Category: Cancer
Enlisting the Body’s Immune System to Fight Mesothelioma and Asbestos Disease
Mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lung and abdomen, suppresses the normal immune system response designed to ward off disease. Scientists have been trying to understand the mechanics of the immune suppression process to develop more effective therapies for mesothelioma, an aggressive form of cancer.
One promising treatment is immunotherapy that enlists the body’s natural defense system to shrink cancerous tumors. A number of immunotherapies are currently being tested in clinical trials. Mesothelioma is among the cancers that appear to be responsive to immunotherapy, researchers say. But the failure of immunotherapies to stop the growth of malignant mesothelioma tumors suggests that the immune suppression process is complex and involves multiple targets.
In an article published in the journal Immunology and Cell Biology, researchers at Harvard University investigate the roles of three factors affecting the immune response: regulatory T cells, intratumoural transforming growth factor (TGF)-â and the protein cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen-4, which plays a regulatory role in the immune system.
The researchers say that immunotherapy treatments targeting multiple regulators simultaneously appear to be more effective than focusing on one regulator protein that is suppressing immune response. They report that a triple treatment involving all three immune system factors led to long-term shrinkage of tumors and residual resistance to cancer cells if tumors reappeared.
“These data suggest that clinical application of immunotherapies against tumors may be improved by simultaneously targeting multiple mechanisms of immune suppression,” said lead investigator Haydn T. Kissick in a summary of the research.
Mesothelioma is caused by exposure to asbestos fibers. When a person breathes asbestos dust, the microscopic asbestos fibers can penetrate deep in the lungs and cause inflammation and eventually disease.
Approximately 2,500 to 3,000 people a year in the United States receive a diagnosis of malignant mesothelioma. Many victims of mesothelioma are older workers, retired workers and veterans who were exposed to asbestos decades ago in a workplace. The symptoms of mesothelioma typically take 20 years to 40 years to appear, but the disease is aggressive once it appears.
Symposium To Focus on Lung-Sparing Therapies for Malignant Mesothelioma Patients
Medical doctors and researchers will gather on May 12 in Santa Monica, California for the 2nd Annual International Symposium on Lung-Sparing Therapies for Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma. Mesothelioma is an aggressive cancer of the lining of the lung and abdominal cavity caused by asbestos exposure.
Approximately, 2,500 to 3,000 people are diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma in the United States each year. The incidence of mesothelioma has increased in recent decades.
The symposium promotes less invasive alternatives to the radical surgery that involves extensive removal of tissue and organs in mesothelioma patients and prolonged recoveries. Dr. Robert Cameron, director of the UCLA Mesothelioma Comprehensive Research Program and an advocate of lung sparing therapies, will lead the symposium.
The radical surgery attempted on some mesothelioma patients is known as extrapleural pneumonectomy. Also known as EPP, extrapleural pneumonectomy is a procedure that involves removal of a lung, the lining of the lung, the diaphragm and the lining around the heart.
Participants at the first symposium last year reviewed the Mesothelioma and Radical Surgery (MARS) trail conducted in Great Britain from 2006 to 2009. The U.K. Mesothelioma and Radical Surgery trial tracked 50 patients—24 who underwent extrapleural pneumonectomy and 26 mesothelioma patients who did not undergo radical surgery. According to the results, 52 percent of the mesothelioma patients who underwent radical surgery lived 12 months, compared to 73 percent of the patients who had treatment that did not involve removal of a lung.
Participants concluded that the study offered no evidence that extrapleural pneumonectomy offered an advantage to patients over less invasive surgery. They said mesothelioma patients should no longer be subjected to debilitating lung-removing surgery.
The symposium is part of an ongoing debate within the medical community about mesothelioma treatment options and the value of radical surgery for mesothelioma patients. Some physicians advocate highly invasive surgeries for mesothelioma patients with less advanced cancer who are healthy enough to withstand the operation. Other doctors say that lung sparing pleurectomy/decortication procedures are effective and less debilitating.
The distinguished faculty will include experts from Houston, San Francisco, New York and as far away as South Africa.
“This symposium brings the best scientific and medical minds together to advance the treatment of mesothelioma,” Dr. Cameron said in a prepared statement. “Research and practice over the past several years have continued to evolve, working to improve cancer outcomes without unnecessarily sacrificing the affected lung. Clearly, it is best for the patient to treat mesothelioma as a chronic illness while preserving the function of both lungs.”
Many workers and veterans who develop mesothelioma were exposed to asbestos dust on the job, though disease symptoms typically take 20 years to 40 years to be diagnosed.
For more information about mesothelioma, click here.
Families of Asbestos Workers At Risk of Mesothelioma From Exposure At Home
A report in a British newspaper describes the terrible legacy of asbestos disease that families of asbestos workers face. Asbestos is associated with scarring of the lungs and mesothelioma, an aggressive cancer of the lining of the lung and abdomen.
According to a Jan. 17 article in the Yorkshire Post, eight adult children of Kora Leah, who was a foreman at Cape Asbestos in Hebben Bridge, Yorkshire, have been diagnosed with asbestos-related disease. The family has lost two siblings in recent months to mesothelioma.
When Marjorie King, one of Leah’s daughters died last July at age 67, a tumor was found on her right lung and asbestos particles were discovered in her lung tissue. Deputy Coroner Paul Marks concluded after an inquest that she died of mesothelioma.
Her sister, Maureen McGeogh, 73, of West Yorkshire, recalled that she and her siblings would play with their father when he returned home from work with his clothes still covered in asbestos dust. “I remember my mother shaking his overalls and dust going everywhere,” McGeogh recalled.
She said the children sometimes accompanied their father to work on Sunday and would play in the piles of dust. They were unaware of the danger of the asbestos dust.
Of the other siblings, Gerald, 78, has pleural plaques and emphysema while Cedric, 74, Rosalind, 71, Raymond, 69 and Glynn, 64, all have scarred lungs. Because of their secondhand exposure to asbestos they are at higher risk of developing mesothelioma.
The father Kora Leah died of lung cancer in 1958, 10 years after leaving Cape Asbestos, according to the newspaper.
According to the National Cancer Institute, there is evidence that family members of workers heavily exposed to asbestos face an increased risk of developing mesothelioma. The risk results from exposure to asbestos brought into the home on clothing, shoes, skin and hair.
When asbestos fibers get inhaled, they get trapped in the lung and remain there for a long time. The symptoms of mesothelioma typically appear 30 years to 50 years after initial exposure to asbestos. Possible signs of mesothelioma include shortness of breath and pain under the rib cage, pain or tightening of the chest, and a persistent cough that gets worse over time. It’s important to check with a doctor if you develop any of these symptoms and inform the doctor of any known exposure to asbestos.
Mesothelioma Patient Celebrates Remission of Asbestos Cancer
Sherrie Moore, a 55-year-old Missouri woman, hopes to live to see her grandchildren grow up. As 2012 begins, Moore is marking more than just the new year. She is celebrating the remission of her mesothelioma for more than a year.
Mesothelioma is an aggressive cancer of the lining of the lungs and abdomen caused by asbestos exposure. But it can be difficult to detect as Moore’s circuitous path to a diagnosis shows.
Four years ago, Moore, who lives in Carl Junction, Missouri, was experiencing fatigue, an elevated heart rate and eventually pain in her right side that extended into her back. She assumed it was caused by the stress and physical exertion of caring for her husband Ed who had prostrate cancer.
According to an article in Cancerwise published by the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Moore underwent a series of medical tests that revealed a low hemoglobin count. A colonoscopy showed normal results as did a CT scan of her liver and pancreas. The doctor who performed a CT scan thought something looked abnormal about her lungs and referred her to a pulmonologist.
A pulmonary specialist did an x-ray and discovered a small volume of fluid in Moore’s lung and put her on antibiotics. Fluid in the lungs, also called pleural effusions, is one of the common symptoms of mesothelioma reported by many patients. When Moore returned at the urging of the pulmonologist, she had another CT scan that revealed nearly two liters of fluid in her right lung. She underwent an outpatient procedure and biopsy that were inconclusive.
The cancer specialist to whom she was referred recommended an open lung biopsy. The surgeon who performed the procedure in November 2008 found 15 tumors in Moore’s right lung and diagnosed Moore with stage IV mesothelioma.
The doctor recommended that she seek treatment at M.D. Anderson Medical Center in Texas.
With patients with cancer limited to one lung, doctors may remove the cancerous lung and surrounding tissue and perform chemotherapy and radiation. But Moore had mesothelioma in both lungs so she had limited treatment options.
Moore underwent 28 chemotherapy treatments that lasted until December 2010. Before the treatments concluded, there was no active sign of mesothelioma. Moore’s physicican, Dr. Anne Tsao, director of the mesothelioma program at M.D. Anderson, informed Moore that she was the first of her patients to achieve full remission.
Approximately 3,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with mesothelioma each year. Many are older workers, veterans and retirees who were exposed to asbestos in the workplace decades ago. Typically, mesothelioma symptoms appear 30 years to 50 years after initial exposure to asbestos.
For more information about mesothelioma, click here.
Catalog of Effects of Kinase Inhibitors May Aid Development of Anti-Cancer Drugs
Researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center have catalogued the actions of 178 drugs that have the potential of blocking the activity of enzymes that promote growth of cancer cells, according to an article in the November issue of Nature Biotechnology.
The enzymes, called kinases, transmit signals and control complex processes in human cells. Kinases also function as drivers of a variety of forms of cancer, including mesothelioma. A number of studies suggest that kinases are involved in the gradual transformation of normal tissue in the lining of the lung into malignant pleural mesothelioma after exposure to asbestos. It’s unclear whether one or more kinases promotes the growth of mesothelioma.
More effective therapies and treatment options are needed for mesothelioma which is an aggressive cancer and has a low cure rate.
The scientists at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia cataloged drugs including FDA-approved drugs, drugs undergoing clinical trial and laboratory compounds that are designed to block the cancer-promoting activity of any of more than 300 kinases. The body has more than 500 kinases that perform a variety of functions and many kinases are multi-taskers.
Drugs known as kinase inhibitors have the potential to be highly effective anti-cancer drugs that impede the cellular processes that cause cancer. Some cancer patients already receive kinase inhibitors as part of their therapy. And many additional kinase inhibitor drugs are under development. But the reactions of the drugs are complex.
Most kinase inhibitors act on more than one kinase. The drugs may disrupt both the growth of cancer and normal bodily processes at the same time, causing serious side effects such as heart problems.
With the cross-indexed catalog that the Fox Chase scientists have complied, researchers will be able to predict the complex reactions of the kinases inhibitors more accurately. That will allow for the development of drugs that block kinases that promote cancer while aiming to avoid side effects.
“These results have pushed the field closer to finding truly specific inhibitors of the processes that drive cancer,” Jeffrey R. Peterson, associate professor in the Cancer Biology Program at Fox Chase and senior author of the study said in a press release. “We now have a collection of kinase inhibitors that are more well-characterized and understood…. The next step is to use this information to identify specific, effective therapies that stop cancer in its tracks while avoiding healthy processes.”
Until the last few years, researchers didn’t have the tools to observe which kinase a drug acted upon. A new assay technology developed by Reaction Biology Corporation, a Pennsylvania-based provider of drug screening and profiling services, was used to catalog the kinase inhibitor effects.
Each year, approximately 2,500 to 3,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with mesothelioma. Most mesothelioma patients are older workers, retirees and veterans who were exposed to asbestos in the workplace. The use of asbestos is now restricted, but asbestos was widely use in the workplaces and in the military from the 1940s through the late 1970s.
Symptoms of mesothelioma typically take 20 years to 50 years to develop so a worker or veteran exposed to asbestos in the 1960s or 1970s may only recently have been diagnosed.
For more information about mesothelioma, click here.
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