Helping Mesothelioma Patients Happy This 2018

Make the Most of the New Year

During the holidays, “Happy New Year!” gets repeated countless times throughout the day. Whether it is from the barista at the local coffee shop or the staff at the medical center, this is not the message a mesothelioma patient or his or her family wants to hear. It is doubtful that anyone with mesothelioma is happy.

But today is the start of a new year, and mesothelioma patients and their families can make the most of every day. In 2018, consider looking at “happy” another way and change the way you look at the new year.

Help others in the mesothelioma community by offering them insights from your experiences.

Always stay positive.

Praise your caregivers and let them know they are appreciated and valued.

Take Pleasure in the little things and look forward to whatever the next day may bring.

Your medical team members are your partners and advocates. Insist on the best care from them, and make sure they know what you want.

Just like looking at “happy” one letter at a time may help you change your perspective, take 2018 one day at a time and make the most of the new year.

FDA Approvals

Anytime the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves another anti-cancer therapy, the mesothelioma community takes notice. This year, two landmark approvals took the cancer world by storm: gene therapy and an approval based on a biomarker and not a tumor type.

FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in Dec. 7 remarks before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Hearing:
https://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm588046.htm

“We’ve seen two recent approvals of CAR-T therapies for cancer, where a patient’s own immune cells are re-engineered – using the tools of gene therapy – to target a patient’s individual cancer. This form of gene therapy represents a whole new paradigm in treating cancer. And the early results are changing the way we treat serious tumors.

Over the next several years, we’ll see this approach become a mainstay of treating, and probably curing, a lot of our most devastating and intractable illness. At FDA, we’re focused right now on establishing the right policy framework to capitalize on this scientific opening.”

Read about the first-ever gene therapy approval.

In another first, the FDA approved an anti-cancer drug based on a biomarker and not cancer type. The FDA granted accelerated approval to Keytruda as a treatment based solely on the genetic mutations of a cancer and not on the type of cancer.

The FDA’s Richard Pazdur, M.D. announced in a May 23 press release:
https://www.fda.gov/newsevents/newsroom/pressannouncements/ucm560167.htm

“This is an important first for the cancer community. Until now, the FDA has approved cancer treatments based on where in the body the cancer started—for example, lung or breast cancers. We have now approved a drug based on a tumor’s biomarker without regard to the tumor’s original location.”

Keytruda is also approved in the U.S. for use in melanoma and lung cancer patients whose cancer continues to grow after a prior round of chemotherapy failed to stop the progression. The immunotherapy drug was wildly successful for Mavis Nye of England, who is now an eight-year mesothelioma survivor. She recently launched her Mavis Nye Foundation to give back to the community that supported her throughout her journey.

Read about the first-ever approval for an anti-cancer drug for a biomarker.

Clinical Trials

The National Cancer Institute promoted its nationwide clinical trial that is open to thousands of cancer patients for treatments based on the genetic makeup of their tumors. For patients suffering from cancer that continues to grow, despite previous treatment, the NCI-Molecular Analysis for Therapy Choice (NCI-MATCH) clinical trial offers hope. The trial was developed to determine whether treating patients with drugs that target the gene abnormalities believed to be driving their cancer will shrink their cancer regardless of the cancer type.

Read more about the NCI-MATCH trial.

To make the list of the top mesothelioma stories of 2017 doesn’t always mean it is good news. One of the big stories this year, unfortunately, is that the number of mesothelioma cases continue to rise. In its report “Malignant Mesothelioma Mortality — United States, 1999–2015,” published March 3, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that despite a decline in asbestos exposure due to regulatory actions and the decline in the use of asbestos, the number of mesothelioma deaths each year is still rising.

Read more about the report here.
http://www.asbestosdiseaseawareness.org

Asbestos Related News

None of the breakthrough drugs would be needed if people were not exposed to asbestos in the first place. Yet, exposure continues to be a real threat, and scientists, environmentalists and physicians continued their call for a ban on the toxic mineral.

At least one country recently took action to stop the spread. Brazil, the world’s third highest producer of asbestos, recently banned asbestos in the country.

Many in the U.S. mesothelioma community hope that this action opens the eyes of U.S. government officials and a U.S. ban won’t be far behind. Linda Reinstein, President/CEO and co-founder of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization, is doing her part and saw progress when the Senate passed the Alan Reinstein Ban Asbestos Now Act (ARBAN) of 2017.

Read more about what ARBAN could mean for Americans.

About Mesothelioma

Mesothelioma is a deadly cancer of the lungs, heart or abdomen, caused by past exposure to asbestos. Mesothelioma has a long latency period where those exposed to asbestos may not exhibit symptoms for decades after exposure. Mesothelioma can be treated with surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, however, the likelihood of recurrence of the cancer is high. There is no cure for mesothelioma.

Your Presence is the Perfect Present For Mesothelioma Patients

This time of year everyone is rushing around hoping to make the holidays perfect. While that means something different to everyone – decorations, gifts, lots of food, or chocolaty desserts – for those suffering from mesothelioma it may just mean having their loved ones close by their side.

During the holiday season, feelings of sadness, loneliness and anxiety about an uncertain future for mesothelioma patients and their families are often accentuated leaving them depressed and overwhelmed. One thing that could lift your mood, and is within your control, is to simply take the time to revel in the enjoyment of your family and friends. Jennifer Gelsick, a “Faces of Mesothelioma” author, said on Friday that her father’s presence was the best present she had at Christmas, and just having his family home for the holidays buoyed her father’s spirits.

If you have a friend or a loved one who is sick over the holidays and you are not able to visit them, take the time to send a hand-written card or make a phone call to let them know you are thinking of them. In this day of technology, a personal touch can go a long way towards brightening someone’s day.

Sit back and try to enjoy the enjoy the simple pleasures of the holidays: the lights of the season, a light snow falling, a football game on TV, a fire in the fireplace or the bite of a delicious cookie. And, especially, the company of your family and friends. Remember that it is your presence that is the best present!

Happy holidays from all of us at MesotheliomaHelp.

Use of Nanoparticles in the Future May Gauge Progression of Mesothelioma, Increase Survival

Researchers have been tapping into nanoparticles, one of the newest cancer-fighting technologies, as a safe, effective means to treat cancers. MesotheliomaHelp has reported on the use of them as a microscopic drug delivery system to improve immunotherapy in mesothelioma patients. Now, one team of researchers reports they can use nanoparticles as a means to gauge whether a cancer is progressing by detecting even the smallest of tumors.

In hopes of finding an effective way to detect cancer cells in the earliest stages of metastases, researchers from Rutgers (https://news.rutgers.edu/faster-more-accurate-cancer-detection-using-nanoparticles-rutgers-led-study-finds/20171207#.WjF5q1WnHIU) University tested light-emitting nanoparticles in mice injected with human breast cancer cells. According to a Dec. 11 press release from Rutgers, the test was conducted using nanoprobes, or miniscule x-ray devices injected into the mice and carried through their bloodstream, allowing the researchers to “get a quick and reliable image of the location of affected cells in the body.”

“We’ve always had this dream that we can track the progression of cancer in real time, and that’s what we’ve done here. We’ve tracked the disease in its very incipient stages,” said Prabhas V. Moghe, a corresponding author of the study and distinguished professor of biomedical engineering and chemical and biochemical engineering at Rutgers–New Brunswick.

The researchers were able to distinguish even the tiniest of lesions and tumors just three to five weeks after the mice were injected. “The nanoprobes were significantly faster than MRIs at detecting” the growing cancer cells. Vidya Ganapathy, corresponding author and assistant research professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, believes this can translate to months when it comes to early detection of cancer in people.

Mesothelioma, an unusual form of cancer caused by exposure to airborne asbestos fibers, often has a complex growth pattern making complete surgical removal a very difficult task. Although the goal of the surgery is to achieve a macroscopically-complete resection, which refers to the removal of all visible tumor cells, determining if that was accomplished is not always possible.

“The Achilles’ heel of surgical management for cancer is the presence of micro metastases,” said Dr. Steven K. Libutti, director of Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey. “The nanoprobes described in this paper will go a long way to solving these problems.”

The nanoparticles in this breakthrough discovery could be used to:

Detect cancer early;
Improve patient cure rates;
Improve cancer survival times;
Guide precise cancer treatment; and,
Limit cancer metastasis.

All of the above benefits are a win for mesothelioma patients who often suffer from the aggressive growth and spread of the asbestos-caused cancer. Survival times for mesothelioma patients are often limited to a year due to the inability to track the fast-growing cancer cells.

There is much more research to be done, however, the Rutgers team is hopeful that this technology will be useful on all types of cancer, including mesothelioma. They anticipate availability of the product within five years.

Read the full study in the Dec. 12 issue of the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41551-017-0167-9).

“Powerful” Pain Reliever On the Horizon for Mesothelioma Patients

Mesothelioma patients often suffer from unbearable pain from which they rarely get a break. Whether it is pain from the tumors or treatment, patients report it is this pain that most impacts their quality of life. Now, researchers report they have found a “powerful” pain reliever that could change the lives of the millions of Americans suffering from chronic pain.

Read about a clinical trial being conducted to assess whether radiation therapy can be an effective form of pain relief for mesothelioma patients.

https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01991938

A team of researchers at the University of Texas at Austin made it their mission to find an effective pain reliever that is safe, effective and non-addictive. With opioid addiction a national crisis, the chemists, led by Stephen F. Martin, Professor, Department of Chemistry at UT, turned to the experimental drug UKH-1114. In a study of mice with nerve damage, the team discovered that one small dose lasted for days as compared to hours like other non-opioid drugs, according to an Aug. 16 press release announcing the findings.

http://www.prweb.com/recentnews

When compared to the widely-used drug gabapentin, an alternative to opioids, often prescribed for neuropathic (nerve) pain from chemotherapy, shingles and diabetes, UKH-1114 required just one-sixth the dose for the same relief and did not cause any cognitive impairment. The drug binds directly to receptors in the central nervous system called the sigma 2 receptor.

Sigma-2 receptors not only affect motor function and emotional response, they may also affect cell proliferation and immune response.

“This opens the door to having a new treatment for neuropathic pain that is not an opioid,” said Martin. “And that has huge implications.”

MesotheliomaHelp has reported numerous times on neuropathy from the chemotherapy that is given to nearly all mesothelioma patients. Patients trying to manage the well-known side effects of nausea and fatigue, are often caught off guard by the unforeseen pain of chemo-induced neuropathy. Chemotherapy can cause nerve damage, leading to shooting pain, burning, tingling, numbness, problems with balance and grasping things, as well as cold or heat sensitivity. Neuropathy can also result from radiation and surgery, or from the tumor itself.

According to the National Institutes of Health, nearly one-third of all cancer patients who receive chemotherapy will be affected by chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy, and it is a leading reason why people with cancer stop chemotherapy early.

The researchers are still trying to get a grasp on how the sigma 2 receptor relieves pain, and they report that there is still more work to “demonstrate safety, efficacy and oral bioavailability” of UKH-1114 before taking it to market. But the team is “excited by the compelling results” from their research.

“We started out just working on fundamental chemistry in the lab,” said co-lead James Sahn, a research scientist in the Department of Chemistry. “But now we see the possibility that our discoveries could improve the quality of people’s lives. That is very satisfying.”

Read more about the study in the June 23, 2017, issue of ACS Chemical Neuroscience.

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acschemneuro.7b00200

Category: Featured News

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