Month: August 2016
Memories Left Unmade Because of Mesothelioma
For most people my age, going to see your father entails conversing with the man that was always there for you, reminiscing about fond memories and creating new ones. Visiting my Dad used to mean walking into a home filled with his smile, laughter, and charm. It meant spending time with the person who was always there for me, someone who always would be. That was until mesothelioma became a part of our lives.
Now, visiting my father means driving up a long, windy road to the top of a hill. I get out of the vehicle, walk about 50 feet, and gaze upon a black piece of marble. I stop and talk to him, but I get no answer. There is no more of his laughter; that sound now only exists in my memory. Now, spending time with my Dad means going to a cemetery.
As I walk up to the place where we laid him to rest, I am always overcome with emotions that bring me to tears. I think of how much I miss him. I ponder why this had to become his fate. I try to hold back the anger I feel that he ended up with mesothelioma, and how it could have been prevented if only people had been more responsible. I wonder why anyone would take the dangers of asbestos so lightly that they would endanger other’s lives as if they were disposable.
Each and every person who has been a victim of this disease has a story. They have a family and people who love them. They are not nameless faces, they are God’s children. They are more than just a stone, marking where they now lie.
As I stand by my father’s grave, I remember his funeral and the outpouring of love that was present that day. I remember the smile he gave me the last time I saw him, and the last “I love you” over the phone, 45 minutes before he passed away. These are memories that I will always cherish, but I still long for the ones left unmade because of mesothelioma.
Know more about Mesothelioma and how you can deal with it.
Dr. Anne Tsao Shares Her Knowledge Through Online Curriculum
Anne Tsao, M.D., Director of the Mesothelioma Program and the Thoracic Chemo-Radiation Program at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, is one of the leading authorities of mesothelioma in the United States, and she is also one of the strongest advocates for taking a personalized treatment approach to mesothelioma. She has treated hundreds of patients using the latest, targeted treatments available. Now, Dr. Tsao is sharing her knowledge of mesothelioma as a guest faculty member with Clinical Care Options.
Through Clinical Care Options online curriculum, Dr. Tsao discusses “current best practices and provides her perspective on the latest clinical trial data for the treatment of mesothelioma.” The program, targeted to physicians and other healthcare professionals who provide medical care to mesothelioma patients, has a goal “to improve participants’ ability to provide medical care for patients with mesothelioma and understand the significance of ongoing clinical research in this area.”
The online class walks the student through the diagnostic options, compares and contrasts the various chemotherapy options, highlights the latest mesothelioma treatment breakthroughs and provides updates on the latest mesothelioma clinical trials. The student’s knowledge is tested through several multiple choice questions.
“This is a very exciting time with many developments for mesothelioma care,” concludes Dr. Tsao. “We still need to identify prognostic and predictive biomarkers and use these to design our future targeted therapy trials,” and “we need to identify mechanisms for drug resistance by designing our trials to include biopsies at different time points during therapy,” adds Dr. Tsao.
About MD Anderson’s Mesothelioma Program
Mesothelioma is a rare form of cancer caused by past exposure to airborne asbestos fibers. The cancer is highly aggressive and is resistant to many current treatments. Just 3,000 Americans are diagnosed with mesothelioma each year.
Due to mesothelioma’s relative rarity among the general population, it is recommended that mesothelioma be treated by a team of doctors and surgeons led by a mesothelioma specialist rather than by one primary physician. Mesothelioma specialists are aware of the latest research, and they are able to develop a more informed treatment plan than would a physician who does not specialize in the disease.
“Because MD Anderson’s Thoracic Center cares for more patients with mesothelioma than almost any other center in the United States, you can be sure you are being cared for by renowned physicians with the highest levels of experience and skill,” as noted on MD Anderson’s website.
The Center’s Mesothelioma Program is comprised of a team of more than 30 experts representing medical oncologists, surgeons, radiation oncologists, pulmonologists and pathologists who work closely together to customize the best treatment for each patient. Everyone on the team is considered an expert in their field and in mesothelioma.
“This program not only has the clinical arm where we treat the patients, but it also has the clinical research program that offers clinical trials for every single setting for our patients,” said Dr. Tsao in a 2009 podcast for MD Anderson about new advances in mesothelioma. It also has a translational research program making it “one of the very few centers in the world that has such a comprehensive program.”
To find out more about Dr. Tsao and her research on mesothelioma see MD Anderson’s website.
Medical Team Supports Mesothelioma Patients in Making Care Decisions
According to a recent survey, 64% of respondents believe they could be making more decisions about their health and wellness. This national survey emphasizes the importance of empowering individuals with information within a dynamic healthcare environment. The survey by the National Council of Patient Information shows how important communication and trust is with your medical team. But unfortunately, more and more patients diagnosed with mesothelioma turn to the internet. This one-sided approach to learning about the disease can lead to unrealistic expectations, for both the patient and family.
This past week a man who had surgery a year ago, a pleurectomy, for malignant pleural mesothelioma was re-admitted to the hospital. His course has been complicated over the last year, and emotionally it has been a challenge. He has undergone chemotherapy, and fell and sustained bruises while being on a blood thinner. After surgery, both he and his wife felt that progress was way too slow. He was disappointed in how he felt. He wanted more out of himself physically and looked upon his slow progress as a failure on his part.
He was readmitted and found to have metastatic disease – his mesothelioma had spread. He was offered the options best suited him by his team. He could restart chemotherapy or he could elect to go home with hospice. Armed with his options, he was going home to think about his choices. Did he want to go through another round of chemotherapy or did he want to choose hospice? This is a very personal decision that he and his family had to make.
In order to make healthcare decisions, all questions must be answered, the information must be understood, and all communication must be clear. Whatever decision the patient makes will be fully supported by the medical team. As his journey continues with mesothelioma, the choices he makes will impact he and his family. What are his values? What does he value in his life? His decisions made with his family, and his medical team, will be based on what he wants.
Know more about Mesothelioma and how you can deal with it.
IMPRINT May Lead to A “New Lung-Sparing Treatment Paradigm”
MesotheliomaHelp has recently reported on two studies showing the benefits of pleurectomy/decortication (P/D) over extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP) for mesothelioma patients. Now, researchers report that following the surgery with chemotherapy and a novel radiation therapy is safe and resulted in a reduced rate of radiation pneumonitis.
Researchers from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and MD Anderson tested a newly developed hemithoracic intensity-modulated pleural radiation therapy (IMPRINT) in a clinical trial of 27 mesothelioma patients who had undergone P/D and chemotherapy. The radiation therapy specifically targets the lining of the lung, where the mesothelioma cells are, and reduces the risk of damaging the lung itself.
The median progression-free survival and overall survival were 12.4 and 23.7 months, respectively. In addition, the two-year overall survival was 59% in patients with resectable tumors and was 25% in patients with unresectable tumors. Only eight patients developed radiation pneumonitis (grade 2 or 3) and all of them recovered after a dose of steroids.
“These results justify our next multicenter trial to explore the safety and feasibility of hemithoracic pleural intensity-modulated radiation therapy” in more medical centers with experience with this malignancy, the authors wrote, according to a June 21 article in Cancer Network.
Radiation therapy is one of the primary treatments for pleural mesothelioma, an asbestos-caused cancer of the lining of the lungs. However, due to the complex growth pattern of the mesothelioma cancer cells targeting just the diseased cells is difficult. Some oncologists shy away from it since radiation can sometimes be too damaging to surrounding organs, as well as causing damage to the lung (pneumonitis).
The researchers noted that the new technique using IMPRINT “has a significant learning curve, and thus should be exported to other centers slowly and carefully.”
P/D strips away the diseased membrane lining the lung and visible mesothelioma tumors, but spares the lung. The other surgical option for pleural mesothelioma patients is the EPP, a more radical procedure that involves removal of a lung, the diseased lining of the chest cavity and heart, and a portion of the diaphragm.
The researchers concluded that incorporating IMPRINT “with chemotherapy and P/D forms a new lung-sparing treatment paradigm for patients with locally advanced MPM [malignant pleural mesothelioma].”
Over 3,000 Americans are diagnosed with mesothelioma each year.
The study can be found in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
To find out more about the clinical trial see ClinicalTrials.gov.
Researchers Report Activin A May Be A Significant Biomarker
Mesothelioma researchers have focused much of their efforts on developing targeted cancer treatments that center on getting to the specific gene or biomarker responsible for the disease. An alphabet soup of biomarkers, including Abcc10, VEGF, and PD-L1, that indicate mesothelioma, have been used to develop cancer treatments to fight the deadly disease. Now, researchers report that activin A is another biomarker that should be targeted when treating mesothelioma patients.
An international team of researchers, led by a group from the Comprehensive Cancer Center of Vienna, Austria, believe activin A, a biomarker that regulates cell growth and activates cell differentiation, could be a prognostic marker of mesothelioma, according to a June 8 article in the European Journal of Cancer. The researchers found that activin A was “significantly elevated in MPM [malignant pleural mesothelioma] patients.”
Pleural mesothelioma is an incurable, asbestos-caused cancer that attacks the pleural tissue surrounding the lung. The cancer is highly aggressive and is resistant to many cancer treatments making it a difficult disease to treat effectively. Biomarkers, or genetic indicators of the presence of disease, such as mesothelioma, can also be used to determine the severity of the disease, such as in a prognostic biomarker, and to assess the efficacy of a treatment. The findings by these researchers of the significance of activin A can guide medical professionals in the care of mesothelioma patients.
The highlights of the study, as noted by the authors who looked at data of 129 mesothelioma patients, include:
- Plasma activin A levels are increased in malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) patients.
- Increased levels associated with non-epithelioid morphology and high tumour volume.
- Plasma activin A level was an independent prognostic factor in MPM patients below 66 years of age with an epithelioid histology.
Research has shown that epithelioid mesothelioma is the most common type of mesothelioma, accounting for nearly 75 percent of all new cases. A study published in the September 2000 respiratory medicine journal Thorax determined that epithelioid mesothelioma patients had a better prognosis than those diagnosed with sarcomatoid or biphasic mesothelioma.
“Our findings suggest that the measurement of circulating activin A may support the histological classification of MPM and at the same time help to identify epithelioid MPM patients with poor prognosis,” concluded the researchers.
Results of the study can be found in the June 8 issue of the European Journal of Cancer.
Free Mesothelioma Patient & Treatment Guide
We’d like to offer you our in-depth guide, “A Patient’s Guide to Mesothelioma,” absolutely free of charge.
It contains a wealth of information and resources to help you better understand the condition, choose (and afford) appropriate treatment, and exercise your legal right to compensation.
Download Now