Mesothelioma Blog

Via the blog Confined Space, I see that a New York City police detective at the site of the World Trade Center attack died of respiratory failure recently. The medical examiner said: reasonable degree of medical certainty that the cause of death in this case was directly related to the 9/11 incident.” This [...]

CancerConsultants.com has an article about trying to find an effective chemotherapy regimen for mesothelioma. This is such an intractable form of cancer and resists forms of therapy that are effective for other cancers: radiation, surgery, simple chemotherapy. The cutting edge of mesothelioma treatment involves combinaton therapy: more than one treatment.
There’s a study [...]

When it was still in development and clinical trials, avastin (bevacizumab) was used in trials for mesothelioma. The authorities sometimes allow experimental drugs to be used in mesothelioma treatment, partly because there are so few effective treatments for mesothelioma and because it more or less an orphan disease (i.e. rare).
Avastin was eventually “approved” by [...]

From the CancerBlog, I see a San Diego oncologist has set up a humor program that performs at Gilda’s Clubs and similar places. Great idea.

Story out of Britain this week, a Norwich man worked for years at a heating firm back in the 1940s and was exposed to asbestos dust and fibers. He now has mesothelioma.
This type of delayed onset it typical of mesothelioma and makes it all the more painful a tragedy - the past coming back [...]

Interesting story out of Washington: the tunnels beneath the capital building have asbestos “lying so thick on the ground that it can be scooped up in handfuls.” It’s posing a hazard to workers, and the Capitol Police aren’t even allowing their officers to patrol the tunnels because of the risk.
Maybe having asbestos so close to [...]