Category: Mesothelioma
Dad Keeps Up the Fight Through More Mesothelioma Complications
While living with mesothelioma there are so many worries on your mind that you do not even think about the small complications that could go wrong. Being focused on how fatigued the person is and how much pain they are in, it’s hard to notice other symptoms that occur.
The first signs experienced by my father are nausea and vomiting and we all knew something was wrong, but he didn’t do anything about it. This happened only one week after he was out of the hospital recovering from blood clots in his lungs. The doctors just told us to monitor him and make sure he was still eating and drinking. This was difficult because he had no appetite and could not keep anything down. One thing I was watching for when I was home on the weekends was if he was dehydrated.
I noticed he was dehydrated as soon as I came home one weekend. I finally got him to agree to go to the emergency room to get checked out because he was not eating or drinking anything and was still getting sick. He was checked into the emergency room and was treated for severe dehydration with multiple bags of fluids.
Another concern the doctors had in the emergency room was if he had C-diff because of the many occurrences of bowel movements. They tested him for that, and held him there until his results came back. Having C-diff would have caused a delay in him starting his next treatment. Thankfully this test came back negative and he could go home that night after being rehydrated and prescribed more anti-nausea medicine.
It is so important to monitor your loved one closely for any small symptom. Something small could turn into something very harmful. If my dad hadn’t gone to the hospital that night, his kidneys could have failed from dehydration and postponed receiving any treatment. With this aggressive cancer there isn’t a lot of time you have to play with in between treatments.
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Cultivating the Next Generation of Mesothelioma Researchers
The study of mesothelioma is led by passionate scientists, doctors, researchers and advocates who have dedicated their lives to making progress leading to a cure. Once a year, at the annual Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation conference, they get re-charged by meeting the victims and their families and by putting faces to the patients and families struggling with mesothelioma.
How does the next generation of researchers find out about mesothelioma and become impassioned to study towards a cure? There are several initiatives that are aimed at college students to gain the opportunity to learn and study about mesothelioma.
One is through the Jan Egerton and Don Smitley Mesothelioma Scholarship open to all U.S. college students, sponsored by MesotheliomaHelp. The scholarship is designed to spread awareness of mesothelioma, by having college students research and write about mesothelioma and the dangers of asbestos. Increasing awareness of the facts regarding mesothelioma, also increases the number of young people who become knowledgeable about the history of the disease. Spreading the word to a younger generation, and encouraging them to get involved with the mesothelioma community, expands the community in a very positive direction.
Another initiative is a fellowship by the International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators Union, named for their General President, The “James A. “Jim” Grogan Endowed Fund for Excellence” at Notre Dame University. Three students from Notre Dame, will be funded as a student intern in asbestos-related medical research, focusing on early detection, effective treatment and cure of asbestos diseases including mesothelioma and lung cancer. The start of their fellowship is attendance at the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation International Symposium on Malignant Mesothelioma. Hearing patients’ journeys firsthand gives the students a very personal perspective before they head to the lab.
As a new generation is learning and researching towards a cure – and the current researchers continue to make groundbreaking discoveries – we hope and pray, that together they will be successful in their research!
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Father to Amanda Stetler, Faces of Mesothelioma Writer, Loses Battle with Mesothelioma
Amanda allowed us inside her family’s life, through her blog posts on “Faces of Mesothelioma,” while her father David fought pleural mesothelioma. Sadly, he passed away this week after more than two years of dealing with the cancer.
David was diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma in January 2013. He traveled to Philadelphia where he received care at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman Center. He underwent extrapleural pneumonectomy surgery and weeks of rehabilitation before he found himself itching to get back to work and on with his life.
Trying to put the cancer behind him, David proudly celebrated his 60th birthday in July, 2013 with his family and close friends. The sand and sun of the Jersey shore afforded the family a nice break before David returned to UPenn for chemotherapy and radiation therapy.
In addition, David went on to participate in an immunotherapy clinical trial and underwent more rounds of chemotherapy and radiation while trying to keep his mesothelioma at bay.
“Dad continues to amaze me with his will to fight against this nasty cancer,” said Amanda after her father’s last hospitalization as he recovered from dehydration.
Throughout his treatments, David tried hard to maintain normalcy and be “his hard-working self,” as Amanda said. Whenever he was able, David was out in the yard cutting the grass, repairing things around the house, working on his vehicles, or even stacking wood.
Amanda and her father had the chance to enjoy some time alone just several months ago at their favorite vacation spot—the Jersey shore. “We will both cherish this father/daughter vacation week forever,” Amanda wrote about their time together.
Amanda and her family had planned a spaghetti dinner on March 21 in support of David. The event will still be held beginning at 4:00pm at the Williams Township Fire Co #1.
“The dinner will still go on despite the heartbreaking news of my father losing his battle to Meso this past Monday,” said Amanda. “It is now a celebration of his life.”
David leaves behind his wife Annie, his daughter, Amanda, and two sons, Andrew and Adam.
The Mesothelioma Help community sends our condolences to the Stetler family and wishes them much strength during this very difficult time.
Please take the time to read about Amanda and her father’s journey with mesothelioma through Faces of Mesothelioma.
Ask Jennifer: What Mesothelioma Symptoms Did Your Father Have?
It seems like people who are diagnosed with mesothelioma all have a different story as to how their symptoms appeared. For my Dad, it began in the Summer of 2011, when he started having trouble catching his breath. He chalked it up to the extreme heat that we had that year, continued working and didn’t miss a beat.
His difficulty breathing continued to get more severe. He said he knew that there was something really wrong when we were walking outside in the Fall and he had to stop and take a break. He began to lose weight and was unbearably tired all of the time.
Because of his exhaustion, his personality even began to change. His usually unshakable, bubbly demeanor gave way to one of concern and fatigue. He would go to work, come home and take care of his ailing mother, and that was it. This man who was always ready to go was now increasingly becoming a homebody.
By the time Dad was finally diagnosed, he had lost around 30 pounds. He was struggling to work and continue on with daily activities. Once he had his pleurectomy, on February 15, 2012, he seemed like a different person. The lining of his lung was removed, and he became more like his old self immediately, having almost a new lease on life.
Everyone has a varying story with their symptoms and treatment, but this is the experience my family went through. We are thankful that he was correctly diagnosed and treated so quickly by amazing doctors and medical professionals.
Know more about Mesothelioma and how you can deal with it.
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).
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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