The Mesothelioma News Center

The annual cost of asbestos-related occupational disease in Canada is estimated at $2.35 billion, according to new findings by a panel of epidemiologists, public health experts and medical professionals. Their estimate is based on direct, indirect and quality-of-life costs related to the 2,331 patients in Canada diagnosed with mesothelioma or asbestos-related lung cancer in 2011….

The latest studies have shown, and most thoracic oncologists agree, that lung-sparing pleurectomy/decortication is a better surgical option for mesothelioma patients today than the more aggressive extrapleural pneumonectomy. Less is better. Quality of life becomes better, too. “In most instances, the pleurectomy/decortication is the operation of choice now,” thoracic surgeon Dr. Andrea Wolf at Mount…

Scientists in Italy have found a platinum-based drug that successfully lessens growth of the most aggressive type of mesothelioma cancer cells. Researchers at the University of Salento discovered the experimental drug Ptac2S was more effective in reducing the spread of sarcomatoid malignant pleural mesothelioma cells in mice compared to cisplatin — the most widely used…

Drug manufacturers announced disappointing ends recently to two different clinical trials involving pleural mesothelioma, dampening earlier enthusiasm over the promise of immunotherapy. Anetumab ravtansine, manufactured by Bayer, and tremelimumab, from drugmaker AstraZeneca, failed an effectiveness test as a stand-alone, second-line treatment for mesothelioma, according to both manufacturers. “Malignant pleural mesothelioma is a very difficult-to-treat tumor,…

A yellowish pigment common to parsley, celery, chamomile tea, oranges and grapefruit may be the latest treatment for mesothelioma cancer, a new study shows. While numerous studies have demonstrated the anti-cancer and antioxidant properties of apigenin (API), the natural pigment found in these plants and vegetables, researchers recently tested it against malignant mesothelioma cells. Doctors…

A drug used to treat bone disease and high blood calcium levels may carry benefits as part of a combination treatment for malignant pleural mesothelioma, a recent study concluded. Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Comprehensive Cancer Center conducted a pilot study testing the effects of zoledronic acid — a bisphosphonate, or bone…

Justice, a national retail chain marketed to young girls, has stopped selling a cosmetics product after discovering it contained talc contaminated with asbestos fibers. The government-licensed Scientific Analytical Institute (SAI) in Greensboro, North Carolina, confirmed the asbestos contamination after testing the product as part of a Durham-based WTVD-TV news investigation. The tainted product was Just…

Dr. Tawee Tanvetyanon at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa rarely sounds this enthused about the future prospects for patients with pleural mesothelioma. Finally, he has something promising to offer. Tanvetyanon is the principal investigator of a much-anticipated phase II clinical trial involving an immunotherapy drug combination with considerable potential for extending survival. “This is…

New research from scientists in Germany sheds more light on the unusually long latency period associated with mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases. The study, published earlier this year in the European Respiratory Journal, is the first to track the presence of asbestos fibers in lung tissue over time. Mesothelioma has one of the longest latency…

The innovative SMART protocol for treating pleural mesothelioma cancer is on the verge of getting smarter. Doctors at the Princess Margaret Cancer Center in Toronto — where the SMART approach was first used — are designing a new protocol that will incorporate immunotherapy into the high-dose radiation/aggressive surgery mix that has been so successful. It…