Mesothelioma is difficult to diagnose due to the fact that it can lie dormant in the body for up to five decades and is often undiagnosed until its later stages.
The most common symptoms of pleural mesothelioma is, shortness of breath, chest pain and persistent cough. However, some patients show no symptoms. A common sign is pleural effusion (water on the lungs).
Some symptoms of peritoneal mesothelioma include weight loss, abdominal pain and swelling and intestinal (more…)
Chemotherapy extends life in pleural mesothelioma
For patients with the drug so far as little as a controllable current malignant pleural mesothelioma, there is now a treatment option. Studies have shown that the antifolate pemetrexed in combination with cisplatin can prolong the survival of these patients.
Pemetrexed (Alimta ®) was approved in September for the indication for pleural mesothelioma and second-line chemotherapy in advanced cancer. It is the first drug that has an approval in Europe for the treatment of patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma.
In a large Phase III trial survived the patients who received pemetrexed and cisplatin had an average of twelve months. Untreated patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma usually die within months after diagnosis. Just over half the patients treated with pemetrexed and cisplatin was, after a year still alive. Of the patients in the control group who received only cisplatin, at that time lived only 38 percent. (more…)
And the tumor cells of the mesothelium, which is the tissue that lines the entire abdominal cavity and not only the external surface of internal organs.
People who are most often affected are those who have come in contact with asbestos, or asbestos, even many years before.
There is a percentage of people that the tumor is asymptomatic and therefore diagnosis is more often than by chance for this is the most serious.
The symptoms are:
shortness of breath, chest pain or swelling in the abdominal region.
Usually the first means of diagnosis are an abdominal ultrasound and chest X-ray but sometimes not enough and then if the RX is a good thing can also be used as an examination to confirm or deny, CT or MRI, bronchoscopy, biopsy. (more…)
Malignant pleural mesothelioma can be diagnosed through a minimally invasive surgery called video-review: “the test – said Dr. Mark Alloisio, Head of Thoracic Surgery Humanitas – is symptomatic treatment as well as diagnostic, as during surgery the supernatant pleural fluid relieved the patient.
Furthermore, more studies emphasize how the Tri-modal approach is the most effective therapy against mesothelioma. This treatment uses chemotherapy, surgery and radiotherapy, and has tripled survival.
From the surgical point of view – Alloisio says – a statement is now being represented by extra pleural penumonectomia, which allows the removal of the pleura, the lung and the pericardium and diaphragm. (more…)
The Institute Regina Elena for several years studying the role in cancer biology of a protein called human HtrA1 serine protease, which appears to be altered in pathological situations, either inflammatory-degenerative tumor.
The research group of Professor Alfonso Baldi, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics of the Second University of Naples, in collaboration with the Cancer Institute Regina Elena, was the first to characterize the role of HtrA1 as a tumor suppressor, as the high HtrA1 expression in tumor cells reduces the proliferation and migration capacity of these cells. (more…)
Pleural Mesothelioma
Pemetrexed combined with cisplatin in the treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma
The FDA has approved pemetrexed (Alimta) in combination with cisplatin for the treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer.
This form of cancer is usually associated with exposure to asbestos (asbestos).
When the patient feels the symptoms, the cancer is already well advanced, and survival is only 9-13 months.
The efficacy of pemetrexed has been demonstrated during a clinical trial.
Patients treated with pemetrexed and cisplatin survived longer than patients treated only with cisplatin (12 months versus 9, respectively). (more…)
The diagnosis of pleural mesothelioma should be suspected in the presence of characteristic clinical signs of the condition, especially when paired up with a history of occupational environmental exposure to asbestos.
In the asymptomatic phase, diagnosis is done randomly, following a chest x-ray. Diagnostic imaging is divisive for the characteristic features, clearly visible on x-rays and the computed tomography. The radiological examination of the chest is essential for the precise diagnostic definition, and radiological aspects are variable in relation to the configuration assumed by the neoplastic process. (more…)
Mesothelioma is a cancer that affects cells earnest arising from mesothelial cells lining. Mostly they are located pleural and peritoneal.
Valerio Gennaro, physician in charge of the register Ligurian exposed to asbestos in the meeting of the IAEA data showed that in the provinces of La Spezia cases of mesothelioma are above average even when compared to other provinces of Genoa and Liguria.
The risk factors of mesothelioma is exposure (and in particular inhalation), asbestos, asbestos, exposure to thorium dioxide (thorotrast) for diagnostic purposes and the zeolite. In particular, the majority (70%) of inhaled fibers being eliminated in the sputum or feces. (more…)
It affects predominantly male individuals (70% of total cases) of 40-60 years of age, located mainly in the dorsal and basal pleura. This is a primary tumor, namely, that is formed directly in the pleural tissue thin and not for the spread (metastasis) to other cancers originated in other organs.
Causes: asbestos and other mineral fibers
The outbreak appears to be highly correlated long-term exposure to mineral fibers, particularly asbestos and fluoroedenite. All steps in the processing of minerals from which they derive, extraction is sorted by carding to spinning fibers, and manipulation of derivatives to perform insulation, are considered highly risky for the development of cancer cells, damage mineral fibers are not immediate, but occur on average after three decades. (more…)
These products generally contain asbestos in varying concentrations. This list is not exhaustive and is meant only as a general reference.
* Shaped or preformed coatings used for thermal insulation of pipes and boilers
* Asbestos spray used as fire protection in ducts, fender in the margins, in the panels in the walls, in the axes of the floor, ceiling panels and around structural steel
* Assi insulation used for fire protection, thermal insulation, the partitions and pipes (more…)
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