You’ve been told that you have malignant pleural mesothelioma. You wonder, “What is the best treatment to get?” A team of researchers from five U.S. cancer centers can point to at least one approach worth considering. It’s to have an extended pleurectomy-decortication, plus intraoperative photodynamic therapy, plus chemotherapy. These researchers recently determined that mesothelioma patients
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A device that disrupts mesothelioma cells by subjecting them to an electrical field is being tested in Europe. The device is designed to be used in combination with chemotherapy. The company that makes the device says a Phase 2 clinical trial is now underway. It will be some time yet before the trial is completed.
Chemotherapy works better for some mesothelioma patients than it does for others. Why? That was the question a team of researchers from Denmark asked themselves. The answer they came up with is there are factors unique to each person that either help or hinder the power of chemotherapy. One such factor is age. Younger mesothelioma
The novel drug CRS-207 continues to look like it could someday find its way into routine use as an immunotherapy to extend mesothelioma survival. The company that makes CRS-207 announced in November 2016 that patients participating in an early phase clinical trial responded encouragingly to the drug. They were receiving CRS-207 as part of a
You’ve been diagnosed with mesothelioma. Your doctor develops a treatment plan for you. The treatment plan your doctor comes up with is based on well-accepted protocols. As a result, the prescribed treatments should be able to lengthen your survival. However, your survival could be lengthened even more if the treatment plan is tailored to take
There are a number of reasons why chemotherapy doesn’t always work as well against mesothelioma as you and your doctor hope it will. One major reason is that mesothelioma cells are like tiny fortresses. They have strong defenses that limit the damage chemotherapy drugs can do. One line of defense that mesothelioma cells have against
You probably already know that mesothelioma comes in three subtypes. The subtypes are epithelioid, biphasic and sarcomatoid. What you might not know is that each of those three subtypes comes with its own individual set of subtypes. It turns out that knowing which sub-subtype of mesothelioma you have may be useful. This knowledge may help
You get mesothelioma from being exposed to asbestos. It doesn’t take much exposure to cause mesothelioma. A little bit of asbestos exposure just one time can be enough to get things started. However, most workers who develop mesothelioma are exposed to a lot of asbestos on the job, over the course of many years. And
Mesothelioma usually begins on the tissues that surround your lungs, heart or abdominal cavity. It’s called pleural mesothelioma if it starts on the tissues over your lungs. It’s called peritoneal mesothelioma if it starts on the tissues over your abdomen. Wherever it starts, mesothelioma is triggered by exposure to asbestos that you either inhale or
You were exposed to asbestos and that’s got you worried. You’re worried because you know that exposure to asbestos can lead to mesothelioma. You don’t have mesothelioma. But you would like to be told ahead of time if you’re going to get it, so that you can prepare yourself and your loved ones. Right now
