Mesothelioma Help Cancer News
Asbestos Isn’t Banned in America – Yet
It is easy to understand why so many people falsely assume that asbestos is banned in the United States. There are decades of research that prove that toxic fibrous asbestos crystals can cause mesothelioma and lung cancer in even the smallest quantities. While many of asbestos’ applications are now limited, there are unfortunately still loopholes in current legislation.
In 1989, there was a partial ban on manufacturing, importing, processing, and distributing products that contained asbestos, as well as a ban to prevent asbestos from being utilized for new purposes. The asbestos industry fought back, and so gaps in the law prevail.
Consumer products such as baby powder, children’s makeup, and crayons continue to be flagged as having the carcinogen. Manufacturers of these products are not required to warn consumers if asbestos accounts for less than one percent of ingredients, even though it is known that even small amounts can cause cancer. They should be required to do so.
America is the only developed country to have not yet imposed a complete ban on asbestos.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, while the last American manufacturer of asbestos ceased operations in 2002, the United States imported 681 tons of asbestos in 2018 with Russia as its sole source. Beyond this, the USGS 2020 Mineral Commodity Summary of asbestos noted that some asbestos minerals are also imported as part of manufactured products, “including brake blocks for use in the oil industry, rubber sheets for gaskets used to create a chemical containment seal in the production of titanium dioxide, certain other types of preformed gaskets, and some vehicle friction products.”
Organizations like the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation (CureMeso) and the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) are currently leading the battle to finally ban asbestos in the United States. Linda Reinstein founded the ADAO in 2004 in response to her husband’s diagnosis of mesothelioma, and continues to this day to raise public awareness about the dangers of exposure and to work towards a global asbestos ban.
The Alan Reinstein Ban Asbestos Now Act of 2019 is currently in committee with both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, and is ready for a vote of the full house. The bill, if enacted, “prohibits the manufacturing, processing, and distribution of asbestos or any mixture or article containing asbestos.” ADAO has been lobbying for the bill to come up for a vote in both chambers of congress.
If you would like to support efforts to get the bill passed to ban asbestos in America, you can sign ADAO’s petition on Change.org or make a donation to them or CureMeso today.
New Dual-Immunotherapy Regimen Proves Effective for Mesothelioma Patients in Phase 3 Clinical Trial
Dr. Paul Baas of the Netherlands Cancer Institute and the University of Leiden in Amsterdam recently presented on the CheckMate 743 study at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer World Conference. The randomized phase III Checkmate 743 clinical trial prescribed mesothelioma patients who were not candidates for surgery with a combination of first-line nivolumab and ipilimumab.
The promising results yielded a four-month improvement in median overall survival for patients who received the new dual-immunotherapy regimen as compared with those who had received platinum-based chemotherapy, the current double-chemotherapy standard of care for mesothelioma.
“This is the first positive randomized trial of dual immunotherapy in first-line treatment of patients with unresectable MPM,” Dr. Bass noted. “And therefore nivolumab plus ipilimumab should be considered as a new standard of care.”
The patients featured in the phase III trial were randomly assigned treatment plans consisting of either a maximum of two years of nivolumab and ipilimumab, or six cycles of pemetrexed alongside cisplatin or carboplatin.
Results revealed that the treatment plan consisting of nivolumab and ipilimumab yielded comparable efficacy outcomes to chemotherapy for progression-free survival and objective response rate, but was significantly more successful than chemotherapy when it came to the duration of response (DOR). The DOR for the dual-immunotherapy treatment reached 11.0 months whereas the DOR for chemotherapy reached only 6.7 months.
“In the ipi/nivo survival curve, going out to 36 months, we see a plateau at about 30%,… suggesting, as we’ve seen with other trials of immunotherapy, there is a degree of durability that is way beyond what we’ve seen previously with chemotherapy. And this, indeed, may have been driven by maintenance nivolumab,” explained Dr. Dean Fennell of the Cancer Research UK Centre Leicester, University of Leicester and University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust.
Our medical experts can help you make sense of your treatment options and how to move forward. Reach out today.
Clinical Trial of Imfinzi (Durvalumab) in Conjunction with Chemotherapy Yields Significantly Longer Survival Time for Patients Diagnosed with Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma
Immuno-Oncology News recently published results of a Phase 2 clinical trial of the immuno-checkpoint inhibitor Imfinzi (durvalumab) for patients diagnosed with malignant pleural mesothelioma.
The PrECOG cancer research group tested the effects of pairing Imfinzi, an AstraZeneca drug that blocks the activity of the PD-1 receptor in immune T-cells, with standard chemotherapy on a group of 55 individuals who had been recently diagnosed with inoperable malignant pleural mesothelioma. The PD-1/PD-L1 pathway affects inflammation, which causes pleural mesothelioma to develop at a faster rate.
The trial revealed that patients who took Imfinzi in addition to running out courses of standard chemotherapy (pemetrexed with cisplatin or carboplatin) survived for an average of 20.4 months, whereas patients who were given only standard chemotherapy lived for an average of 12.1 months. 81.8 percent of participants were male, their median age was 68, and three-quarters of them had been diagnosed with the epithelioid cancer subtype of malignant pleural mesothelioma.
“[Imfinzi] plus standard chemotherapy delivered a promising median overall survival rate for patients with previously untreated, inoperable malignant pleural mesothelioma,” affirmed Dr. Patrick Forde, director of the Kimmel Center’s thoracic cancer clinical research program, in a news release from the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
AstraZeneca, PrECOG, and the University of Sydney have plans to enroll participants who have been diagnosed with previously untreated, inoperable malignant pleural mesothelioma in a Phase 3 trial in Australia and the United States in September. More details about the upcoming clinical trial can be found here.
If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with mesothelioma, reach out today for a free consultation. Our experts can assist you with medical resources as well as options for compensation from those responsible.
Pairing Machine Learning with PET Scans Can Help Predict Mesothelioma Outcomes
The EJNMMI Research medical journal recently published an article entitled “FDG PET versus CT radiomics to predict outcome in malignant pleural mesothelioma patients” that outlines a study wherein 72 patients diagnosed with malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) at the University Hospital Zurich underwent pre-treatment FDG PET and CT scans alongside curative treatments. In the study, Swiss researchers discovered that using machine-learning radiomics models in conjunction with PET scans to track tumor progress can help doctors better predict outcomes of malignant pleural mesothelioma.
Malignant pleural mesothelioma is a form of cancer caused by exposure to asbestos and makes up 60 to 70 percent of all cases. MPM occurs when tumors develop in the lining of the lungs and chest cavity (called the pleura).
To obtain imaging that will help them diagnose mesothelioma and prescribe treatment for patients, doctors use both CT scans, which combine several x-ray scans from different angles, and PET scans, which use a radioactive tracing fluid to demonstrate tissue and organ functions.
While they did not have the same results with CT scans, the Swiss research team was able to develop a quantitative model using machine learning to more effectively analyze PET scans and predict the movement of tumors.
Because treating mesothelioma often involves varying approaches and exposes patients to many chemicals, it is critical that doctors are able to determine a course of action for each patient that is most responsive to their individual cancer. Malignant pleural mesothelioma is an aggressive cancer that spreads rapidly, so it is imperative that patients begin receiving treatment as quickly as possible.
If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with mesothelioma, reach out today for a free consultation. Our experts can assist you with medical resources as well as options for compensation from those responsible.
Mesothelioma Patients Can Safely Get Treatment Through Telehealth and Video
The COVID-19 virus has disrupted all of our lives and routines. Things that we always did and places we always went are no longer available. The pandemic has forced us to all look at things we routinely do and challenged us to do them differently.
Like in business, in medicine sometimes small disruptions can lead to larger innovative changes. In the treatment of malignant mesothelioma, disruptors have led the way. Over the years we have seen doctors challenging the previously held belief that there was no treatment for malignant mesothelioma time and time again. The treatment options and longer quality of life that many mesothelioma patients are now able to be part of was not an option 20 years ago.
Before the pandemic, having a doctor’s visit for the vast majority of people involved going to the office or clinic at an appointed time, waiting, and meeting with the doctor. Patients diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma had the option of travelling to a Mesothelioma Center of Excellence to consult with experts in the field. Since the pandemic, with social isolation and doctors offices and clinics closed to prevent the spread of the virus, there has been a surge of tele-health visits.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for the Advancement of Telehealth promotes the use of telehealth technology for health care. Their definition of tele-health is “the use of electronic information and telecommunications technologies to support and promote long-distance clinical health care, patient and professional health-related education, public health and health administration. Technologies include videoconferencing, the internet, store-and-forward imaging, streaming media, and terrestrial and wireless communications.”
In 2018, tele-health was 0.1 percent of all medical claims filed. Since the pandemic those numbers are exploding.
Tele-health has made possible consults and reviewing of scans and meetings with mesothelioma experts. As things are starting to open back up, so are the patients coming back to the mesothelioma centers for in-person consultations.
Like any new technology telehealth has pros and cons. Some people have commented that you have the MD’s full attention without the distractions of an office and other responsibilities. Other people have missed the personal interaction and meeting in person with their doctor.
The coronavirus has brought to the forefront a technology that can benefit a lot of people as they search for the best advanced personalized care for themselves or loved ones with mesothelioma. Tele-health can help malignant mesothelioma patients connect with a mesothelioma center without having to travel. It will take awhile to assess how tele-health will be accessed and have the best results for patients. For patients, their satisfaction with tele-health will need to be studied and evaluated to continue to efficiently access tele-health with the best results.
If you or a family member is diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma reach out, either electronically or in person for the best possible care. Our experts can help connect you with both the medical and legal resources you need to move forward.
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