Mesothelioma Law Firm Has History Of Representing Veterans
DALLAS (November 11, 2011) – On Veteran’s Day 2011, the mesothelioma lawyers at Baron and Budd are pausing to honor the many men and women who have served our country in the armed forces. Sadly, many of these brave men and women later developed mesothelioma from exposure to asbestos while serving, most notably aboard Navy ships.
Mesothelioma is a rare cancer caused by asbestos that affects the lining of the lung. Though there are only approximately 3,000 cases of mesothelioma cancer diagnosed each year in the United States, a surprising percentage of these cases occur in veterans because asbestos was so widely used in the military, primarily on Naval ships.
"Many of our veterans were unknowingly exposed to asbestos-containing products while serving, even though the asbestos companies knew that their products could cause cancer," said Allen Vaught, mesothelioma lawyer at Baron and Budd and Iraq War veteran. "As a mesothelioma law firm, we are proud to have a history of defending America’s veterans and continue to assist veterans with mesothelioma lawsuits today. We are asking everyone to take a moment to remember our veterans who died on and off the battlefield."
Baron and Budd has been honored to represent many veterans who have suffered from mesothelioma. Most notably, the firm represented Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, a highly decorated veteran who served as the Chief of Naval Operations during the Veteran War, in a mesothelioma lawsuit against the asbestos companies responsible for his exposure.
About Baron & Budd, P.C.
The national mesothelioma law firm of Baron & Budd, P.C. has a more than 30-year history of "Protecting What’s Right" for asbestos sufferers and their families. As one of the first law firms to successfully litigate an asbestos lawsuit, Baron & Budd continues to actively represent veterans, industry workers and others who are suffering as a result of exposure to asbestos. Baron & Budd achieved the largest mesothelioma verdict ever in the state of Texas, a $55 million verdict for an asbestos sufferer and his family in El Paso, Texas. Contact Baron and Budd at 1.866.855.1229 for additional information on mesothelioma treatments, mesothelioma cancer doctors and treatment centers, mesothelioma attorneys and veterans’ issues.
The Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) announced yesterday that Charles L. Sawyers, M.D., chair of MSKCC’s Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program, has been selected as the president-elect for 2012-2013 of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). Sawyers is renowned for his clinical and translational research, and he is currently investigating the signaling pathways that drive the growth of cancer cells to design new treatment options for patients. MSKCC is one of the premier hospitals in the United States for treating mesothelioma patients.
Located in New York, MSKCC is the world’s oldest and largest private cancer center, and has a team of specialists including surgical oncologists, pathologists, and nurses who deal exclusively with mesothelioma and other thoracic cancers. The Center is known for innovative approaches to treatment and recently introduced a program that focuses on helping men and women with a terminal diagnosis of mesothelioma focus on the spiritual, emotional, and psychological aspects of cancer.
Mesothelioma is a signature cancer of asbestos and is diagnosed in close to 3,000 Americans each year. Patients with the rare disease are often referred to medical professionals that specialize in the treatment of mesothelioma.
Sawyers’ research has been instrumental in the development of two cancer treatment drugs – imatinib and dasatinib. Both drugs are used in the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia. Dasatinib is currently undergoing a clinical trial at MD Anderson Cancer Center to learn how the drug affects biomarker levels in patients with resectable malignant pleural mesothelioma.
“We are in the midst of a transformative decade in cancer research, with many new therapies emerging from our work that are improving the lives of cancer patients around the world,” said Sawyer. He added that he will work closely with the AACR staff to ensure the government does not cut investments in cancer research at this critical time of development.
Sawyer has been a member of the AACR since 1998 and was a past member of the AACR Board of Directors. He is scientific editor of Cancer Discovery and associate editor of Clinical Cancer Research, journals of the AACR. Sawyers is past president of the American Society of Clinical Investigation; served on the National Cancer Institute’s Board of Scientific Councilors; and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine. In addition, he has an impressive list of awards and accolades, including the Dorothy Landon-AACR Prize for Translational Cancer Research, the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s David A. Karnofsky Award, and the Lasker~DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award.
“His [Sawyers] scientific achievements and research into the molecular forces that drive cancer growth and resistance to therapy have had a direct influence on the current treatment landscape, as well as on the patient experience,” said Memorial Sloan-Kettering President and CEO Craig Thompson on the announcement. “I’m certain he will be just as influential to the AACR.”
“Dr. Sawyers’ research has revolutionized the cancer therapeutics landscape,” said Margaret Foti, Ph.D., M.D. (h.c.), chief executive officer of the AACR. “We are thrilled that an esteemed expert in clinical and translational research has been elected to serve as the next AACR president-elect.”
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) is the oldest and largest scientific organization in the world focused on innovative cancer research. AACR’s membership includes 34,000 laboratory, translational and clinical researchers; population scientists; other health care professionals; and cancer advocates residing in more than 90 countries.
Mesothelioma sufferers rarely hear “take two aspirin and call me in the morning.” But that might be common in the future if a recent study holds true.Researchers at The City College of New York report they have developed a new hybrid aspirin that may be the latest potent cancer-fighter.
In a study published in the journal ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters, scientists report that they have developed a new aspirin compound that curbed the growth of 11 different types of human cancer cells in culture. Some of the cancers controlled in the lab included pancreatic, lung and leukemia.
Like mesothelioma, an asbestos-caused cancer, many of the tested cancers are aggressive and are difficult to treat and control. Most often physicians treat mesothelioma with surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. Unfortunately, mesothelioma has proven to be resistant to many of the treatments and there is currently no known cure.
One issue with chemotherapy, and other drugs used to treat mesothelioma, is that the medicine is highly toxic leading to a variety of side effects including low blood cell counts, thinning or brittle hair, loss of appetite and weight, diarrhea, nausea and vomiting. These can be debilitating and often lead patients and their doctors to halt treatment, as the risks outweigh the benefits of the treatment. This new aspirin, however, has been found to be perhaps safer than the current off-the-shelf aspirin.
“The key components of this new compound are that it is very, very potent and yet it has minimal toxicity to the cells,” said Associate Professor Khosrow Kashfi, the principal investigator.
The researchers reported the amped-up aspirin had nearly 100,000 times greater potency than aspirin alone 24 hours after treatment. After 72 hours, the potency grew to 250,000 times more potent against human colon cancer.
Named the “NOSH” aspirin, the drug is a combination of nitric oxide (NO), which helps protect the stomach lining, and hydrogen sulfide (H2S), which has been shown to enhance aspirin’s cancer-fighting ability. When the two are combined, the result is a hybrid drug that is more effective than either of the components used alone.
The researchers found that the NOSH-aspirin treatment showed promise in shrinking tumors and slowing cancer growth. In fact, the compound shrank human colon cancer tumors by 85 percent in live animals without adverse effects. In a second study, mice bearing human colon cancer tumors were given oral NOSH-aspirin which “caused cancer cells to self-destruct, inhibited the proliferation of the cells and significantly reduced tumor growth without any signs of toxicity in the mice.”
The researchers admit the use of the NOSH-aspirin is still years away and it will need to undergo clinical trials and toxicity testing before approval.
For the 3,000 Americans diagnosed with mesothelioma each year, clinical trials are critical to offering the patients the opportunity to receive new, potentially more effective therapies. If this novel treatment continues to prove as successful on humans as on mice, it could be the breakthrough all mesothelioma sufferers and their physicians have been waiting for.
For the sixth year in a row, Senator Baucus of Montana proposed legislation designating the first week of April as National Asbestos Awareness Week. Baucus continues to introduce the resolution to honor the nearly 300 people who died in Libby, Montana from mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases.
Libby, Montana is the site of the W.R. Grace mine and mill that shut down in 1990 and is blamed for widespread contamination from asbestos exposure. Asbestos is a known carcinogen and is proven to cause lung cancer, asbestosis and mesothelioma, a serious cancer caused by breathing in the asbestos fibers that then become lodged in the thin membrane that lines and encases the lungs. Often called “asbestos cancer,” mesothelioma is highly aggressive and is resistant to many cancer treatments.
Senate resolution 389 urges the Surgeon General to warn and educate people about the public health hazard of asbestos exposure. The resolution cites the facts that asbestos is a known cause of occupational cancer; thousands of workers in the U.S. face significant asbestos exposure; and a significant percentage of all asbestos-related disease victims were exposed to asbestos on naval ships and in shipyards.
“Although we can never fully right the outrageous wrong that took place in Libby, we can fight to make sure the community has the tools it needs to heal. And, we can keep working hard to make sure the public is aware of the tragic impact of asbestos exposure,” said Baucus in a press release announcing the passage of the resolution.
Baucus was instrumental in urging the EPA to declare its first ever public health emergency in Libby, Montana. The declaration requires the federal government to offer screenings and health care for Libby residents as well as authorizing cleanup work in homes and other structures.
The resolution points out that the expected survival of people diagnosed with mesothelioma varies from 6 to 24 months. Most often diagnoses are not made until symptoms appear and the disease has progressed to an advanced stage leaving the patient with life-threatening complications. Early detection of asbestos-related disease may give some patients additional treatment options.
About 3,000 new cases of mesothelioma are diagnosed each year in the United States.
Each year more than 10,000 Americans and 1,000 Canadians die of diseases caused by asbestos exposure. Mesothelioma, an incurable cancer of the lining of the lungs and abdominal cavity, is among these diseases. Although countless organizations have continued to call for a ban on asbestos, both the U.S. and Canadian governments still allow asbestos to be used in some products. Now, a man in Canada is trying another approach to alert Canadians to the presence of the toxic mineral – create a registry of Canadian buildings containing asbestos.
Asbestos is extremely hazardous to workers who handle it and to others who are in the area when it becomes airborne and is then inhaled into the lungs. The worst exposures occur when asbestos is removed or disturbed during a building renovation or demolition. In December, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a warning that “asbestos is a human carcinogen with no safe level of exposure.” Asbestos is known to cause mesothelioma, lung cancer, asbestosis and other respiratory diseases.
Howard Willems, 59, a Canadian federal food inspector for more than 30 years, contracted mesothelioma while inspecting a number of older food plants in Saskatchewan, according to a recent report by the CBC. Willems believes he was exposed to asbestos when he inspected the plants while they were being renovated.
Mesothelioma is an aggressive cancer that often requires a tri-modal treatment approach. Surgery, chemotherapy and radiation are typically ordered to attempt to prevent metastasis of the tumor cells. Willems had one diseased lung removed in 2011 and is undergoing monitoring of his remaining lung.
“Everyone has a right to know when they go into a workplace or when they’re going into a building, it is safe,” says Willems. His call for the federal government to establish a national registry of buildings that contain asbestos fibers, he hopes, will serve that purpose.
The Canadian Cancer Society also has called on the federal and provincial governments to maintain a public registry of buildings that contain asbestos. A registry would help ensure that asbestos is properly removed from them by trained workers.
Mesothelioma can take decades to develop, leading to a limited life expectancy after diagnosis. Preventing exposure to asbestos is virtually the only means of prevention. There is no known cure for mesothelioma, and most patients die less than two years after diagnosis.
With the success of recent research in the area of genetics, doctors have been looking forward to bringing personalized treatment to their mesothelioma patients. By identifying specific genetic mutations, or biomarkers, within tumors doctors can target treatment according to the patient’s unique characteristics. For example, crizotinib has been found to be an effective drug for treating non-small cell lung cancer patients with tumors that express the abnormal anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) gene. However, according to researchers in Great Britain, treatment based on genetic markers could fail due to genetic diversity within each tumor.
Personalized care has been touted as offering treatment options that might not otherwise have been considered. Personalized care also optimizes the potential for success of the treatment. Mesothelioma, an asbestos-caused cancer, currently has limited treatment options, but genetic science has promised to allow physicians to tailor treatment to individual patients based on their genetic makeup.
According to an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), though, genetic tests can be misleading. Depending on where on a tumor a biopsy is conducted, or whether it is from the primary or secondary tumor, the results could lead a physician down an incorrect path.
The researchers from the London Research Institute report that most often only one biopsy sample is taken to drive the course of treatment. But after they mapped the “genetic changes or faults in different regions of the same tumor” they believe physicians could miss the gene they had hoped to find to guide the patient’s treatment with just a single test.
The researchers analyzed kidney cancer tumors with samples taken from different regions of the primary tumor as well as biopsies from organs where the cancer had metastasized. They found that nearly 70% of the biomarkers differed across samples. This led them to conclude that these differences “may present major challenges to personalized-medicine and biomarker development.”
“We’ve known for some time that tumors are a patchwork of faults, but this is the first time we’ve been able to use cutting-edge genome sequencing technology to map out the genetic landscape of a tumor in such exquisite detail,” said Charles Swanton of University College London’s cancer institute who led the study.
In an editorial responding to the article, Dan Longo, MD, Deputy Editor of the NEJM, suggested the findings are a stark difference to the “overoptimism” in the field. He added that the drive toward personalized medicine may be more difficult than previously thought.
The researchers do not want the study to dampen enthusiasm for using genetically targeted therapies, however, they point out the focused treatment could become more costly. Mesothelioma advocates, although disappointed in the fact that personalized medicine may be more challenging, are encouraged that the findings now suggest physicians conduct multiple tests prior to subscribing to a particular treatment.
Patients diagnosed with mesothelioma, an asbestos-caused cancer, often endure many rounds of chemotherapy while fighting the disease. Unfortunately, the side effects caused by the potent medicines can be debilitating, often leading patients to halt treatment. Within the past few months, however, researchers have found several solutions for increasing the effectiveness of chemotherapy and for lowering its toxicity in cancer patients. Now, researchers at Duke University report yet another breakthrough in reducing chemotherapy’s side effects.
Physicians rely on chemotherapy in the treatment of mesothelioma, as well as many other cancers. One issue with chemotherapy is that the medicine is highly toxic and it kills healthy cells as well as the diseased cells. But Duke researchers found the “transporter” molecules that can deliver chemotherapy directly to the diseased cells, bypassing the healthy cells and limiting the effects from toxicity.
The “transporter” molecules, or nucleoside transporters, the researchers found, work by moving nucleosides, the basic building blocks of nucleic acids or DNA and RNA, from the outside to the inside of cells. The transporter also carries the nucleoside-like chemotherapy drugs through cell membranes into the DNA, preventing tumor cells from dividing and growing.
“Knowing the structure and properties of the transporter molecule may be the key to changing the way that some chemotherapies, for example, could work in the body to prevent tumor growth,” said senior author Seok-Yong Lee, PhD, assistant professor of biochemistry at Duke.
By understanding the interaction between the transporter and the cancer drug, the researchers believe a new drug can be developed with a unique shape the transporters will recognize. A lower dosage of drug, with fewer side effects, could then be used to successfully fight the cancer.
Duke reports the next step “will be to try to understand which features of the transporter confer the ability to recognize certain chemo drugs and ultimately to design drugs that can easily enter the cells.”
This finding offers hope to mesothelioma patients who have limited treatment options. A drug that is effective, yet does not have toxic side effects can mean the difference in survival and prognosis for those that cannot tolerate current chemotherapy treatments.
New York, NY, March 02, 2012 — New York mesothelioma lawyer Joseph W. Belluck today said a controversial abandoned asbestos mine in Vermont should be cleaned up under the federal Superfund program.
According to a recent Vermont Public Radio report, residents of Lowell and Eden will vote this month on whether to have the Belvidere Mountain asbestos mine declared a Superfund hazardous waste site.
“The health hazards of the lingering asbestos exposure risk posed by the Belvidere Mountain Asbestos mine are such that cleanup under the Superfund program should be approved and begun as soon as possible,” said Belluck, a partner in Belluck & Fox LLP, a New York City law firm that focuses in mesothelioma and other asbestos-disease cases.
“This is a matter of public health and safety that should take priority over costs and local concerns about image,” Belluck said.
The Belvidere Mountain asbestos mine was one of the most productive asbestos sources in the nation for several decades before it was closed in 1993.
Asbestos is a fire- and heat-resistant fiber that was used in a variety of industrial and consumer products during most of the 20th century despite knowledge that it could cause respiratory diseases like mesothelioma, a usually fatal cancer of the lungs and abdomen. Federal laws adopted in the 1970s curtailed most uses of asbestos.
Local residents are considering whether to ask for Superfund assistance to pay an estimated $250 million to clean up the mine, according to Vermont’s WCAX TV. Those opposed to the request say the mine no longer poses a hazard and that a Superfund listing will harm property values, the station said.
“We’ve assisted hundreds of mesothelioma victims as they’ve struggled with this terrible disease, many of whom first showed signs of the disease decades after their exposure to asbestos,” Belluck said.
Belluck’s firm prosecutes personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits on behalf of mesothelioma victims and their survivors. The Belluck & Fox law firm has won more than $450 million in judgments for New York plaintiffs in lawsuits pertaining to mesothelioma and other illness caused by asbestos exposure.
“The attorneys of Belluck & Fox will always support those who suffer from mesothelioma and other effects of asbestos exposure, including the families of those who have died from the disease,” Belluck said.
“We hope a cleanup of the Belvidere Mountain mine will help ensure there are fewer victims of asbestos exposure.”
According to WCAX TV, residents of Eden and Lowell are to vote on Vermont’s Town Meeting Day, the first Tuesday in March, to decide whether to request that the state seek Superfund listing for the site.
About Belluck & Fox, LLP
Belluck & Fox, LLP, is a nationally recognized law firm that represents individuals with asbestos and mesothelioma claims, as well as victims of crime, motorcycle crashes, lead paint and other serious injuries. The firm provides personalized and professional representation and has won over $400 million in compensation for clients and their families.
Partner Joseph W. Belluck is AV-rated by Martindale-Hubbell and is listed in Best Lawyers in America, New York Magazine’s “Best Lawyers in the New York Area” and in Super Lawyers. Mr. Belluck has won numerous cases involving injuries from asbestos, defective medical products, tobacco and lead paint.
Partner Jordan Fox is a well-known asbestos and mesothelioma attorney who has been named to the Best Lawyers in America, New York Magazine’s “Best Lawyers in the New York Area” and to Super Lawyers. On two separate occasions his verdicts were featured as the National Law Journal’s Largest Verdict of the Year.
In September, Belluck & Fox, LLP, won a coveted spot on a list of America’s best law firms, which was published jointly by U.S. News & World Report and Best Lawyers magazine. The listing showcased 8,782 different law firms ranked in one or more of 81 major practice areas.
For more information, contact the firm at (877) 637-6843 or through the online contact form.
After seven years as a volunteer firefighter in a small firehouse in Stuarts Draft, Virginia, 29-year-old Jonathan Smith got hired on as a professional firefighter at the Augusta County Fire-Rescue in October. While learning the new job, though, Smith was fighting a nagging cough, and flu-like symptoms, that slowly began sapping his strength. After undergoing a series of tests, Smith was delivered a shocking diagnosis: Stage IV, pleural mesothelioma.
Pleural mesothelioma is a cancer, caused by inhaling asbestos fibers, that is found in the outer lining of the lungs, the mesothelium. Although firefighters face exposure to asbestos if the substance is present in a structure that burns or collapses, mesothelioma typically does not develop for decades after exposure. Patients are normally around age 65 or older. It is not likely that Smith contracted mesothelioma on-the-job. His doctors believe his cancer may have come from childhood exposure to asbestos.
Mesothelioma is an aggressive disease, and Smith’s doctors chose an aggressive treatment to begin attacking the tumors in an effort to quickly shrink them. Smith was diagnosed on February 22 and had his first chemotherapy treatment just four days later. Scheduled for up to 12 treatments, three weeks apart, Smith and his doctors hope the chemotherapy treatment will shrink the tumors enough to allow the doctors to surgically remove them at a later date.
All of these treatments come at a high price, and with just five months on the job, Smith needs a lot of time off, but he also needs to maintain his insurance. According to family members, the other firefighters in his company have donated enough leave time that Smith will be paid until April, allowing him to also keep his health insurance.
In addition, the small, tight-knit community has rallied around Smith and his family by organizing and participating in fundraisers. Firefighters from a dozen stations in Augusta County and childhood friends filed in to a spaghetti dinner held in his honor Saturday. Although, Smith was too fatigued from his latest round of chemotherapy to attend, the organizers were aiming for 600 attendees to raise $8,000.
Smith and his wife Jennifer just welcomed their baby Jillian Grace to the family in January. In addition to their two-month-old daughter, they are parents to three teenagers.
“He’s very upbeat and he says we’re going to fight it,” Smith’s mother Jackie May told WVIR-TV. ”We’re going to beat it, and he’s got the family support.”
Sources:
Scores attend fundraiser for cancer-stricken Stuarts Draft firefighter
Community Steps Up in Firefighter’s Fight Against Cancer
The age at which one is exposed to asbestos may indicate whether that person develops mesothelioma, a recent French study shows.
The study that appeared in the European Respiratory Journal showed that older workers had less of a chance of developing mesothelioma than their younger counterparts.
Mesothelioma, which occurs in the lining of the heart, lung or abdomen, is a rare cancer caused by asbestos exposure. Although it’s rare, it’s commonly diagnosed in people who worked with the substance including pipefitters, roofers and insulation installers. About 3,000 people in the United States are diagnosed with the disease each year.
The French study charted 2,466 exposed males from a case-control study from 1987 to 1993 and the French National Mesothelioma Surveillance Program from 1998 to 2006. The researchers evaluated the age, length of exposure, exposure intensity and the occupations of the individuals.
Specifically, the study found that the risk of mesothelioma increased in those who were in their early 20s. The risk level increased until 30 years after an individual’s exposure. But the older the person is, the less likely the individual will develop symptoms of mesothelioma, the study revealed.
The most likely reason for the decreased risk in older people is mesothelioma’s lengthy latency period. It can take several decades for the effects of asbestos exposure to manifest into mesothelioma. Some patients have been known to develop mesothelioma symptoms 50 years after initial exposure. Inhaling the tiniest fibers can eventually lead to complications. Scientists have said there is no safe level of exposure.
Common symptoms include difficulty breathing, fatigue, unexplained weight loss or dry cough.
France, the location of the study, is one of the more progressive nations when it comes to banning asbestos. However, many countries, including the United States, still have not issued an outright ban on the mineral. Canada, China, Brazil and Russia are the most prominent countries that mine asbestos. In the first half of 2011 the United States imported 1,100 tons of asbestos, according to the United States Geological Survey. About 60 percent of the asbestos manufactured in the United States during 2011 was used to make roofing products.
For many years, the United States asbestos industry purposely hid the dangers of asbestos from workers and consumers. Millions died as a result. Today many homes, schools and businesses that were built prior to the 1980s contain high levels of asbestos. It can be found in ceiling tiles and insulation and is usually harmless if undisturbed. But the tiny asbestos fibers cannot be detected to the naked eye and individuals don’t usually know when they are exposed.
Doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota are seeking malignant pleural mesothelioma patients to participate in a clinical trial to test whether a measles injection can help kill cancer cells.
Although it may seem counterintuitive to treat cancer by injecting a virus into patients, researchers believe that the vaccine strain of the measles can help. Investigators expect the measles virus to infect and kill cancer cells while sparing normal cells in malignant pleural mesothelioma patients. Malignant pleural mesothelioma is a rare form of cancer that occurs in the lining of the lung.
During phase I of this mesothelioma treatment, the measles virus is anticipated to trigger an antitumor immune response, which will destroy the tumor.
The therapies that use vaccines such as this one are called immunotherapies. Doctors believe that activating our own immune systems against cancer cells plays an important role in reducing the tumors.
Immunotherapy is one of the latest principles in medicine used to treat not only mesothelioma, but other types of cancers as well. Combined with radiation, surgery and chemotherapy, scientists hope that immunotherapy helps extend the lives of pleural mesothelioma patients.
Symptoms of malignant pleural mesothelioma can include shortness of breath, painful breath and pain or swelling in the abdomen. Symptoms will vary depending on the patient and the stage of the disease.
The experimental study will involve 36 patients who will receive treatment every 28 days for up to six courses. After treatment, the patients will be observed every three to six months for up to five years.
Malignant pleural mesothelioma is caused by exposure to asbestos. Other types of mesothelioma include peritoneal mesothelioma, which occurs near the abdomen, and pericardial mesothelioma, which occurs around the heart.
Before participating in clinical trials such as this one, patients should evaluate the risks and benefits. These clinical trials can offer hope to patients who have mesothelioma. Patients should also consider travel expenses and how often they will need see the coordinating physicians. A complete list of clinical trials can be found at the National Institute of Health database. The Coalition of Cancer Cooperative Groups also has information about clinical trials for cancer patients.
The principal investigator of the measles study is Dr. Tobias Peikert of the Mayo Clinic.Study sponsors are the Mayo Clinic and the National Cancer Institute.
The identifier number for the mesothelioma trial is NCT01503177. Researchers expect the trial to be completed in November 2013.
New research from Europe suggests that a drug known as gemcitabine, given along with one that is now commonly used for mesothelioma, might someday serve as another weapon in doctors’ arsenals against the cancer.
Gemcitabine (marketed as Gemzar) is a chemotherapy drug currently in use to treat lung, breast, pancreatic and ovarian cancers. In the recent, Phase II study—designed to test whether the drug is effective and to measure side effects and other risks—investigators in Slovenia gave patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma a prolonged, low-dose infusion of gemcitabine in combination with cisplatin (marketed as Platinol).
The researchers decided to test this course of therapy against malignant pleural mesothelioma—a cancer in a layer of specialized cells, called mesothelial cells, that line the chest and are adjacent to the lungs—after noting that the treatment appeared to be effective in advanced cases of the most common type of lung cancer, non–small-cell lung cancer.
Patients in the mesothelioma study were eligible if they had not previously received any chemotherapy, and other than the mesothelioma, were in fair to good health with normal liver and kidney function. The treatment entailed six three-week cycles of therapy. For the first four cycles, patients received six-hour infusions of gemcitabine on the first and eighth days, plus cisplatin on the second day; the last two cycles included the gemcitabine but not the cisplatin. A total of 78 patients—58 men and 20 women, ages 33 to 82 years old—participated. More than 70 percent of the patients had mesothelioma tumors of the most common subtype, known as epitheloid, a categorization based on certain characteristics of the cancer cells.
Four of the patients, or 5 percent, showed a complete response—meaning their cancer was undetectable—after the therapy. Thirty-five had a partial response—meaning the size of their tumors was reduced substantially. Another 35 patients had tumors that either responded minimally or remained stable, while only four patients experienced tumor progression during the treatment.
Sixty-seven percent of the mesothelioma patients survived one year after therapy; almost 33 percent survived two years, and about 20 percent survived three years. Patients who had epitheloid tumors were more likely to survive longer without their tumor progressing, and to survive longer overall, compared with patients who had other tumor subtypes.
Most of the patients experienced an improvement in mesothelioma symptoms, and a quality of life that either remained the same or improved, the researchers reported. Notable side effects included neutropenia (a shortage in a type of white blood cells, which can impair the immune system), anemia (a shortage of red blood cells, which can cause fatigue) and hair loss, as well as thrombocytosis (an excess of blood platelets, which cause clotting). Because the therapy appeared to slow down the mesothelioma’s progress and didn’t prove to be too toxic, the scientists advised that this mesothelioma treatment approach warranted further research.
Australian researchers believe that suppressing the body’s natural defenses may actually help in the fight against mesothelioma.
In what seems like a contradiction, scientists are turning off the immune system’s regulatory T-cells, which normally attack mesothelioma and other tumors. The latest research indicates that controlling the T-cells, or Treg cells, in some cases could be more effective against cancer. The body releases large quantities of T-cells when it senses a growing tumor.
After removing the Treg cells from mesothelioma tumors, the scientists report that the tumors grow at a slower rate. Removing the cells can also help increase the effectiveness of chemotherapy, the report said.
The process is a delicate balance, however.
Timing and the dosage of the Treg manipulators must be administered at specific intervals to get the best effect.
Treatment of using the body’s natural defenses to battle cancer is called immunotherapy. Other types of immunotherapy that scientists are studying include an injection of the common cold virus and measles. Many mesothelioma patients are turning to these types of innovative trials to help improve their lives and stabilize their condition, for which there is no cure.
The body’s anti-tumor responses and increased survival rates of those seeking immunotherapy have encouraged both patients and scientists.
Mesothelioma is a rare cancer found in the lining of the chest and lung, the abdomen and around the heart. It is caused by exposure to asbestos. Between 2,000 and 3,000 people are diagnosed with the deadly disease every year in the United States. Even more are misdiagnosed or never diagnosed because of doctor error or inadequate healthcare.
Symptoms of mesothelioma include painful breathing, shortness of breath or unexplained weight loss. It’s important to know that not all patients will experience the same symptoms. The symptoms exhibited can depend on the stage and type of cancer.
Asbestos is frequently used in cement, brake lining and other materials because of its superior insulating qualities. However, asbestos is a worldwide killer. There is no safe level of asbestos exposure. Although it is banned in more than 40 countries, it is still used in the United States and developing countries including India.
The World Health Organization estimates that more than 100,000 people die each year from complications from asbestos exposure.