Mesothelioma Help Cancer News
Fundraising for Mesothelioma at the Dunbar Community Fest
It’s the time of year once again for my hometown’s community festival, the Dunbar Community Fest. It’s always at the end of September, a beautiful beginning to the Fall season, and this year it is being held on Sept. 24. Once again, my family is continuing our Fundraising Efforts for the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation at this wonderful festival.
This community has supported my family throughout the years. During the time that Dad battled mesothelioma our friends in Dunbar were there for us during our ups and downs. We are grateful for their continued support as they remember Dad and help us raise funds for The Meso Foundation to help other families dealing with this cancer.
Each year, we try to do something a little different with our raffle table. One year, we introduced t-shirts, another we did a mystery prize, and another we were able to raffle off a trip to a local resort. This year, we will be selling our “Dining with Donnie” cookbooks, as well as offering our usual raffle items. We will also be raffling off a corn hole set.
Many of the people who live here are my family as well, and others might as well be! We appreciate the continued outpouring of love and we welcome hearing the memories of my Dad. It’s bound to be a day filled with laughter, smiles, and fun!
To find out more about the festival visit Dunbar Community Fest.
Oxygen-Focused Treatment May Overcome Drug Resistance in Mesothelioma
Cancer research is often focused on developing cancer treatments that target a specific gene or biomarker responsible for a particular cancer. Now, researchers report that by focusing on tumor oxygen levels and a treatment schedule using a combination of existing anti-cancer treatments survival in lung cancer patients may be improved. Mesothelioma patients, who often follow the same treatment protocol, could also benefit from this approach.
A team of scientists from the University of Minnesota and the University of Southern California realize that low levels of oxygen in cancer can lead to drug resistance and uncontrollable tumor growth in many cancers. The condition, known as hypoxia, is treated with hypoxia-activated prodrugs, or HAPs. HAPs can penetrate into the oxygen-starved areas of tumors that other cancer drugs cannot. But, HAPs are not effective as a single treatment, so the researchers turned their attention to finding a way to increase the success of them.
The researchers developed a mathematical model to assess the effectiveness of using a HAP (evofosfamide) in combination with standard cancer therapy to prevent the resistance to erlotinib in EGFR-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). EGFR is a protein found on the surface of some cells which causes the cells to divide and spread. It is found at abnormally high levels on the surface of lung cancer and mesothelioma. The researchers report that nearly all EGFR NSCLC patients will develop a resistance to erlotinib within a year, making the drug ineffective.
Erlotinib is in a class of drugs called kinase inhibitors that is used to treat NSCLC that has metastasized in patients previously treated with at least one other chemotherapy medication and have not gotten better.
After testing a multitude of treatment schedules combined with differing dosages, the team found that ultimately the best combination to prevent resistance to erlotinib was achieved by alternating the treatment of evofosfamide and erlotinib while limiting the down time between the dosages. By alternating between the two drugs, the researchers report, “the entire population of cancer cells in the tumor microenvironment” is constantly controlled by the drugs.”
“Alternating between these two drugs allows each one to provide the necessary control over the cancer cell population the other one is lacking,” the authors wrote in the study. “These results demonstrate that incorporating HAPs in combination with targeted therapies may be an effective tool in preventing resistance, and suggest an alternative use for HAPs.”
Nearly 3,000 Americans are diagnosed with the incurable cancer, mesothelioma, each year. While recent advances in treatment for mesothelioma patients have improved survival for some patients, continued research is critically important to ensure existing treatments become even more effective. Each breakthrough or promising result from a study increases hope that mesothelioma patients can live longer, higher quality lives with the disease.
“These findings highlight the importance of designing combination therapies with drugs whose strengths complement each other in order to maximize the therapeutic benefits,” concluded the authors.
The study can be found in the Aug. 25 issue of PLOS Computational Biology.
Photo Credit: RxList.com
Yes, America, Mesothelioma is Real
From the time I was little, I remember seeing the commercials on television about mesothelioma. When my father was diagnosed, that was all that I knew of this disease. I think that a lot of people probably fit into this category. But, now I know that, yes, mesothelioma is real.
Mesothelioma is a real disease. Real people are its victims, real people spend their lives tirelessly researching and treating those affected. Real people help their loved ones cope with the diagnosis and subsequent treatments, and real people fundraise and educate others about the dangers of asbestos and the desperate need for a cure.
Like most major trials in life, you never think that they can happen to you. You think that mesothelioma is some far off, distant “thing” that would not impact your life in any way. I’ll be perfectly honest, that was my way of thinking. I would see the ads on TV and feel sorry for the people who had to deal with this detriment, but not in a million years did I think that it would eventually steal my Dad, at the age of 57, from me.
When I talk about this cancer, people ask me if it’s a real thing, or if it’s a joke. Sometimes, even when I explain my story to them, they still think that it’s all some sort of money making scheme. I try my best to communicate to these individuals that it is, in fact, a reality; it is a huge part of my reality, and the reality of so many others in this community who have been rocked by mesothelioma.
Thankfully, the doctors, nurses, caregivers, researchers, and all who advocate for mesothelioma patients and their families are also real. They will never give up their fight to educate others and to eventually eradicate this disease; then, the next generation will see mesothelioma as an ancient, nonexistent disease, not something that will ever be real to them.
Moving Past the Fixed State of Being a Mesothelioma Patient
Recently, when reading a blog entitled, “What was the hardest thing you went through in life and how did you get past it,” by Paul Millerd, I came across a quote that struck me. While describing his health challenges, he said, “Identifying as a sick person implied I was stuck in a fixed state.” When someone is diagnosed with an illness it becomes part of their identity. What part of that identity is as individual as we are. Before a life-changing or altering diagnosis, such as mesothelioma, what were your dreams, plans and aspirations? Does being diagnosed and living with a chronic disease define who you are? Life is changed, but is the disease now who you are, how you identify yourself?
This week I talked with a man who had been diagnosed and treated for mesothelioma three year ago. He looked well and said the past three years had been mostly good, but he had a few challenges that he and his wife had dealt with together. They were concerned that he had progression of disease. While we talked about what they had done the past few years, he was pleased to report they had traveled, he continues to take daily walks, and most importantly they were watching their grandchildren grow. They enjoyed each day, and each other.
His wife was concerned that mesothelioma had progressed, but neither of them identified him as “sick.” In their view he was sick, better and now possibly sick again.
We all want to be remembered for ourselves. Whether that be funny, quiet, patient, kind, or whatever quality we have as individuals. I do not think anyone wants to be remembered as “the sick one.” As mesothelioma becomes a chronic disease, we want to encourage people to live in the present. We cannot control the future, and the past is gone. Enjoy each day as yourself.
Mesothelioma is a devastating diagnosis, both physically and emotionally, to the victims and their families. It takes a lot of support to “live with the disease.” But there is support all around you to help you live with the disease. Do what you need to do. Join a support group, exercise if able, do whatever works for you. Move forward – don’t get stuck in a “fixed state.”
Is Watson the Best Approach for Determining Treatment Plans?
Five years ago Watson debuted on Jeopardy! in a matchup with two of the winningest contestants from the show, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. Watson proved why he is a “supercomputer” by handily beating the two at the game. At the time, not many of the viewers envisioned that IBM’s artificial intelligence machine would someday be important to their healthcare. Now, Watson is mainstream in TV commercials asking viewers, “How can I help you?” For a mesothelioma patient, the answer might be, “Find the most effective treatment for me.”
Thanks to a partnership between New York’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) and IBM, Watson Oncology may soon be the go-to reference for oncologists, helping drive cancer care for all patients. Watson Oncology’s primary strength lies in the massive database fed with data from MSKCC on how their doctors treat their cancer patients. While this amount of data is nearly impossible for a doctor to analyze, Watson analyzes and assesses the information quickly, placing incredible knowledge at the doctors fingertips. For patients suffering from mesothelioma, a rare, aggressive cancer with few treatment options, Watson might just be the only way to guide oncologists to finding the best evidence-based treatment protocol.
“We are training Watson so oncologists anywhere will be able to make more specific and nuanced treatment decisions more quickly, based on the latest data,” said an MSKCC spokesperson in response to a comment in an article about Watson.
What is Watson Oncology?
Watson is the result of four years of hard work in IBM’s Grand Challenge: “Can a system be designed that applies advanced data management and analytics to natural language in order to uncover a single, reliable insight in a fraction of a second?” Using Jeopardy! as the ultimate test required IBM to build a machine that can interpret natural or human language that relies on the ability to relate pictures, phrases, figures, slang and nuances.
Since then, Watson has grown into a tool and resource for businesses worldwide. When MSKCC oncologist Mark Kris, MD, William and Joy Ruane Chair in Thoracic Oncology at MSKCC, realized the potential Watson could have on patient care, he led a team to build a database for Watson Oncology that could “revolutionize care and research, accelerating progress for people with cancers.”
MSKCC uses their “world-renowned cancer expertise” to drive Watson Oncology to give oncologists access to “individualized treatment options that are informed by medical evidence and our highly specialized experience.”
“I think this is beyond an evolutionary step,” says Dr. Larry Norton, Deputy Physician-in-Chief for Breast Cancer Programs, MSKCC. “I think this is a revolutionary step.”
In addition to MSKCC’s work with Watson, IBM and MD Anderson Cancer Center have also partnered. The partnership builds on MD Anderson’s oncologists’ knowledge to help drive the center’s Moon Shots program with a goal to “rapidly and dramatically reduce mortality and suffering in cancer.” In much the same as MSKCC’s Watson Oncology, MD Anderson’s Oncology Expert Advisor is expected to provide the medical team “with immediate, worldwide access to MD Anderson’s expertise and resources, and to IBM Watson’s technology prowess in quickly extracting crucial insights from large volumes of complex data.”
Expert Insight
Dr. Larry Norton, MSKCC
“This has the potential of totally changing the way we conduct medicine.”
Watson and Mesothelioma
Having what could become a nearly infinite volume of information instantly available makes Watson incredibly valuable. Using computers to help identify how to treat a complex medical condition, like mesothelioma, can improve survival and the patient’s quality of life. Having the information built by two of the most renowned mesothelioma centers in the world, can only mean excellent care for mesothelioma patients.
MSKCC is the world’s oldest and largest private cancer center, and has a team of specialists including surgical oncologists, medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, pathologists, and nurses who deal exclusively with mesothelioma and other thoracic cancers. They are committed to providing the best possible treatments for patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma, and often conduct clinical trials and studies for mesothelioma as they continue to make strides in the treatment of the deadly disease.
The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center works hard at achieving their vision of being the “premier cancer center in the world” through their initiatives in the research and treatment of mesothelioma. The cancer center has over 30 specialists on staff that supports their multi-disciplinary approach to treating mesothelioma patients. Their ongoing research and unique initiatives dedicated to finding a cure for mesothelioma makes them one of the few cancer centers in the world with a comprehensive program.
“Cognitive computing in healthcare allows us to use every step, every heartbeat, every checkup, every gene, every prescription,” according to IBM. “IBM Watson Health is helping transform healthcare and leading us to new insights. Helping keep us all healthier.”
To find out more about how Watson can help you in your mesothelioma care see Watson Oncology on MSKCC’s website, or visit MD Anderson’s Moon Shots Program online.
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.
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