Mesothelioma Pages

Karen Grant is astonishing doctors with her unprecedented continuing good health in the face of a mesothelioma diagnosis now five years old. The vast majority of mesothelioma victims live just six to eighteen months after being diagnosed, regardless of their treatment options, general condition, age, gender or other factors.

Mesothelioma is an aggressive and terminal cancer which attacks the mesothelium, a soft tissue lining which encases the body’s vital organs. While researchers are constantly looking for better ways to treat the disease, medical practices surrounding the deadly cancer haven’t actually changed much in the last several decades. Much like other cancers, conventional treatments include surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Unlike some cancers, however, mesothelioma often doesn’t respond to these treatments.

Grant, a Massachusetts woman, battled the disease with a high risk treatment regimen recommended by Dr. David Sugarbaker, a surgeon working in Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Dr. Sugarbaker recommended a radical, invasive treatment which entailed two separate tumor removal surgeries, a direct application of warmed chemotherapy, and follow-up treatment of traditional chemotherapy and rehabilitation.

“We offered her a very aggressive approach, to which a lot of patients could have said no, thank you. But not Karen,” said Dr. David Sugarbaker.

Grant was diagnosed with the disease at just twenty-nine years old, some twenty to thirty years earlier than most mesothelioma patients are diagnosed. While diagnosis with a cancer hitherto considered fatal at such a young age is certainly a tragedy, she may have her youth to thank for eligibility for such radical treatment.

“It’s just incredible,” said Grant, “I never thought I’d look this good and be living the life.”

Grant’s lung screenings have continued to show no signs of recurring tumors or cancer cells, a phenomena that’s far from the norm with the vast majority of mesothelioma patients. Her oncologists are amazed, but at this point are willing to hope for the best.

“Five years is a huge benchmark,” says a spokesperson for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Dr. Pasi Janne, “if another occurrence is going to happen, it is going to be more common in the first couple of years.”

Grant hopes that her story will help other mesothelioma patients to remain positive about their condition and their future.

Mesothelioma will continue to hound thousands of Americans each year as long as asbestos regulations are either unenforced, or themselves insufficiently strict. Manufacturers and distributors of asbestos laden products are entirely responsible for mesothelioma in America, and the disease will continue to be a problem until asbestos is completely banned.

Researchers in Australia recently made a discovery which could improve early diagnosis rates for mesothelioma, a rare and aggressive form of cancer caused almost exclusively by asbestos exposure. The scientists discovered that a specific family of proteins, known as serum mesothelin, can be detected in some mesothelioma patients at much higher than normal levels. The discovery suggests a correlation between the cancer and the protein family, and could contribute to developing a more effective battery of diagnostic tests for the disease.

Mesothelioma is a terminal cancer that affects some 90,000 people worldwide every year. In the United States, at least 3,000 people die annually after suffering with the cancer for an average of six to eighteen months. Mesothelioma is caused almost exclusively by exposure to asbestos fibers.

Asbestos, a fibrous mineral historically used as an insulator, sealant, and fire retardant, breaks apart easily into microscopic, hair like fibers. These fibers often enter the body accidentally either through inhalation or ingestion, but due to their unique shape pass easily through many tissues such as the lung wall or intestines. The fibers eventually become entangled in a soft, sticky tissue known as the mesothelium, where they cause a scarring reaction that can develop into a malignant tumor given enough time. Mesothelioma often takes ten to fifty years to fully develop.

Most individuals who suffer with mesothelioma were at one time exposed to asbestos fibers consistently through their place of employment. While examining an individual’s work history is still a critical part of a mesothelioma diagnosis, new methods of determining risk factors for the disease such as evaluating the level of the protein family serum mesothelin could increase early diagnosis rates. At present, only a biopsy can definitively confirm mesothelioma.

The serum mesothelin research involved measuring the levels of the protein family in a variety of individuals who had been exposed to asbestos fibers. The serum mesothelin levels where measured progressively at similar intervals as time passed. Of the patients who ultimately developed mesothelioma, some fifteen percent demonstrated dramatically higher levels of mesothelin directly before a positive diagnosis. Nearly forty percent of the test group showed a similar rise in mesothelin levels at the same time, but did not ultimately develop the disease. The researchers are still interpreting the results.

The mesothelin serum research does not in itself represent a more effective mesothelioma screening test. In the future, however, research like this could contribute to the development of more accurate screening tests for mesothelioma.

The European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery has published a new results of a new clinical trial which aimed to better understand the efficacy of certain radical surgery procedures. The study compared the results of two different treatment methods for malignant mesothelioma: radical open-lung-sparing decortication and palliative surgery.

Mesothelioma is an aggressive and terminal cancer caused by exposure to asbestos fibers. The cancer can affect several areas of the body, but the most common tumor site is the pleural mesothelium, a soft, protective tissue which encases the lungs. Mesothelioma is incredibly resilient. Curative treatments, or treatments which aim to remove the tumor and destroy remaining cancer cells with chemotherapy and radiotherapy, are often ineffective. In most cases palliative surgery is performed instead, a form of surgery which aims to improve the patient’s comfort without removing the cancerous growth.

Radical open-lung-sparing decortication refers to a procedure in which the mesothelial lining and the cancerous tumor are removed completely from the lung. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy regimens follow to kill any cancer cells remaining on or around the surgery site. The surgery is invasive and recovery often proves difficult.

Palliative surgery, on the other hand, aims solely to reduce swelling and drain fluid buildup that results from the body’s reaction to the cancerous tumor. The surgery relieves pain associated with the disease but doesn’t slow the spread of the cancer which will eventually prove fatal.

The recent trial compared 13 patients who opted for radical decortication with 13 other patients, matched for similar ages, medical history, body mass index and disease progression, who opted for palliative treatment.

“Patients were matched for age, sex, histology, computed tomography (CT) stage, haematological indices, body mass index (BMI) and adjuvant chemotherapy. We compared perioperative and postoperative courses and long-term survival,” write the study’s authors.

Results demonstrated that all types of cells in the radical surgery group out-survived those in the palliative surgery group. While technically that means that the radical surgery group fared better, the study doesn’t account for the patient’s quality of life.

“Radical open-lung-sparing surgery may confer a survival advantage to patients with malignant mesothelioma who are fit to undergo radical decortication followed by chemotherapy and radiotherapy,” states the study, “trials of radical surgery versus no surgery should include lung-sparing operations.”