Researchers are making advances in chemotherapy, immunotherapy, radiotherapy, and other techniques.
There’s always a temptation for regulators and policy-makers and their advisors to take money from the very interests they are regulating/overseeing/legislating. It recently came out that the epidemiologist Richard Doll, who famously established the link between smoking and cancer, was a paid consultant to the chemical industry, even when he was conducting a government study […]
Conflict of interest among public health experts? Read More »
Not direct mesothelioma news, but interesting and encouraging nevertheless. Scientists at M.D. Anderson had success with MK-0457 (VX-680), a novel multi-kinase inhibitor, to treat leukemia and myeloproliferative disorders. Kinase inhibitors are one of the most promising areas of research in cancer treatment today.
M.D. Anderson reports success with kinase inhibitors Read More »
Ogan Gurel has an article on the Wisconsin Technology Network website about the recent decline in cancer deaths in the United States. He identifies the four major technical advances in cancer therapy in the past decade. Earlier detection and diagnosis. Targeted therapies. Personalized medicine. Minimally invasive surgery.
Trends in cancer incidence Read More »
New Scientist has an article headlined Cheap, safe drugs kill most cancers. The drug in question is dichloroacetate (DCA), which is already used for other maladies. Scientists will have to investigate this thoroughly, but the good news is that this material is inexpensive. The blogger Orac has some reservations. He points out DCA has only
New use for old drug: cancer treatment Read More »
There is a report from India that an Indian company will soon introduce a generic version of pemetrexed under the brand name Pemnat. The intellectual property laws are different in India, so the company is expecting a generic to be legal at this point, while pemetrexed is still under patent in the United States. The
Generic pemetrexed in India Read More »
The American Chemical Society announced the 2006 Heroes of Chemistry awards, and included on the list is Edward C. Taylor from Princeton and a couple scientists from Eli Lilly, for introducing pemetrexed (Alimta) to the world. Every type of solid tumor thus far examined clinically has responded to this new agent. The awards ceremony is
Inventor of Alimta hailed as “Hero of Chemistry” Read More »
The Belfast Telegraph reports that the number of hospital admissions for asbestos diseases in Northern Ireland has approximately doubled in the past 10 years. “Many sufferers are former shipyard workers or tradesmen who used asbestos as a popular building material in the 1950s and 1960s.” Just like in the United States.
More asbestos cases in the hospitals Read More »
The Cheerful Oncologist blog had a post called The Quest, where they compared today’s cancer research to Jason and the Argonauts: a. commit suicide (by the process known as apoptosis, although a vicious six-foot drop from a wooden scaffold wouldn’t bring any tears to my eyes). b. wound themselves, if not to the point of
Summary of cutting edge cancer research Read More »
Academics at Texas Tech University did a review of the PubMed/MEDLINE database on pemetrexed (Alimta) articles. They conclude that “Pemetrexed should be used as a standard of care for unresectable MPM [malignant pleural mesothelioma] and recurrent metastatic NSCLC [non-small cell lung cancer].” They also mention decreasing toxicity of the drug by giving the patient steroids
Literature review of pemetrexed Read More »
Via the cancer center at the University of Florida. “According to a recent article published in the Annals of Oncology, immediate treatment with chemotherapy improves survival rates at one year and provides improved quality of life compared to administering chemotherapy once symptoms occur in patients with malignant mesothelioma.” More on chemotherapy for mesothelioma.
Study says Early Chemotherapy Improves Outcomes for Mesothelioma Read More »