Mesothelioma Surgeon Says Proper Staging Key to Radical Surgery Survival
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Mesothelioma Surgeon Says Proper Staging Key to Radical Surgery Survival

One of the country’s top mesothelioma surgeons has just published a study he says confirms the role of lymph node involvement in survival after radical mesothelioma surgery. Dr. David Sugarbaker, Director of the Lung Institute at Baylor College of Medicine in Texas, is one of the most experienced practioners of a radical surgical approach to malignant pleural mesothelioma called extrapleural pneumonectomy. EPP aims to prevent the spread or return of mesothelioma by not only removing the tumor and the pleural lining on which it is located, but also the nearest lung, all or part of the diaphragm, the lining around the heart, and other at-risk tissues. The procedure is controversial because of its high rate of complications and death. Some…

Longer Mesothelioma Survival Not Always Linked to Specific Treatments
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Longer Mesothelioma Survival Not Always Linked to Specific Treatments

A new study conducted in Australia contains some good news and some bad news for people with malignant pleural mesothelioma and their loved ones. The findings indicate that it is possible to survive longer with pleural mesothelioma, but survival may not have as much to do with specific treatments as scientists have thought. The study focused on 910 patients from New South Wales, Australia, an area with a rich history of asbestos mining. Patients were all registered with the New South Wales Dust Diseases board between 2002 and 2009. Researchers from the Asbestos Diseases Research Institute and Sydney Medical School used the database to compile a list of prognostic factors that appear to impact mesothelioma survival. Ninety percent of study…

Mesothelioma Survival: Treatment Response May Not Be the Best Predictor
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Mesothelioma Survival: Treatment Response May Not Be the Best Predictor

How long it takes for a person’s mesothelioma to start growing again after chemotherapy may be a better indicator of their survival odds than their actual treatment response. That word comes from a new study published in the European Journal of Cancer. Doctors from France, Belgium, the UK, and the Netherlands developed models showing how progression-free survival could be used for prognosis. To independently validate these models, the researchers examined patient data from 10 European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) studies of chemotherapy for malignant pleural mesothelioma. A total of 523 mesothelioma patients were included in the analysis. Researchers looked at the treatment response rate, progression-free survival at 9 and 18 weeks, and overall survival for each…

Sodium Levels Predict Mesothelioma Survival
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Sodium Levels Predict Mesothelioma Survival

Italian oncologists say an electrolyte imbalance called hyponatraemia could be a valuable way to predict treatment response in malignant pleural mesothelioma patients. Hyponatraemia is an abnormally low level of sodium in the blood. It can be caused by a range of factors, from an underlying medical condition to drinking too much water and diluting the blood. In people with mesothelioma, hyponatraemia can also be triggered by chemotherapy. By analyzing the cases of 62 consecutive mesothelioma patients on chemotherapy, researchers with the Marche Polytechnic University in Ancona, Italy determined that those who developed hyponatraemia were less likely to have good outcomes. All patients received pemetrexed-based chemotherapy as a first-line treatment for their mesothelioma between 2003 and 2013. Twenty-nine of the mesothelioma…

Repeat CRS/HIPEC Improves Survival for Peritoneal Mesothelioma
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Repeat CRS/HIPEC Improves Survival for Peritoneal Mesothelioma

One of the country’s top peritoneal mesothelioma surgeons has just published a study that may be good news for patients with this aggressive malignancy. Paul Sugarbaker, MD, and colleagues at the Program in Peritoneal Surface Oncology in Washington, DC studied patients with diffuse peritoneal mesothelioma who had repeated cytoreductive surgery and heated intraperitoneal chemotherapy. Their results indicate that patients with diffuse peritoneal mesothelioma can safely undergo these procedures more than once and may even improve their odds of survival. Cytoreductive surgery refers to a surgery designed to remove as much as possible of a mesothelioma tumor growing on the peritoneal lining that surrounds abdominal organs. Doctors have gotten good results by following the procedure with a wash of heated chemotherapy…

Mesothelioma Survival Impacted by Lack of Surgery
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Mesothelioma Survival Impacted by Lack of Surgery

A team of surgical oncologists say failure to treat peritoneal mesothelioma with surgery is costing too many patients their lives. Researchers from the Medical College of Wisconsin studied survival statistics for more than 1,500 patients with malignant peritoneal mesothelioma, a form of mesothelioma that occurs in the abdomen. They concluded that many more of them could survive longer if they were treated with surgery. Using the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database, the research team identified 1,591 patients diagnosed with peritoneal mesothelioma between 1973 and 2010. The median age of the studied patients was 74 years and most had metastatic disease, meaning that their mesothelioma had spread beyond the peritoneal membrane that lines the abdomen. Of those 1,591 peritoneal…

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

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,…

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

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…

Spanish Mesothelioma Deaths Likely to Continue for Decades
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Spanish Mesothelioma Deaths Likely to Continue for Decades

New research in Spain suggests that mesothelioma deaths will continue in the country until the “last surviving member” of the group of people exposed to occupational asbestos succumbs to the disease. Like many countries, Spain used asbestos heavily in the first half of the 20th century, especially in construction, where the mineral was prized for its durability, low cost, and resistance to fire and corrosion.  Asbestos was banned in Spain in 2002. Observing that more than 2.5 million metric tons of asbestos were imported into Spain from 1906 to 2002, researchers say deaths from mesothelioma have risen steadily. Between 1976 and 1980, a total of 491 Spanish people died of mesothelioma. By the 5-year period from 2006 to 2010, that…

Repeat HIPEC Improves Mesothelioma Survival
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Repeat HIPEC Improves Mesothelioma Survival

If one cytoreductive surgery and HIPEC procedure for mesothelioma is good, subsequent treatments may be even better. That is the central message of research conducted at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Florida. The study’s aim was to assess overall survival among peritoneal mesothelioma patients who had not just one, but two or more rounds of heated intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) after cytoreductive surgery. The cytoreduction/HIPEC approach has become popular for peritoneal mesothelioma, a treatment-resistant cancer of abdominal membranes caused by asbestos. Cytoreductive surgery involves removing as much of the mesothelioma tumor as possible from the abdomen. Because the shape and spreading pattern of mesothelioma tumors make complete cytoreduction difficult, the surgery is often followed by a rinse with a heated solution…