Your fight with mesothelioma is difficult for several reasons. One reason is that the asbestos cancer always seems to bounce back with a vengeance after it has been successfully knocked down. The explanation for this is that one or more of the tiny number of mesothelioma cells that invariably manage to survive treatment contain stem
Monthly Archives: February 2016
Treating pleural effusions is essential for relieving chest pain and freeing up breathing if you’re an early stage mesothelioma patient. But the treatment is invasive and carries a risk. The risk is it will promote the seeding of mesothelioma cells. The problem with seeding is exactly what that word implies. When seeds are planted, it
A test that can detect mesothelioma years before it strikes you would offer a powerful edge in the fight for survival following diagnosis, according to scientists from the University of Western Australia. Such a test appears soon to be available. It’s called the ENOX2 blood test. And, according to a recent research paper, it may
Mesothelioma that can’t be treated with surgery or radiation is usually then fought with chemotherapy. The mesothelioma chemotherapy formulation employed first and foremost is cisplatin with pemetrexed. This drug combination does a good job of lengthening mesothelioma survival. Certainly that’s true for many mesothelioma patients. But there are some who cannot tolerate the mixing of
Locally administered doses of CpG-oligodeoxynucleotides may be effective in treating diffuse malignant peritoneal mesothelioma, according to researchers from Italy. The particular form of CpG-oligodeoxynucleotide at the core of this finding is synthetic DNA sequence CpG-ODN1826. Toll-like receptor 9 — or simply TLR9, a gene-level protein — recognizes CpG-ODN1826. This recognition appears to induce both an innate and
There are a number of ways your mesothelioma doctor can predict whether that extrapleural pneumonectomy procedure you might be considering is going to be successful. The problem is that your doctor cannot make such a prediction with 100 percent accuracy. But researchers from Canada and Japan have been jointly working to nudge the accuracy level
The survival prognosis for diffuse malignant peritoneal mesothelioma is poor. But researchers at the Institute for Cancer Care at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore think improving it is possible. The way malignant peritoneal mesothelioma is often treated is with cytoreductive surgery, followed by hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy. The researchers have come to believe that this combined
A bill working its way through Congress threatens to make it harder for you to pay for mesothelioma treatment and related expenses. At the same time, the bill may make it easier for identity thieves to access your private personal information, according to consumer watchdogs. The bill is the Furthering Asbestos Claims Transparency Act. It
The effort to kill mesothelioma by infecting tumors with live viruses received a boost recently when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved an oncolytic drug for treatment of skin cancer. The skin cancer drug is useless against mesothelioma. But FDA clearance of this drug is nevertheless important for mesothelioma research. It proves that
