Category: Featured News
Climber Who Survived a Night at Mt. Everest Succumbs to Mesothelioma
Six years ago, Australian mountain climber Lincoln Hall was given up for dead after reaching the summit of Mount Everest and then developing a severe form of altitude sickness. Broadcast reports of Hall’s death were premature though. The tough mountain climber managed to survive a freezing night alone at more than 28,000 feet without food or shelter. Delirious and frostbitten, he greeted an astonished group of ascending climbers at sunrise the next morning. Three days later, he walked off the mountain.
Mount Everest couldn’t vanquish Lincoln Hall. But the rugged climber faced a still greater risk: childhood exposure to asbestos. Six years after his miraculous feat of mountaintop survival, Hall, age 56, died of mesothelioma last Tuesday at a Sydney, Australia hospital after a year-long struggle with the disease, according to The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper.
Mesothelioma is a cancer caused by inhaling toxic asbestos. Hall was exposed to cancer causing asbestos-cement sheets as a child in the mid-1960s while helping his father build playhouses on their property, the newspaper reported. Most people are exposed to asbestos in the workplace, but some people inhale asbestos in the home as well. The microscopic fibers can lodge deep in the lung and remain there a lifetime, causing inflammation and eventually disease.
Many people exposed to asbestos in the 1960s and 1970s are still at risk of developing mesothelioma or may only recently have been diagnosed with mesothelioma symptoms. The respiratory cancer has a long development period and is difficult to diagnose. A skilled author who wrote several best-selling books about mountaineering, Hall was diagnosed with mesothelioma in 2011.
Through his experiences, Hall developed a spiritual affinity with the Himalayas and helped establish the Australian Himalayan Foundation, a not-for-profit organization that raised money for schools in his beloved mountains, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
Hall’s death surprised many of his friends who believed that Hall was virtually invincible and could overcome mesothelioma, an aggressive form of cancer.
Projected Rise of Asbestos Disease in South Korea During 21st Century
The number of people dying of mesothelioma is near its peak in the United States. But in many Asian countries, the wave of asbestos-related deaths is just starting to build. The Ministry of Environment in South Korea projected the number of people suffering from malignant mesothelioma will continue increasing until 2045, according to the Korea Herald.
Mesothelioma is an incurable cancer of the lining of the lung, chest cavity and abdomen linked to inhaling asbestos fibers. It is a preventable disease if exposure to asbestos is avoided. Mesothelioma sufferers typically develop symptoms of the respiratory disease 20 years to 50 years after initial exposure to asbestos. Many patients are older workers, veterans or retirees.
According to the report, the number of mesothelioma patients in South Korea increased from 61 in 1996 to 152 in 2007. Meanwhile, the number of deaths from asbestos exposure more than doubled from 24 in 2001 to 57 in 2006. By comparison, approximately 2,500 to 3,000 people die each year of mesothelioma in the United States.
In Japan, researchers have observed an increase in cases of mesothelioma starting in 2000. Japan banned asbestos in 2005. The incidence of mesothelioma in Japan is expected to peak around 2030.
In Korea, a new law regulating asbestos use will take effect in 2012 and reduce the occupational hazard of asbestos. The National Institute of Environmental Research expects the regulations to prevent up to 20,000 deaths from asbestos disease a year.
Asbestos was widely used in many building materials in the United States for much of the 20th century, even though the health hazards of asbestos were well understood. The U.S. finally began restricting the use of asbestos in the late 1970s.
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Breakthrough in Using Immune System to Fight Cancer Through Gene Therapy
Researchers have long hoped to use the human immune system to kill malignant cancer cells. A new study in The New England Journal of Medicine suggests scientists at the University of Pennsylvania may have made significant strides in that approach using experimental gene therapy.
William Ludwig, a retired corrections officer from Bridgeton, N.J., volunteered for the experimental cancer treatment, because his chemotherapy had stopped working and he had few options, according to an article in The New York Times. Today, a year after the novel treatment, Ludwig’s chronic leukemia is in complete remission and he is playing golf and working in the yard. The same approach may work with other cancers besides leukemia, doctors say.
As part of the experimental treatment, the doctors removed a billion of Ludwig’s T-cells, white blood cells that fight viruses and malignant cells, and re-engineered them. They exposed the T-cells to a disabled form of the HIV-1 virus, which genetically altered the T-cells. They reprogrammed the T-cells to hone in on Ludwig’s leukemia and to reproduce in large numbers when activated by chemicals produced by malignant cells. They then reintroduced the T-cells into Ludwig’s blood.
Initially, Ludwig suffered flu-like symptoms such as a temperature and chills as the T-cells reproduced. The T-cells multiplied to 1,000 to 10,000 times the number infused, wiped out the cancer, then gradually diminished, leaving a rear guard of T-cells that can proliferate again if they sense more malignant cells. After a few weeks, Ludwig’s flu symptoms disappeared and there was no trace of the leukemia.
The doctors caution that the treatment is still experimental and are not yet claiming that Ludwig is cured. But a similar approach may work for treating other forms of cancer, the doctors say. Dr. Carl June, head of the research team at the University of Pennsylvania, plans to try the treatment approach on solid tumors produced by cancers such as ovarian cancer, pancreatic cancer and mesothelioma. Mesothelioma is an aggressive cancer of the lining of the lungs and abdomen closely associated with exposure to asbestos.
Approximately 2,500 to 3,000 people are diagnosed with mesothelioma each year in the United States. Many sufferers are retired workers and veterans who were exposed to asbestos decades ago, even if they didn’t realize it. Symptoms of mesothelioma typically appear 20 to 50 years after exposure, making the diagnosis more difficult.
Genetic Predisposition to Mesothelioma Observed by Cancer Researchers
By Wade Rawlins
People who carry a mutation in a certain gene are susceptible to developing mesothelioma and exposure to asbestos may significantly increase the risk of developing the life-threatening respiratory cancer, according to new research funded by the National Cancer Institute.
The study published in Nature Genetics reports on two American families with a high incidence of mesothelioma as well as other cancers associated with mutations of the BAP1 gene. It is the first study to demonstrate that family genetic makeup can influence susceptibility to mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lung and abdomen. The discovery may lead to early detection and benefit people who have been exposed to asbestos in the workplace, people with a family history of mesothelioma and individuals who have previously been diagnosed with a rare tumor of the eye known as uveal melanoma.
Mesothelioma takes the lives of about 3,000 people a year in the U.S. The incidence of mesothelioma has risen steadily in the last decade in some parts of the world, including Europe and China. Yet, only a small portion of people exposed to asbestos or eronite, another mineral fiber similar to asbestos, develop symptoms of mesothelioma.
Scientists at the University of Hawaii Cancer Center in Honolulu and Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia followed two extended families with unusually high rates of mesothelioma for 14 years. The researchers suspected that mutations of the BAP1 gene, which is involved in tumor suppression, might underlie mesothelioma in people with a strong family history of the disease after noticing genetic changes in or near stretches of DNA where the BAP1 gene is located.
When the scientists looked more closely, they saw that every person who had provided a DNA sample and had developed mesothelioma or melanoma of the eye also carried mutations in the BAP1 gene.
The researchers then studied the genetic makeup of 26 patients diagnosed with mesothelioma who did not have a known family history of asbestos-related disease. They observed that tumors in about a fourth of the patients contained mutations in the BAP1 gene. In two cases, the mutations were inherited. Both of the individuals with inherited mutations had previously developed melanoma of the eye.
“The discovery is the first step in understanding the role of the BAP1 gene and its potential utility when screening for mutations in those at high risk,” said Michele Carbone, M.D., director of the University of Hawaii Cancer Center in a prepared statement. “Identifying people at greatest risk for developing mesothelioma, especially those exposed to dangerous levels of asbestos and eronite worldwide, is a task made easier by virtue of this discovery.”
People in jobs in which asbestos is an occupational hazard such as mining, shipbuilding, maintenance, plumbing and electrical work have a higher incidence of asbestos-related disease.
The study found evidence that some individuals with the BAP1 gene mutations also developed breast, ovarian, pancreatic and renal cancers, suggesting the gene mutation may be involved in multiple cancer types, also known as a cancer syndrome. About 10 percent of women with an inherited risk of breast or ovarian cancer carry mutations in the genes BRCA1 or BRCA2, which are associated with those diseases. Some inherited risk of breast or ovarian cancer may be associated with mutations in the BAP1 gene.
Just as breast cancer is linked to more than one gene mutation, Fox Chase scientists Joseph R. Testa, who led the study with Carbone, said that it appears likely that other genes in addition to BAP1 will be found to be linked with elevated risk of mesothelioma.
Asian Asbestos Tsunami Forecast
The number of people in Asia who develop mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases will increase sharply in the next two decades new research projects.
According to the study in Respirology, the journal of the Asian Pacific Society of Respirology, the increase in asbestos use in Asian countries since 1970 is likely to trigger a surge in asbestos-related disease in the next 20 years. Mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lung, is a signature disease of asbestos. But workers exposed to asbestos typically take 20 to 50 years to experience symptoms of mesothelioma or lung cancer after inhaling microscopic asbestos fibers.
Dr. Ken Takahashi, the lead author and acting director of the World Health Organization Collaborative Center for Occupational Health, said that Asian governments should brace for an “asbestos tsunami” in the years ahead.
Asia’s share of worldwide asbestos use has steadily increased from 14 percent in the decades before 1970 to 64 percent from 2001 to 2007, the study said. Yet, the 12,882 deaths attributed to asbestos-related disease in Asia account for only 13 percent of the overall deaths linked to asbestos during the period.
In Asia, asbestos, a mineral fiber, is still widely used in building materials, roofing, cement and power plants. Many Asian countries that import asbestos have weak or non-existent workplace safety laws, leaving workers exposed to asbestos.
In the United States and Europe, most uses of asbestos have been banned since the late 1970s and workers must wear safety equipment to prevent inhaling asbestos.
The World Health Organization identifies asbestos as a dangerous workplace carcinogen and occupational hazard. It called for a worldwide ban on asbestos. An estimated 107,000 people die from asbestos-related diseases annually including approximately 3,000 in the U.S.
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