Mesothelioma and General Health

Scientists at the University of Oxford have indicated that, according to a more sensitive test for Asbestos mesotheliome developed. This cancer arises long after asbestos exposure. The life expectancy of patients is usually short.
The new test analyzes the levels of a protein that is closely associated with the cancer in the fluids around the lungs. Details of the study were published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

Mesothelioma tumors are deadly on the surface of the lung. Although relatively rare, they should be treated because of their position and their limited response to chemotherapy difficult. The disease also occurs in people who have never come in contact with asbestos. Inhalation of asbestos dust seems to be a key risk factor. Most importantly, always craftsmen such as carpenters, plumbers and electricians involved. Since it can take decades to break out a disease, experts expect according to the BBC that the number of diseases in the UK with around 2,200 in 2013 will reach a peak. Laws prohibit the industrialized countries the occupational exposure to asbestos. In developing countries there are no such restrictions. (more…)

Dutch researchers have developed an immunotherapy of mesothelioma. After the “vaccine” has achieved a life-prolonging effects in mice, were now in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine

Most countries have banned since the 70s, although the use of asbestos-containing materials. Due to the long latency of mesothelioma, the number of complications in the next few years, however, still rise. Among them is the pleural mesothelioma. The average survival time is at this very malignant cancer about 12 months. Chemotherapy can prolong it by about three months. A cure is achieved rarely.

In immunotherapy, dendritic cells of the patients in the laboratory with the primary tumor antigens from the patient are brought together. In this way to the tumor cells are sensitized to the patient later injected intradermally or intravenously in the hope that this strengthens the immune response to metastases. In mice, Joachim Aerts could from the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam prolong survival. Now the first ten patients were treated. (more…)