mesothelioma blog

It used to be believed that mesothelioma might be caused by a virus, called the SV-40 virus (simian virus 40).  Nobody believes this anymore; mesothelioma is caused by asbestos.  But it’s worth remembering that many forms of cancer are caused by viruses.  Cancer actually isn’t one disease; it’s a bunch of diseases, each with different causes and pathologies.  Carl Zimmer recently wrote about viruses which have developed with mammalian species over the ages.  “98,000 viruses that have permanently pasted their genes into our genome over the past 60 million years.”  And now scientists are investigating these viruses and their interactions with genes.  This research could lead to a better understanding of cancer.

The Centers from Disease Control just released a report on their sampling of asbestos levels in the wake of the 2001 terrorist attack in New York.  It doesn’t sound good.  Many of the people caught in the dust cloud have experienced respiratory problems.   Mesothelioma has such a long latency period that it will be decades before we know the scale of the crisis for sure, but the EPA found a lot of asbestos dust over a wide area.

Alimta is made by Eli Lilly; it is their brand name for the drug pemetrexed.  Pemetrexed belongs to the group of medicines called antineoplastics or antimetabolites. The FDA has approved its use in treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma.