Nurses and Author Team Up to Enhance Healing in Mesothelioma Patients

Mesothelioma patients often feel like they have lost control of their lives and health once they are diagnosed. On the contrary, according to one author who has dedicated her career to helping patients influence their own healing, patients have tremendous control over their cancer journey. They just need the skills to shift from feeling fear to feeling relaxed and peaceful.

Peggy Huddleston, psychotherapist and author of Prepare for Surgery, Heal Faster: A Guide of Mind-Body Techniques, received a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School and has spent over 30 years researching the mind-body relationship. She ultimately developed a technique that harnesses “positive emotions and the human spirit” to speed healing.

“A person’s capacity for reducing pain is profound,” said Huddleston in an interview with MesotheliomaHelp. “When a patient learns to relax, he or she can significantly reduce both physical pain and emotional pain.”

Expert Insight

Peggy Huddleston

“I have a passion for seeing just how much patients can influence their own healing.”

Share on Facebook

Huddleston’s five-step process involves relaxation, visualization, asking friends and family to wrap them in a “Blanket of Love,” and healing statements spoken by the patient’s medical team. Huddleston says benefits to patients include less anxiety before surgery, less pain after surgery resulting in 25-50 percent less use of pain medication, and faster recovery.

Impressed Nurses Learn Huddleston’s Technique

While caring for a surgical patient, Lisa Hyde-Barrett, a mesothelioma nurse with more than 25 years of experience, realized there was something “special” about the woman. She was positive and relaxed, and her husband was equally calm. Impressed by her attitude, Lisa asked her how she did it. The woman said she purchased Huddleston’s book, Prepare for Surgery, Heal Faster, and then talked with her by phone for a personal, one hour workshop.

Intrigued by the patient’s outlook and recovery, Hyde-Barrett recruited co-worker Eleanor Ericson to join her at a two-day training offered by Huddleston that certifies medical professionals who want to use her techniques for patient care. The two nurses, who work at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and provide their expertise to the mesothelioma community through the “Nurse’s Corner” on MesotheliomaHelp.org, quickly saw the benefits of Huddleston’s techniques for mesothelioma patients.

“I have seen a lot during my career, and Peggy Huddleston’s method works,” says Hyde-Barrett.

“There are tons of research that says you need to have your head in the game before surgery- there is really no down side to this,” says Ericson.

The two are now both certified to offer Prepare for Surgery, Heal Faster workshops to patients and are working with Huddleston to bring the workshop to more hospitals in an effort to improve the patient experience.

Huddleston’s program is offered in leading hospitals throughout the United States including Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, NYU Langone Medical Center, Harvard Medical School and Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara Medical Center in California. It is also available at the University of Maryland Greenebaum Cancer Center, Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, NC and Norwalk Hospital in CT.

https://www.norwalkhospital.org/patient-and-visitors-info/integrative-medicine

Studies Show Patients Leave Hospital Sooner, Use Less Pain Medication, Have Higher Satisfaction

Huddleston points to various studies that show how, through enhancing the mind-body connection, patients heal faster and leave the hospital more quickly after surgery.

One study at the Lahey Clinic, a Tufts University Medical School teaching hospital, compared colorectal surgery patients who used the techniques in Prepare for Surgery, Heal Faster to a control group who did not use them. According to the study, the group following Huddleston’s program “had significantly less anxiety before surgery” and “were discharged from the hospital 1.6 days sooner than those in the control group.” The test group of patients also “used 60% less pain medication, had significantly less irritability, insomnia, nightmares, loss of appetite and had a significant increase in patient satisfaction” compared to the control group.

In a separate study, New England Baptist Hospital physicians found that knee-joint replacement patients using the Huddleston method were less anxious prior to surgery, healed faster and were discharged 1.3 days sooner than those not using it.

Once patients learn the techniques they can tap back into them each time they undergo another treatment, whether that is surgery, chemotherapy or radiation. In fact, further evidence shows the technique allows patients facing chemotherapy to lessen the side effects of anxiety, nausea and insomnia.

“If mesothelioma patients learn my techniques and put them into practice before their surgery or treatments, they could have a tremendous capacity to influence their own healing,” says Huddleston. “They can learn to access the deep inner peace that is their essence.”

Mind Over Matter Really Does Matter

Mind over matter practices have been around for a long time, and many medical professionals and Americans are beginning to be more open to holistic medicine that focuses on the mind-body connection. The stress of a chronic diagnosis suppresses the immune system when patients need the benefits of a healthy immune system the most. By calming the nerves and easing stress, patients can actually boost their immune system to help fight disease.

“People have such a capacity to influence the course of their treatment,” says Huddleston.

According to a recent survey from the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH), the number of patients using alternatives to drugs and medicine, including yoga and meditation, to improve health and well-being is high. For example, the study found that between 2002 and 2012, the number of American adults who practice yoga nearly doubled to 21 million.

The NCCIH researchers believe the high rates of yoga use may be attributed to a growing body of research that shows the benefits of mind and body practices for managing pain and reducing stress.

“This is where medicine is going,” says Ericson, “treating the whole person.”

See the following for more information about Peggy Huddleston and Prepare for Surgery, Heal Faster:

Boston Business Journal
http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/blog/health-care/2015/01/surgery-preparation-tool-sees-renewed-focus-as.html
HealFaster.com
http://www.healfaster.com/index.html

Know more about Mesothelioma and how you can deal with it.

Sources:

Prepare for Surgery, Heal Faster: A Guide of Mind-Body Techniques
http://www.healfaster.com
National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health
https://nccih.nih.gov/news/press/02102015mb

Expression of CD10 Enzyme May Serve as Prognostic Factor for Mesothelioma Patients

Expression of an enzyme known as CD10 in malignant pleural mesothelioma tumors correlates with more aggressive cancer cell growth and shorter survival times, according to a new study published in the Annals of Surgical Oncology.

CD10 is a zinc-dependent cell surface enzyme expressed in both normal tissue and malignant tumors. Previous studies have indicated that CD10 expression in certain malignant tumors, including malignant melanoma, predicts tumor aggressiveness. Researchers led by Dr. Kyuichi Kadota of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York set out to test whether CD10, which is expressed in malignant pleural mesothelioma, can be used to predict mesothelioma patient survival.

The research team looked at 176 malignant pleural mesothelioma cases among three different tumor subtypes (148 epithelioid, 14 biphasic, and 14 sarcomatoid) in order to determine negative or positive expression of CD10. Patients whose tumors showed positive CD10 expression were found to have significantly shorter survival.

“Tumoral CD10 expression correlated with aggressive histologic types and higher miotic activity and is an independent prognostic factor for patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma,” write the study authors in the conclusion to “Tumoral CD10 Expression Correlates with Aggressive Histology and Prognosis in Patients with Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma.”

Their finding is significant because the current best mesothelioma prognostic markers—cancer stage and cancer type—are limited in how accurately they can predict patient survival outcomes. Additional prognostic factors, the authors say, are necessary to optimize mesothelioma treatment options and to better stratify patients in clinical trials.

Treatment options for mesothelioma, a highly-aggressive form of cancer associated with exposure to asbestos, include radiation, chemotherapy, and surgery. Despite improvements, however, none of these options have proven to be particularly successful, and mesothelioma prognosis remains poor. According to the study authors, the median survival for mesothelioma patients is less than two years.

In general, patients who receive a mesothelioma diagnosis while the disease is in Stage 1 or 2 have a much better chance of successful treatment. Early diagnosis, however, can be difficult due to the disease’s long latency period of 15 to 60 years and its tendency during early stages to mimic non-life threatening ailments such as the flu.

There is still no cure for mesothelioma, but new treatments have made it possible to manage it as a chronic disease, and some patients live with the disease for years. Potential new mesothelioma therapies, meanwhile, are constantly being explored. Research topics run the gamut from novel (such as gene therapy) to common (e.g. the active ingredient in vinegar).

Acetic Acid Kills Mesothelioma Cells in Experiment

Japanese researchers have found that acetic acid causes the death of a variety of cancer cells, including mesothelioma cells. Based on this, they say that the application of acetic acid may be a feasible approach for the treatment of mesothelioma.

Following up on prior research that demonstrated the ability of acetic acid (the main ingredient in vinegar) to kill gastric (stomach) cancer tumors in rats when applied topically, a team lead by Susumu Okabe of the Kyoto GI Disease Research Center in Kyoto, Japan designed an experiment to “examine whether acetic acid can directly induce cancer cell death.”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25521736

The researchers did this by adding 0.5% acetic acid to petri dishes containing two mesothelioma cell lines obtained from human patients. They also added different concentrations of acetic acid, ranging from 0.01%-0.5%, to cultures of rat and human gastric cancer cell lines. Healthy cells exposed to acetic acid served as a control.

Study results showed that 5% acetic acid for 10 minutes caused marked mesothelioma cell death, while higher concentrations of acetic acid more strongly inhibited gastric cancer cell survival. In addition, the cancer cells were found to be more sensitive to acetic acid than the normal cells.

“The results of the present study, using five different cell lines, demonstrate that acetic acid promptly induces the cell death in a dose-dependent manner,” writes Okabe in an article published in the Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. “In fact, acetic acid used at 0.5% or even at 0.1% for 10 min or even 1 min was able to induce cell death.”

Effect of Acetic Acid on Mesothelioma Cells

Acetic acid used at 0.5% was applied to two mesothelioma cell lines for 10 minutes and almost completely induced cell death of both. “We may suggest,” concludes Okabe, “using acetic acid approach for treatment of this malignancy.” The researchers further suggest that acetic acid may be used alone or together with chemotherapy to treat not only mesothelioma, but also gastric cancer and peritoneal cancer (cancer of the lining of the abdomen).

Mesothelioma tumors are resistant to chemotherapy, which may be given to patients alone, before primary treatment (neoadjuvant chemotherapy), or after primary treatment (adjuvant chemotherapy). Traditional treatment options for mesothelioma include surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy.

Chemotherapy drugs pemetrexed and cisplatin have been approved by the FDA for treatment of malignant mesothelioma, but new treatments are needed given the disease’s resistance to therapy and high mortality rate. Some are being tested in clinical trials, while others—such as the present study—offer new investigative potential.

Okabe and colleagues admit that that “the molecular mechanism by which acetic acid induces the cell death remains unclear” and thus, “further studies are needed to identify the cell death pathway induced by the acetic acid.”

Future studies may look at the effectiveness of acetic acid combined with chemotherapy drugs currently used to treat mesothelioma and other cancers, including cisplatin, mitomycin-C, 5-FU, leucovorin, paclitaxel, S-1, doxorubicin, and irinotecan.

The study, “Acetic acid induces cell death: An in vitro study using normal rat gastric mucosal cell line and rat and human gastric cancer and mesothelioma cell lines,” can be read here.

Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization

Global Mesothelioma Rates Increasing in Many Countries, Italian Researchers Say

Mesothelioma incidence is on the rise in several nations, data show, but a lack of data for some of the world’s most populous countries, among other factors, obscures the true risk of asbestos exposure worldwide.

That’s the conclusion reached by Claudio Bianchi and Tommaso Bianchi of the Center for the Study of Environmental Cancer in Monfalcone, Italy in an article published in the Indian Journal of Occupational & Environmental Medicine. It is based on their analysis of data on mesothelioma incidence in Europe and Oceania as well as parts of Asia, the Middle East, and South America.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2847331/

“The most recent data available on mesothelioma epidemiology show that in many counties the incidence of the tumor does not present signs of attenuation,” write the researchers.

Countries with high mesothelioma incidence rates include the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Malta, Belgium, Australia, and New Zealand—countries that, with the exception of New Zealand, have banned asbestos.

Intermediate mesothelioma incidence rates were found in several European countries and the United States, where diagnoses peaked in 2005 at 3,284 but have since declined somewhat. Low incidence and mortality rates were reported for other European countries and parts of Asia, including Japan.

But as the researchers caution, a lack of data for a number of populous countries where asbestos is still not banned (e.g. Russia, China, Brazil, Indonesia, and India) calls the data’s reliability into question.

“On the basis of global asbestos consumption in the last decades, one may predict that a further mesothelioma wave will involve large geographic areas,” write the Italians. “These are exactly the same for which data are not at present available.”

The reliability of the data is also reduced by the difficulty of diagnosing mesothelioma and huge variations in incidence from one area of a country to another, something that the researchers say makes incidence rates at a national level misleading. Italian data from 1988-1997 show, for example, pleural cancer mortality rates that differ by 40 fold from one Province to another. According to the study authors, mesothelioma cases are typically clustered around asbestos-intensive industries such as factories and shipyards.

In Japan, however, a country heavily involved in shipbuilding throughout the 20^th century, low mesothelioma incidence does not square with asbestos use history. The Bianchis theorize that this underestimation is attributable to “inadequate registration of the death causes” previously detected in Japan. Other countries with large 20^th century shipbuilding industries but low mesothelioma incidences are Poland and Spain.

A final statistical factor to consider is mesothelioma incidence among age classes. The Bianchis cite a 2013 report on mesothelioma in the United States that found an annual mesothelioma incidence rate that increased with age. In the period 2003-2008 the incidence rate was 8.34 per 1,000 for the age class 65-74, 17.07 for the class 75-84, and 17.62 for the class 85+.

This reflects the long latency period of mesothelioma, which does not develop for 15-60 years following initial exposure to asbestos. It also reinforces the ideas that the phasing out of asbestos use may still be followed by a decades-long upward trend in asbestos disease incidence.

The full article, “Global mesothelioma epidemic: Trends and features,” can be read on the Indian Journal of Occupational & Environmental Medicine website.

https://www.fightmesofoundation.com/

Comprehensive Meso Center Established at West Los Angeles VAMC

The Comprehensive Mesothelioma Center (CMC) at the West Los Angeles Veterans Administration Medical Center (VAMC) provides veterans stricken with asbestos cancer access to specialized services and an unprecedented high standard of care. There’s just one problem: most veterans have never heard of the Center.

There is no mention of the Center on the VA website and even many doctors in the VA system aren’t aware that the Center exists.

The Comprehensive Meso Center in West Los Angeles specializes in the treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM), an aggressive and incurable cancer of the pleura (the lining of the lungs) caused by exposure to asbestos. Approximately one-third of the 3,500 Americans diagnosed each year with mesothelioma are former military members, and yet the US Government has never fully funded a medical program dedicated to veterans with asbestos cancer.

Advocates of the Comprehensive Meso Center in West LA are hoping to obtain $5 million in annual funding to expand the Center through a petition aimed at VA Secretary Robert A. McDonald. Supporters ask that it be called the “Elmo Zumwalt Comprehensive Mesothelioma Treatment & Research Center” in honor of Admiral Elmo A. Zumwalt, Jr., the youngest-ever chief of Naval Operations, who died of mesothelioma in 2000.

Son of Veteran Killed by Meso Says VA Has Failed to Publicize Specialty Center

One of the most outspoken advocates of VA-funding for the Center is Michael Johnson. Michael lost his father, Marine Corps veteran John Johnson, to mesothelioma in 2012. John received treatment at VA hospitals in North Las Vegas and Long Beach, but by the time his family learned of the Comprehensive Mesothelioma Program in West Los Angeles, his cancer was beyond treatment.

Michael says that his goal is to prevent something similar from happening to another veteran. He believes that his father would be alive today if John had access to mesothelioma specialists and has been lobbying the VA to provide better information about the services available at the West LA Center through letters. He’s also been getting the word out to the public through his website.

“Despite multiple requests and promises, the VA has yet to perform the simple administrative task of updating its website about the existence of the [mesothelioma] program,” Johnson said in a recent video. “There is no effort to educate our war heroes stricken with this cancer. There is no effort to publicize or build the program. That’s negligent, and that’s wrong.”

How Veterans With Mesothelioma Can Receive Treatment at the CMC

Veterans who have been diagnosed with mesothelioma should seek treatment at a mesothelioma center.

A list of such centers is available on the website of:

https://www.mesotheliomahelp.org/mesothelioma-hospitals-doctors/

If you are treating with the VA health system, the team of doctors and nurses at the West LA VA Medical Center have extensive experience diagnosing and treating MPM and are available to care for all veterans stricken with mesothelioma—not merely those residing in the Los Angeles area. In fact, if you are able to secure a referral to the West LA VAMC, the VA will pay for all of your travel expenses.

In order to receive the best available mesothelioma care, veterans treating in the VA health system who have been diagnosed with mesothelioma should take the following actions:

Let your doctor know about the specialty mesothelioma services offered at the West LA VAMC.
Ask for an “inter-facility” consult through the VA’s “TeleHealth” program.
Undergo a “virtual consult”.

If deemed eligible, you may be referred to the West LA VAMC for treatment.

Author: Nancy Meredith