Surgery can be hard on the body, but it can help some mesothelioma patients if done a second time. People could still have a good quality of life and even an extended survival if they undergo the aggressive surgery. This surgery is not common and would not be recommended for[…]
New Study
Women with Pleural Mesothelioma Live Longer Compared to Men
Mesothelioma is not found in as many women as men, but studies show that women can survive longer than men. Researchers at the International Mesothelioma Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston found that a gene can help predict the prognosis and treatment outcome for women patients with mesothelioma.[…]
Researchers are Developing a Test to Determine Which Mesothelioma Patients Will Benefit From Immunotherapy
Doctors want to figure out which pleural mesothelioma patients will best benefit from certain chemotherapy drugs. Currently there are no tests to see what immunotherapy drugs might work on a specific patient. This leads to doctors trying out different treatments that have negative side effects to only find out the[…]
Nivolumab Can Help Increase the Survival in Mesothelioma Patients Whose Cancer Has Relapsed
A study in the United Kingdom involving 332 patients who cannot receive surgery (unresectable) found that patients whose mesothelioma has relapsed can be treated with nivolumab safely. Nivolumab is an immunotherapy drug known as Opdivo, which is popular for treating non-small cell lung cancer. Opdivo is promising because it is[…]
Gemcitabine Used as a Maintenance Therapy Could Help Mesothelioma Patients Live Longer
Using maintenance therapy with gemcitabine alongside chemotherapy can help increase survival in patients compared to patients just receiving palliative care. Gemcitabine is an antimetabolite, which prevents cancer cells from dividing into new cancer cells. Chemotherapy is usually the first line treatment for mesothelioma, and if patients are able to receive[…]
SMART Mesothelioma Procedure Could Extend the Lives of Certain Mesothelioma Patients
Accelerated high dose radiation before surgery created a 65.9 month survival for mesothelioma patients. They were part of a clinical trial in Toronto at the Princess Margaret Cancer Center. The study is named SMART, an acronym for Surgery for Mesothelioma After Radiation Therapy. There were 96 patients who were treated[…]
Thoracic Chemotherapy After Surgery Could Help Pleural Mesothelioma Patients Survive Longer
Hyperthermic intrathoracic chemotherapy alongside aggressive therapy (HITHOC) could help extend pleural mesothelioma patient survival. Doctors perform this by circulating a heated high concentration chemotherapy solution in the chest cavity for one hour right after aggressive surgery is performed on a patient. They do this to kill microscopic tumor cells that[…]
Mesothelioma Chemotherapy Resistance Could be Due to Cell Hibernation
Canadian researchers have discovered a cause of chemotherapy resistance in mesothelioma and other cancers. This is great news because this can lead to new treatments being created to combat the incurable cancer. There are other types of treatments approved for mesothelioma, but they might not work and chemotherapy could be[…]
People with an Inherited Mutation on the BLM Gene Could Be More at Risk of Developing Mesothelioma
New research from the University of Hawaii is showing that the inherited mutation on the BLM gene can increase the chance of getting mesothelioma. The researchers sequenced the DNA of 155 mesothelioma patients. People without the BLM gene were more likely to develop mesothelioma, especially when exposed to carcinogenic asbestos[…]
Peritoneal Mesothelioma Surgery with More organ Removal Can Help Survival
Mesothelioma surgery that removes more of an organ has been found to extend the survival of patients. It also did not increase the chance of severe complications nor did it change the survival benefits of aggressive surgery on patients with peritoneal mesothelioma. The complex surgery also did not negatively affect[…]
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