In the future, you might not need to undergo a biopsy to reliably reveal whether you have mesothelioma. Your doctor may instead be able to reliably diagnose you by looking at BAP1 immunohistochemistry and p16 FISH analysis of your chest fluids, according to researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle. This intriguing possibility was
Monthly Archives: October 2015
Pemetrexed is a pretty good mesothelioma chemotherapy drug. But pretty good is not the same as great. For that reason, mesothelioma researchers are constantly trying to come up with pemetrexed boosters. These are agents or mechanisms that will make pemetrexed go from good to great. Researchers from Zagazig University in Egypt and Tokushima University in
Using radiation tomotherapy following pleurectomy/decortication surgery can help keep mesothelioma away from the treated area longer than can standard three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy. Researchers from the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles reported this finding in the journal Practical Radiation Oncology. The researchers observed that tomotherapy improves local control
In the United States, National Mesothelioma Awareness Day back in late September announced loud and clear that mesothelioma is bad news. The horrific cancer was discussed by thousands that day. And those discussions were heard or seen by millions via television, radio, newspapers and the Internet. But across the Atlantic Ocean, in the United Kingdom,
Not every promising mesothelioma treatment drug in development lives up to its promise. In late September the maker of one such mesothelioma therapy shelved the drug for that very reason. The mesothelioma drug is VS-6063. It was in the middle of a phase 2 clinical trial when Verastem, Inc., the mesothelioma drug maker, decided to
How did you spend National Mesothelioma Awareness Day? Raffit Hassan, M.D., spent it talking about updated results from the phase 1b clinical trial of mesothelioma immunotherapy drug CRS-207. On Sept. 26, while everyone else was swathed in blue to show support for National Mesothelioma Awareness Day, Dr. Hassan was bathed in the white glow of
Long-term mesothelioma survival was experienced by three out of 15 patients who took a CD40-activating antibody along with standard chemotherapy for malignant pleural mesothelioma This finding hails from Perth, Australia. There, investigators from three research centers conducted a phase 1b clinical trial of the CD40-activating antibody known as CP-870,893. Most of the 15 patients who
National Mesothelioma Awareness Day 2015 was a resounding success, judging by the many mesothelioma-related events that took place around the country on Sept. 26. As a result of those events, the number of Americans who either never heard of mesothelioma or had never given it much thought shrunk appreciably. One of the day’s big eye-openers
Computers aren’t the only things that can be hacked by people who know what they’re doing. It turns out that mesothelioma and every other cancer cell type can also be hacked. In this case, the people who know what they’re doing are researchers from the Mayo Clinic in Florida. They figured out a way to
