Don’t be surprised if the cure for mesothelioma comes not from a cancer hospital research lab but from Apple or Microsoft. Scientists are coming to believe that diseases can be treated by using computer programming language to change how living cells behave. The idea is to hack into the DNA “circuitry” of a cell — a
Monthly Archives: April 2016
The developer of the mesothelioma immunotherapy drug CRS-207 has revealed final numbers from its Phase 1 clinical trial. They are very encouraging. Fifty-nine percent of the patients who received CRS-207 along with standard mesothelioma chemotherapy experienced a response. The response rate to mesothelioma chemotherapy without CRS-207 was only about half that number. Even better, disease
Mesothelioma cells have the ability to resist drugs designed to kill them. Here’s how the cancer pulls it off. First, your doctor infuses your body with a mesothelioma chemotherapy drug such as pemetrexed. The pemetrexed encounters the cells making up a mesothelioma tumor. The drug then tries to penetrate the individual mesothelioma cells. But the
The goal of mesothelioma research is to build a better mousetrap for getting rid of this vicious cancer. One group of mesothelioma researchers has been focused instead on building a better mouse. Mice play a very important role in mesothelioma research. Scientists use the furry rodents to test theories about how mesothelioma develops and about
You’re a former school teacher who now has mesothelioma. Chances are you developed the cancer because of asbestos exposure that occurred in the classroom. Typically, classroom exposure to asbestos occurs because the materials used in building the school contained the toxic mineral. How then does one explain the case of the teacher who worked in
One of the drawbacks to mesothelioma chemotherapy is you have to wait to see if it worked. You can’t be given chemotherapy and then right away know how much, if any, damage the mesothelioma tumors sustained. Usually you must repeat dosing with the mesothelioma chemotherapy drugs over a course of days or weeks before the
An invention capable of unboiling a hardboiled egg may someday be put to work fighting cancer. Among the cancers that could be targeted is mesothelioma. A chemist from Flinders University in South Australia writes in Nature’s Scientific Reports that his Vortex Fluidic Device could be used to prepare carbon nanotubes. When readied, these carbon nanotubes
Your medical records should include a detailed history of the places you’ve worked. Researchers suggest this will help your doctor tell whether symptoms you have are signs of mesothelioma. The researchers indicate that a complete rundown of your past employment and the materials you handled on those jobs will also come in handy if you
