The Shepard Law Firm in Boston, Massachusetts announced this week that is website will feature a thorough list of ships that have been known to haved used any type of products that contain asbestos. This is a brand new and rather important resource for the Boston Navy veterans as well as shipyard workers. Both of these groups of people make up one of the highest risk groups for those to contract mesothelioma.
According to a British study one out of ten Australian carpenters that were born before 1950 will die of mesothelioma between the years of 2000 and 2050. Professor Julian Peto - the Cancer research specialist - put together her findings while researching the lifetime pccupations of 600 mesothelioma patients.
Andrew Manuel started having serious back pain and thought it was nothing serious. That is until two years later when we had to undergo surgery to have his lung removed and had to have radiation and chemotherapy treatments.
This week the Minnesota House Committee passed a bill that would fund the money for a study of lung cancer on the Iron Range. The bill will provide $4.9 million that will help researchers to study the link between mesothelioma and taconite mining.
Researchers will measure the level of exposure to dust, the components of the dust and compare the results to miners and their spouses. Last spring the state Health Department found that 52 miners had died from mesothelioma.
Researchers have been trying to narrow down where people can catch the deadly disease, mesothelioma, and have recently discovered that those who work at the US Coast Guard shipyard have a high chance of catching it. The study also found an increased general mortality rate.
The study followed 4702 (4413 men and 289 women) civilian workers who were employed at the shipyard between January 1950 and December 1964. The study then measured the number of deaths and their causes through 31 December 2001. The study was conducted by S Krstev, P Stewart, J Rusiecki, A Blair and was published in Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
Investigators in Australia discovered that abnormally high concentrations of soluble mesothelin in pleural and peritoneal effusions are highly suggestive of mesothelioma. Knowing this they are hopeful that they might be able to recognize the disease before it spreads too far. “Measurement of mesothelin in effusions…might be a useful adjunct to serum analysis in patients with suspected malignancy,” Dr. Jenette Creaney, at the University of Western Australia in Nedlands, and associates advise.
Researchers are constantly trying to find new and better cures for patients who have been diagnosed with Mesothelioma. One of the clinical treatments that they had experimented with was called Immunotherapy. Immunotherapy is a treatment that promotes or supports the body’s immune system response to a disease.
Diagnosing mesothelioma can sometimes be difficult, because the symptoms are similar to those of a number of other common conditions. Diagnosis usually begins with a review of the patient’s medical history, including any history of asbestos exposure. A complete physical examination may be performed, including x-rays of the chest or abdomen and lung function tests.
Peritoneal mesothelioma is a form of mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the abdominal cavity. It is less common than the pleural form of mesothelioma, comprising approximately one-fifth to one-third of the total number of mesothelioma cases diagnosed. According to the SEER (Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results) database, these diagnoses are approximately 54.7 per cent male versus 45.3 per cent female, with the median age being 65-69.
Chemotherapy is a treatment option that is used to treat mesothelioma. It may be used to achieve different goals, depending on the stage of the cancer at the time of diagnosis and the age and health of the patient as well. Since chemotherapy for mesothelioma is not considered “curative”, the goal is only to control the cancer by stopping its spread or slowing its growth, to shrink tumors prior to other treatments, such as surgery(this is called neoadjuvant chemotherapy).