Mesothelioma Blog

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has announced a marked decline in the amount of new cancer diagnoses and rates of cancer deaths over the past several years. The encouraging news was published as part of the NCI’s annual report, which appeared in the December 7, 2009 issue of the medical journal, Cancer.

According to NCI figures, new diagnoses for all types of cancers fell by nearly one percent each year from 1999 to 2006. Additionally, cancer deaths have declined by approximately 1.6 percent each year from 2001 to 2006.

The reduction of cancer cases and deaths is largely the result of advancements in the treatment of the three most common cancers in men – lung cancer, prostate cancer and colorectal cancer. Nearly as important, are positive numbers that resulted from treatment advancements achieved in two of the three most common cancers in women – breast cancer and colorectal cancer.

In general, the NCI notes that men continue to be at a higher risk for being diagnosed with cancer. However, men also achieved a greater decline in cancer cases and deaths for the most recent time periods when compared to women.

The NCI seems especially optimistic about advancements in colorectal cancer treatment. Through models which take into account a decline in cigarette smoking, improved screening processes and enhanced chemotherapy regimens, it is projected that overall cases of colorectal cancer deaths may drop by as much as 50 percent by 2020.

In addition to the good news associated with the most common forms of cancer, the NCI also reports a decline in cancer rates for prostate, lung, brain, colon, rectum, stomach and oral cavity cancers in men. Declines in cancer rates for females were reported for uterine, ovarian, cervical and oral cavity cancers.

Despite the overall good news, some causes for concern have been noted. While colorectal cancer rates declined overall, rates of the disease among individuals over 50 years of age has risen slightly. Other types of cancer that show a rise in prevalence for men over the time period include kidney, liver, leukemia, esophageal, melanoma and myeloma. In women, lung, thyroid, bladder, kidney and pancreatic cancers continue to rise, among others.

In terms of ethnicity, cancer death rates were shown to be highest among black men and women. Asian and Pacific Islander men and women have the lowest cancer death rates.

Resource:
 http://www.cancer.gov/newscenter/pressre…

Cancer patients frequently complain about long-term symptoms associated with brain function following chemotherapy. These symptoms, which include confusion, difficulty concentrating, memory loss and slow thinking, are collectively referred to as “chemo-brain.”

Now, for the first time, the actual processes that cause chemo-brain have been identified, allowing researchers to develop potential treatments for this frustrating side effect.

Based on research performed by scientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center, it has been determined that the administration of chemo drugs results in a dramatic reduction of new brain cell growth as witnessed in lab mice.

For the study, the research team investigated the effects of four widely used chemotherapy drugs – fluorouracil, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin and paclitaxel.

Statistical analysis of the brain following treatment displayed a 15.4 percent reduction in brain cell growth following administration of fluorouracil. All other medications showed even more dramatic losses in brain cell growth, with cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin and paclitaxel returning a 30.5 percent, 22.4 percent and 36.0 percent deficit, respectively.

In a second study conducted with a heightened dose of cyclophosphamide – which is often prescribed for the treatment of breast cancer – brain cell production deteriorated by as much as 40.9 percent.

The findings confirm the team’s original hypothesis that chemo drugs hinder the growth of cells in the brain’s hippocampus. However, a second hypothesis – which suggested that chemo drugs that cross the blood-bran barrier would cause more damage to cell production – proved unfounded. Fluorouracil and cyclophosphamide are known to cross into the brain, while the other two drugs tested are not.

In response to this second hypothesis, Dr. Robert Gross, head of the research URMC research project, suggests, “it could be that all of the chemo drugs cross into the brain after all, or that they act via peripheral mechanisms, such as inflammation, that could open up the blood-brain barrier.”

In previous studies, it has been found that a growth hormone known as IGF-1 may help stimulate brain cell growth. As such, the URMC decided to test the ability of IGF-1 as a way to minimize reductions in brain cell growth.

When administered to animal models prior to and following the administration of cyclophosphamide, researchers witnessed an increase in the overall number of new brain cells. The success of the hormone was more pronounced in single, high-dose drug regimens (as opposed to multi-dose treatments).

The team will continue to study the effectiveness and safety of IGF-1 as a potential solution to chemo-brain. The findings of the study were reported in the Cancer Investigation online journal.

Resource:
 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/200…

Different dosages of a particular cancer therapy may be the difference between reducing and accelerating cancer growth, according to a new study conducted at the Institute of Cancer Research in London.

The findings stem from research conducted on integrin inhibitors, a type of anti-angiogenesis drugs – a class of drugs that work by blocking the production of new blood vessels. The growth of new blood vessels is necessary for cancer growth because they help carry oxygen and nutrients to the tumor.

Previous clinical trials have resulted in some success with integrin inhibitors for the treatment of glioma – a type of brain cancer – but most other cancer types have proven unresponsive to this particular class of drugs.

In response to these early failures, the team at the Institute of Cancer Research hypothesized that dosage levels may have something to do with it. Typically, patients are given a large dose of integrin inhibitors every three days. This is despite the fact that the concentration of the drug depletes after approximately 16 hours.

Wondering if a constant stream of the drug might be more successful, the team used osmotic mini pumps to supply lab mice with a steady supply of integrin inhibitor (cilengitide). The results were surprising – at high doses, the drug was successful at shrinking tumor size, but at low doses tumor growth was actually accelerated.

The findings raise serious concerns about how drug dosage may effect cancer survival. Additionally, as Lesley Walker of Cancer Research UK suggests, “This study is important because it may help to explain the mixed results previously seen in patients and turn around disappointing results so people may still benefit from the drug without the potential harm.”

Presently, popular anti-angiogenesis drugs such as sunitinib and bevacizumab are approved by the FDA for the treatment of some cancers. Further research into how the effectiveness of how these drugs is effected by dosage may yield improved response rates among patients.

Resource:
 http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16…

The Statler Hilton, located at the eastern edge of downtown Dallas and originally built in 1956, is considered by many city dwellers to be the crown jewel in downtown Dallas’s register of historic places.

A monument to oil wealth, the 710-room hotel has been vacant since 2001 – not because of lack of plans to renovate it, but because no one in charge has been able to decide how that renovation should proceed.

Now, with the eastern end of downtown engaged in revival, the Statler Hilton’s time may have come, but the fact that the hotel was built with floors and walls of poured, pre-stressed concrete (meaning the eight-foot ceilings can’t be raised to any extent) has developers in a quandary.

The hotel, as is typical of many structures completed before the late mid-1970s, also contains asbestos – as does the historic Dallas Public Library next door.

Asbestos is the fibrous mineral commonly used in many insulative and construction products up to 1989, when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency – out of concern for public health – limited its use to one percent or less (by weight or volume) of domestic product.

This means that, by 2030, the nation’s asbestos legacy will be coming to an end. To understand this legacy, it’s important to know that asbestos is the only known cause of mesothelioma, and that mesothelioma typically lies dormant for two to four decades (and sometimes as long as 50 years) before producing symptoms serious enough to force patients to see a doctor.

Because mesothelioma lies dormant for so long, allowing tumors to spread virtually unseen, when symptoms do present and patients consult a doctor, they are usually given a prognosis of about a year to live, and even aggressive therapies like surgery, radiation and chemotherapy rarely alter these prognoses by a great deal. In fact, the best of them typically add only another five months, on average.

The best hope for a mesothelioma cure comes from earlier diagnoses, and these are now being delivered by serum markers in the pleural fluid surrounding mesothelioma tumors. These earlier diagnoses do little for the nation’s asbestos legacy, however, which promises that mesothelioma will kill about 10,000 Americans a year until 2030, and then begin to abate.

For historic buildings like the Dallas Statler Hilton, which in 2008 won a place on The National Trust for Historic Preservation’s list of America’s 11 most endangered historic buildings, the possibility for asbestos remediation and repurposing as a part of a vital downtown Dallas offers the best hope that the former hotel will survive to please and enchant another generation.

It’s unfortunate that the asbestos remediation and remodeling is being driven by a threat from Dallas city officials to sue the owners if something isn’t done. It’s fortunate that the City of Dallas Regional Center program (a federal program trading “green” cards for major investment in the city) is in place to provide redevelopment capital at affordable rates.

What few people realize is that it costs as much to demolish an asbestos-laden building as it does to repurpose it, since the building can’t be taken down by conventional deconstruction methods until the asbestos is first removed. And this, in turn, is good news for many of America’s historic buildings.

 http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/…

 http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpa…
 http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpa…

While health and worker safety officials in the U. S. are rightly concerned about occupational exposures to environmental toxins in the workplace, there is equal concern amongst many in the scientific and regulatory community about these hazardous substances being transported by workers back to the home. Perhaps the most comprehensive analysis of take home toxins is contained in a National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) report that was presented to Congress in 1995. The NIOSH report was a response to a 1992 Workers’ Family Protection Act (WFPA) mandate that required NIOSH to publish a comprehensive study on health threatening toxins that could accompany a worker home at the end of their shift.

Identifying the Problem and Promoting Remedial Actions

The NIOSH report utilized a systematic research approach designed to provide a wide body of empirical evidence relevant to the types of toxins a worker could bring home from the job, as well as to identify and quantify modes of toxicant transportation. One goal of the Congressional report was to aid in the implementation of national, regional, and local programs that could monitor the introduction of hazardous materials into the home while incorporating measures to reduce or eliminate it.

Over 300 pages long, the NIOSH report examines myriad take home toxin issues, one of which had been the identification of the potential victims of occupational poisons in the home. Populations at risk were considered to be any resident or visitor in a work toxin contaminated home; further refinements of this portion of the study dealt with identifying those who would be at greater risk for toxin-caused illnesses than others. Pregnant women, the elderly, children, immune system compromised individuals, etc., were given special attention when attempting to assess risk factors within unique and/or specific populations. Risk assessment amongst varying populations is, perhaps, the most challenging aspect of the NIOSH report due to the fact that there are literally tens of thousands of potentially harmful toxins in the workplace, each of which could have a dramatically different effect on various individuals who are members of the same specific population.

Types of Exposures and Prevention

The NIOSH report includes comprehensive prevention and remediation information designed to reduce or eliminate worker transported toxins in the home. Protective hair and shoe coverings, changing work contaminated clothing prior to returning home, hand washing, and countless other behaviors are covered in comprehensive detail in a report that has served as the foundation for subsequent take home toxin studies for years.

As one of its many objectives, the NIOSH report sought to achieve a clearer understanding of how different occupational toxins affected human health in the work and home environment. Researchers wanted to document the behaviors of varying toxins under different conditions, e.g., did asbestos exposures in a mining or manufacturing setting pose a greater risk than a wife’s exposure when she routinely shakes asbestos dust off her husband’s work clothes in the laundry room?

The NIOSH report contains comprehensive findings distilled from the enormously complex data that had been compiled on occupational contaminants in the home, and while the report is not without its critics, the document has been hailed by many as the most important study of its kind.

Source article link: http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2002-113/2…

The use of computed tomographic (CT) scans has exploded over the past few decades. Today, an estimated 70 million CT scans are performed each year (a figure that is 23 times higher than the number of scans performed in 1980).

Now, two new studies suggest that radiation exposure from CT scans is higher and more varied than previously believed.

For the first study, researchers at the University of California-San Francisco analyzed the radiation doses emitted by CT scan equipment at four different hospitals. The results concluded that median effective dosage per type of procedure was as high as 31 millisieverts (mSv). One mSv is estimated to be the amount of background radiation absorbed by the average U.S. citizen each year.

Radiation exposure levels of 10 mSv and higher have been associated with a heightened cancer risk in atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The highest median average for radiation exposure was present in CT scans that incorporated a multiphase scan of the abdomen and pelvis. Head scans returned the smallest median average of 2 mSv.

A second study suggests that radiation exposure rates vary dramatically from hospital to hospital, even when the same procedure was performed. Additionally, differences in CT scan radiation were found within the same hospital due to the way in which individual radiologists were using the equipment.

The variations – which differed by as much as 13-fold – are the result of non-standardization across institutes when it comes to CT scan procedures.

The results of these studies are alarming, especially considering the exponential rise in CT scans performed each year. A recent study performed by the National Cancer Institute suggests that 29,000 future cancers will be the direct result of a CT scan performed on a patient in 2007,

To reduce this number in future years, experts recommend the creation of standardized procedures for each type of CT scan. They also suggest minimizing the number of unnecessary CT scans performed each year.

Factors that could increase the potential for a future cancer diagnosis as a result of a CT scan include age and gender. Two-thirds of these cancers are expected to be in women (due to heightened vulnerability to radiation). Additionally, the younger the individual at the time of the scan, the more likely he or she is to develop cancer in the future.

Resource:
 http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-w…
 http://abcnews.go.com/Health/CancerPreve…

A professor at the University of Florida has developed a prototype endoscope that incorporates infrared technology. The new equipment is intended to deliver imagery beneath the surface of internal tissues by as much as two millimeters.

Presently, endoscopy equipment is used to search for warning signs of cancer and other illnesses by feeding a camera attached to a long fiber through either the airway or gastrointestinal tract. The new technology will work similarly, but makes use of an infrared laser and small mirror to deliver high-resolution 3-D imagery of tissue below the surface.

According to the prototype’s creator, Professor Huikai Xie, this below-the-surface viewpoint is considered beneficial because, “85 percent of cancers originate from the epithelium, which is about two millimeters deep.” Thus, cancers may be detected and diagnosed earlier than is currently possible through the use of endoscope technology.

For some cancers, the time between epithelial manifestation and surface growth of cancer cells is significant. For example, in the case of an illness known as Barrett’s esophagus, the risks of cancer are dramatically increased once cancer cells reach the surface of the airway.

The technology behind the new endoscope is referred to as optical coherence tomography (OCT). As the laser-tipped endoscope moves through the body, laser light hits the tissue, which causes portions of the light to either be beamed back or scattered. Based on the amount of light that is scattered, specifics about the underlying tissue can be determined. Signs of tumors, infection, internal bleeding and ulcers can all be identified through the use of the equipment.

Beyond the myriad of diagnosis applications, the new endoscope may also be used for surgical procedures. For many cancers, surgeons are unsure about how deep a tumor has become imbedded in the body’s tissue. The endoscope could provide depth information that aids in total removal of the cancerous tissue.

OCT technology has been around for quite some time, but has largely been limited to applications that can be performed outside of the body. This is due to the large size of the equipment. However, new advancements have allowed OCT equipment to shrink to micro-size, allowing internal applications to become within reach.

Still, with a minimum necessary diameter of five millimeters, Professor Xie’s prototype remains too large for human applications. Xie is currently using information gleaned from his prototype to fabricate an even smaller version.

Resource:
 http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedic…

As many as 10,000 people die from cancer due to late diagnosis each year, according to data analyzed by England’s National Cancer Director, Professor Mike Richards.

Presently, it is estimated that 90 percent of all cancer patients are diagnosed based off of symptoms expressed. For many types of cancer, the time period between cancer manifestation and exhibition of symptoms is months or even years. Professor Richards calls these figures “unacceptable,” and stresses the need to improve cancer screening in order to diagnose cancer before symptoms arise.

The estimated 10,000 needless deaths is twice as high as previous estimates. However, due to new studies into lung, bowel and breast cancer (the three most deadly types of cancer), Professor Richards estimates that 5,000 to 10,000 cancer deaths could be prevented each year simply by accelerating the diagnosis time frame.

Both doctors and patients are to blame, according to Richards. He cites a recent survey conducted by the Cancer Research UK charity foundation that determined 40 percent of people within the country put off visiting the doctor for fear of being called a time waster.

This fear of wasting a doctor’s time can prolong diagnosis considerably. However, Professor Richards also warns that doctors need to be more alert in identifying potential cancer symptoms when a patient does take his or her concerns into the hospital or doctor’s office.

Together, lung, bowel and breast cancer kill 63,000 people each year in England. Alarmingly, the death rates within the UK are worse than many other European countries, including Russia, Bulgaria, Croatia and Lithuania. According to Richards, partial blame for this can be attributed to late diagnosis.

Other contributing factors to England’s high cancer death rates include a high rate of obesity, shortage of cancer doctors, lack of cancer drug availability and high rate of alcohol consumption.

In an effort to improve cancer survival, a National Awareness and Early Diagnosis Initiative has been created in an effort to improve both patient and doctor awareness.

Resources:
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/n…
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/838579…
 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/articl…

Anemia is widespread amongst cancer patients. Anemia is characterized by a reduction in the red blood cell volume and also a low hemoglobin count, a component of blood that supplies oxygen to tissues in the body. It often leads to fatigue and can be debilitating.

There are many factors that can cause anemia. The primary cause is often the reduced production of new red blood cells (RBCs) by cells in the bone marrow. Production of red blood cells also gets affected by many types of cancer chemotherapy drugs. Although local radiation therapy may not be as damaging, it can still lead to anemia. Bleeding linked to the tumor itself and inadequate intake of nutrients such as iron due to poor appetite can also cause anemia.

Around 3 out of 4 cancer patients are likely to experience fatigue. Anemia can be debilitating and treating it can help enhance the sense of well-being. Majority of individuals worry that the worst part will be the pain in case they develop cancer. However, there are many patients who will readily agree that fatigue can be even more disabling. Cancer related anemia can be treated with iron supplements, vitamins, blood transfusions and erythropoietin injections (a drug that stimulates the bone marrow to produce more red blood cells). In addition, here are certain things you can do to reduce cancer related fatigue.

• Try light exercises such as short walks.
• Instead of having 3 large meals everyday, try eating snacks or smaller meals during the day.
• Plan your activities at a certain time of the day when your energy levels are at their peak.
• Try taking short naps or resting between activities.

Cancer organizations

A wide variety of psychological support services are currently available for cancer patients. Some of these offer group and telephone support and also useful information through written materials and the Internet.

Internet resources

Voluminous amount of cancer-related information is available on the Internet. This type of information can prove very useful to cancer patients. Based on the information, cancer patients can make decisions related to their illness and its treatment. It can also help them find the right support. However, it is necessary to check the reputation and credentials of the organization that is providing the information because any individual or group can upload information on the Internet. Always keep in mind that not all information available on the Internet can be useful. There may even be some information that will prove harmful in case you act on it.

Some individuals feel that their distress levels increase when they are looking for information on the Internet because of the overwhelming volumes of information that is available. In case this applies to you, it would help if you let someone else look for information on the Internet and provide you with filtered information that is relevant to your specific situation.

You should avoid websites that have products to sell or those that make claims which cannot be proven.