of Chest Diseases at Dicle University collected data on 155 patients at the time of their mesothelioma diagnosis and compared it to their survival. The information collected included the extent of each patient’s exposure to asbestos, the histological subtype of their mesothelioma, and other laboratory measures. The mean survival time for all mesothelioma patients in the study was 13.9 months. When the researchers considered one potential prognostic factor at a time, they found that being 60 years old or over and having a neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) of 3 or more…

Factors Predict Long-Term Survival After Mesothelioma Surgery
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Factors Predict Long-Term Survival After Mesothelioma Surgery

ByAlex Strauss

Two thoracic surgeons from Glenfield Hospital in Leicester, England have come up with a list of factors they say can be used to predict long term survival in mesothelioma patients who undergo radical surgery. Noting that the factors predicting poor outcomes from mesothelioma surgery have already been determined, Drs. Apostolos Nakas and David Waller say their goal was to determine the predictors of positive surgical outcomes. The two retrospectively reviewed the records of 252 patients diagnosed with malignant pleural mesothelioma, a virulent form of cancer caused by asbestos inhalation. The epithelioid variety of mesothelioma was identified in 193 of the tested patients. The rest had the rarer biphasic type. There are two major types of radical surgery for pleural mesothelioma…

Improved Mesothelioma Survival with Surgery/Radiation Combo
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Improved Mesothelioma Survival with Surgery/Radiation Combo

ByAlex Strauss

A cancer center in Canada is reporting a 3-year survival rate among 84% of their epithelial mesothelioma patients – a statistic that is significantly better than average. Malignant pleural mesothelioma is an especially aggressive cancer and the median survival with standard therapies is a little over a year. Doctors at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto achieved much better odds using a combination of pre-surgery (neoadjuvant) intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP). EPP is the most radical surgical approach to mesothelioma. It involves removing not only the diseased pleural lining, but also the diaphragm, the pericardium around the heart, and the effected lung. The new Canadian study involved 25 patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma diagnosed between 2008 and…

Doctors Describe "Concrete Therapeutic Approach" for Mesothelioma
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Doctors Describe "Concrete Therapeutic Approach" for Mesothelioma

ByAlex Strauss

A team of medical researchers in Italy have achieved what they are calling “excellent” tumor control and survival results in malignant pleural mesothelioma patients using a combination of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. Caused by exposure to asbestos, mesothelioma typically spreads quickly across the lung-encasing membrane called the pleura. There is no known cure but treatments are improving. In the current prospective study, 20 malignant pleural mesothelioma patients underwent radical pleurectomy/decortication followed by high doses of radiation. After surgeons removed as much of the visible mesothelioma tumor and surrounding tissue as possible, patients received 50Gy of radiation to the effected side of their chest, delivered in 25 fractions. Regions of particular concern for mesothelioma regrowth got an extra radiation “boost” to…

A Second-Line Option for Mesothelioma?
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A Second-Line Option for Mesothelioma?

ByAlex Strauss

Although survival was not significantly extended, the chemotherapy drug vinorelbine might be a treatment option for mesothelioma patients whose cancer has returned after first-line chemotherapy with pemetrexed. A new study on vinorelbine as a second-line treatment finds that the drug is “moderately active” in mesothelioma patients who were initially treated with pemetrexed-based chemotherapy. Pemetrexed (Alimta), along with a platinum-based drug like cisplatin, is the primary first-line drug therapy for mesothelioma. But vinorelbine is gaining attention as a possible option for mesothelioma, in part because it is available in a less expensive generic form. In “Vinorelbine in pemetrexed-pretreated patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma”, the Italian authors detail the results of their study on 59 patients with unresectable pleural mesothelioma.  These patients…

Micro-RNAs May Offer New Way to Fight Mesothelioma
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Micro-RNAs May Offer New Way to Fight Mesothelioma

ByAlex Strauss

Scientists at one of the world’s top mesothelioma research centers, the Asbestos Diseases Research institute in Sydney, Australia, say that restoring the expression of certain micro RNAs in the cells of mesothelioma patients may offer a new way to fight the disease. A microRNA is a small RNA molecule which is involved in the regulation of gene expression. According to a new report in the Annals of Oncology, the Australian scientists found reduced expression of the micro RNA-15 family (miR-15/16) in the cells of mice with mesothelioma. “When malignant pleural mesothelioma cell lines were compared with the normal mesothelial cell line MeT-5A, the downregulation of miR-15/16 was 2- to 10-fold,” they report. This finding is consistent with previous cancer research…