You’ve likely heard a lot about second-hand smoke. After all, it’s due to the threat of second-hand smoke that many communities and public buildings have gone smoke-free in recent years. However, there’s another second-hand connection that’s just as deadly—second-hand asbestos.
Like second-hand smoke, second-hand asbestos can bring someone else’s carcinogens to you. And, as one man's story shows us, it can lead to such harmful cancers as asbestosis and mesothelioma.
Mesothelioma is often called a rare cancer, but what does that mean? Does its rarity have any impact beyond the number of people affected?
These are questions you might have if you or someone you love is ever diagnosed. And the answers may reveal more than you would expect.
All kinds of people give their diets some extra thought after the holidays. After feasting on holiday meals and sweets, it’s not uncommon for people to put on a few extra pounds. Many then want to change their diets to lose weight and feel better. But for people with mesothelioma, dieting right is always a major concern.
As one dietician explained, eating right can make a big difference to your treatment. There’s a direct link between maintaining a healthy body weight and better response to treatment. People who lose too much weight tend to suffer more.
Scientists continue looking for better ways to treat mesothelioma, and many of their recent inquests have offered patients new hope. These include the development of two newly FDA-approved treatments. Soon, they may also include the use of transarterial chemoperfusion.
Every new treatment option provides doctors another tool to fight the disease. We recently addressed how Tumor Treating Fields (TTF) development has already improved some patients’ lives. Now, as doctors make greater use of the available treatments, a team of researchers from the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center offers hope there may soon be another valuable option. They found that transarterial chemoperfusion can improve survival rates and cut down on unwanted side effects.
You likely know it’s better to catch cancers such as mesothelioma in their early stages. But do you know what the stages represent? There’s more to staging cancer than most people know.
As the American Cancer Society notes, staging cancer is the process of determining how far it has spread, if at all. Doctors must first diagnose the disease. Then they stage it according to three factors.
A mesothelioma diagnosis can be a grim thing. Doctors have not yet discovered a reliable cure to this rare cancer. They most often diagnose it only in the later stages when many of the most effective treatments are no longer viable. This means the disease is usually terminal.
However, it's important to remember that all the numbers about survival rates are averages and estimates. Yes, the disease has claimed far too many lives too early. But for all their struggles, there are also stories about those people who beat the odds. People like the Oregon woman who heard, in January 2019, that she had one year to live but was sharing her story with the local newspaper in November 2020.
Not all forms of mesothelioma are the same. Nearly all mesothelioma starts with asbestos exposure, but forms may vary according to location and cell type.
As the American Cancer Society explains, these cancers all affect the specialized cells that line your heart, lungs, abdomen and most of your internal organs. These cells create a lubricating fluid that allows the parts of your body to move against each other. Mesothelioma is a cancer in one of these linings.
Researchers continue to look for new ways to treat mesothelioma. While most current treatments focus on slowing the disease and improving victims’ quality of life, scientists continue to hunt for a cure.
One team recently announced a promising breakthrough that makes use of gold nanotubes. Early tests proved their nanotubes could target and destroy mesothelioma cells in the laboratory. The next step is to adapt their work for human use.
Every year, thousands of Americans learn they have mesothelioma. Most of them realize it only after the disease has progressed too far for surgery to be a viable option. This means their treatment largely consists of trying to slow the cancer’s progress to live longer and enjoy a better quality of life.
For years, this most often meant chemotherapy or radiation, frequently paired with other drugs or treatments. Then last year the FDA approved the first new mesothelioma treatment in over 15 years. But what is it like to live with this new treatment? The story of one Pittsburgh man offers some insight.
Despite everything we know about the dangers of asbestos, companies worldwide still use the carcinogenic mineral in their products. Some of these companies may even have ties closer to home than most would expect.
An analytic company recently released a report on the asbestos industry. It looks at some of the major players and is a reminder that they are still willing to use asbestos. The study pits the interests of corporations against what we know about product and consumer safety.
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