Mesothelioma Help Cancer News
Happy New Year! As 2021 begins, there are many promising things to look forward to in the mesothelioma community and in the world. As COVID-19 defined 2020 and introduced us all to social distancing, quarantining, PPE, and face masks. Hopefully 2021 will be defined by vaccinations and a return to our new normal. Lessons have been learned and lives have been changed. As we reflect on the year 2020 in the mesothelioma community, there was some progress made in various aspects of treatment [...]
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Given that mesothelioma is such an aggressive cancer, it is always exciting when new treatments are discovered. CAR-T cell immunotherapy is a newer approach to cancer treatment that works to modify a patient’s white blood cells in hopes that they will attack and destroy cancer cells. When a T cell finds the antigens of a cancer cell, it triggers the entire immune system to fight back. By capturing a patient’s T cells and altering them to seek out a specific cancer cell and reintroducing [...]
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It takes a multidisciplinary team to treat a person with a rare disease. Along with highly experienced and accomplished medical scientists there needs to be individualized care. Included and embedded in this specialized treatment is the skills of coaching. We are all very familiar with the roles that coaches play in sports. From many different definitions some of the most successful sports coaches have mastered different skill sets. Some of the skills are analyzing performances, instructing [...]
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We usually write about our experiences while caring for patients with malignant mesothelioma. As always I cannot remember when I left a patient and didn’t have a new respect for how patients with rare diseases like mesothelioma deal with the impact on their lives. Today I read an article about a woman who had been stripped of her job, hobbies, and her life as she knew it by a rare disease other than malignant mesothelioma. The unique perspective of rare diseases has always fascinated me – [...]
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As the United States awaits the peaceful transfer of power from one administration to another, transitions are at the forefront of the news. We are all being reminded of what an important role that transitions play in life. Whether the transitions be personal or public, transitions are times of change. Transitions involve communication and education, they can be physical or emotional. The importance of transitions in dealing with the medical system cannot be understated. Transitions of care [...]
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