Researchers: Mesothelioma Trials Need More Inclusive Criteria
Clinical trials for mesothelioma need more inclusive criteria to better reflect the patients being seen at major cancer treatment centers, according to a recent study conducted in Sydney, Australia.
The study demonstrated a significant difference between those carefully selected for clinical trials and real-world patients with pleural mesothelioma.
“A broader patient population more resembling real life would be able to access the novel treatment early,” Dr. Steven Kao, medical oncologist at Chris O’Brien Lifehouse hospital and one of the study authors, told The Mesothelioma Center at Asbestos.com. “And when the tr...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - February 2, 2021 Category: Environmental Health Authors: Fran Mannino Source Type: news
EPA ’s Asbestos Risk Evaluation Faces Litigation
The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization continued its challenge of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, filing a petition for review Jan. 26 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and an intent to sue notice under the Toxic Substances Control Act.
ADAO, the leading nonprofit aimed at preventing asbestos exposure and raising awareness about mesothelioma, was joined by five public health groups and six doctors and scientists in its latest filings.
The petition for review is aimed at the EPA’s Final Risk Evaluation for Asbestos from earlier this month that was roundly criticized for underestimating the ...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - January 27, 2021 Category: Environmental Health Authors: Fran Mannino Source Type: news
Study: Mesothelioma Survival Rates Rise with SMART Protocol
Using accelerated high-dose radiation prior to surgery produced an unprecedented 65.9-month median survival for a cohort of pleural mesothelioma patients who were part of a larger clinical trial at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto.
Lancet Oncology recently published results of the study, named SMART, an acronym for Surgery for Mesothelioma After Radiation Therapy.
The SMART study involved 96 patients with pleural mesothelioma who were treated in Toronto from 2008 to 2019. All received the intensity-modulated radiotherapy before extrapleural pneumonectomy surgery, an unconventional treatment regimen.
Among the...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - January 21, 2021 Category: Environmental Health Authors: Fran Mannino Source Type: news
Thoracic Chemotherapy May Advance Mesothelioma Treatment
Thoracic surgeon Dr. Marcello Migliore is convinced that adding hyperthermic intrathoracic chemotherapy to aggressive surgery can extend survival significantly for patients with pleural mesothelioma cancer.
He wants others to know that, too.
This seldom-used, controversial procedure, also known as HITHOC, involves circulating a heated, high-concentration chemotherapy solution throughout the chest cavity for 60 minutes immediately following aggressive mesothelioma surgery.
The idea is to kill any microscopic tumor cells that evaded the surgeon, hopefully slowing a potential cancer recurrence.
Unlike HIPEC, a similar procedu...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - January 19, 2021 Category: Environmental Health Authors: Fran Mannino Source Type: news
Statins May Give Boost to Mesothelioma Immunotherapy Drugs
This study, which included both patients with pleural mesothelioma and with advanced non-small cell lung cancer, found a potential synergy with the immunotherapy drugs.
Opdivo and Keytruda, generically called nivolumab and pembrolizumab, respectively, are known as PD-1 inhibitors, drugs that restrict a protein from stopping immune response to cancer cells.
“Statins may lead to prolonged antigen retention on cell membrane and strengthen antigen presentation to T cells, thus suggesting a potential synergy with PD-1 inhibitors,” the authors wrote. “The anti-tumor effect of statins might be attributed to an indirect immu...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - January 7, 2021 Category: Environmental Health Authors: Fran Mannino Source Type: news
EPA Evaluation Finds Asbestos Still An Unreasonable Risk
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released Part 1 of its Final Risk Evaluation for Asbestos, reaffirming preliminary findings from March that were roundly criticized for underestimating the dangers of exposure to this toxic mineral.
Six ongoing use categories of asbestos were evaluated by the EPA, which found 16 conditions of use that presented unreasonable risk to human health through either occupational exposures or consumer uses.
Part 1 of the evaluation, released in late December 2020, involved the chrysotile type of asbestos. Chrysotile is the only type of asbestos being imported, processed or distributed for u...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - January 6, 2021 Category: Environmental Health Authors: Fran Mannino Source Type: news
Judge Rules EPA Must Tighten Asbestos Data Collection
United States District Judge Edward Chen has ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to improve its data collection on the amount of asbestos and asbestos products that are coming into the country.
Chen issued his ruling Tuesday in San Francisco, stemming from a lawsuit brought against the EPA by a group of nonprofit organizations wanting to close the current asbestos reporting loopholes.
The EPA has contended that the voluntary reporting today by manufacturers, processors and importers provided adequate data.
“EPA has not articulated a satisfactory explanation for its decision not to use its significant enforcement ...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - December 23, 2020 Category: Environmental Health Authors: Fran Mannino Source Type: news
Top 10 Mesothelioma and Asbestos News Stories of 2020
Growing allegations of asbestos-contaminated talc in various consumer products, coupled with historic approval of a new treatment for pleural mesothelioma, made 2020 a year filled with both anxiety and hope.
Johnson & Johnson stopped selling its iconic baby powder in May after being hit by thousands of lawsuits contending its talc-based product was causing various cancers, including ovarian cancer and malignant mesothelioma.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the immunotherapy combination of Opdivo and Yervoy in October, the first new drug regimen approved for first-line treatment of unresectable disease in...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - December 15, 2020 Category: Environmental Health Authors: Fran Mannino Source Type: news
Study: Immunotherapy Vaccine for Mesothelioma Still Promising
The ONCOS-102 immunotherapy vaccine continues its move toward future, first-line standard of care treatment for malignant pleural mesothelioma, based upon the latest study follow-up data.
When combined with standard chemotherapy, the genetically modified adenovirus has produced a median overall survival of at least 18.2 months, according to results released in late November from the ongoing clinical trial.
Median overall survival was more than four months better than the control group receiving chemotherapy alone in the randomized trial.
ONCOS-102 is manufactured by Targovax, a small Scandinavian biotech company focused on...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - December 3, 2020 Category: Environmental Health Authors: Fran Mannino Source Type: news
Mesothelioma Patient Research Expanding in United Kingdom
The University of Sheffield has launched the Mesothelioma UK Research Centre-Sheffield, the country’s first experience-based program designed to improve the treatment and care of patients diagnosed with this aggressive, asbestos-related cancer.
Based in South Yorkshire, England, the University of Sheffield hopes to become an international pioneer in patient-led mesothelioma research.
“The program will build on our legacy of research from a number of years,’’ Dr. Clare Gardiner, of the University of Sheffield Health Sciences School and program co-director, told The Mesothelioma Center at Asbestos.com. “Our resear...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - November 30, 2020 Category: Environmental Health Authors: Fran Mannino Source Type: news
Mesothelioma Surgery with Organ Removal Extends Survival
Removing major organs to achieve a more complete cancer resection did not increase severe complications or hinder survival benefits of aggressive surgery for patients with peritoneal mesothelioma, according to a recent report.
The increased complexity of organ resection surgery will not adversely affect long-term outcomes, according to the multicenter study published in Annals of Surgical Oncology.
By comparison, an incomplete cytoreduction that can spare the organs is associated with increased mortality and shorter overall survival.
The study, which involved 174 patients across 12 specialty centers within the U.S., accent...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - November 17, 2020 Category: Environmental Health Authors: Fran Mannino Source Type: news
Latest T-Cell Clinical Trial Opens for Mesothelioma Patients
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City has begun recruiting patients with pleural mesothelioma for its latest — and potentially most promising — clinical trial involving T-cell therapy.
The novel study stems from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s recent Investigational Drug Application approval of ATA2271, a chimeric antigen receptor known as CAR T-cell therapy.
This latest therapy will be tested in a phase I, dose-escalation clinical trial. It will involve the removal and genetic modification of a patient’s T cells, a type of white blood cell, that will be separated in the laboratory through...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - October 8, 2020 Category: Environmental Health Authors: Fran Mannino Source Type: news
Congress Fails to Vote on Asbestos Ban Legislation
The U.S. House of Representatives last week failed to advance once-promising legislation that effectively would have banned asbestos, frustrating advocates once again.
H.R. 1603, titled the Alan Reinstein Ban Asbestos Now Act of 2020, had been expected to pass easily under a Congressional procedure reserved for broadly supported, non-controversial legislation.
The bipartisan House Committee on Energy and Commerce had voted earlier, 47-1, to move it forward, fueling considerable optimism leading into the latest Congressional session.
If passed, the bill would have then moved to the U.S. Senate, which also had shown bipartis...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - October 7, 2020 Category: Environmental Health Authors: Fran Mannino Source Type: news
Johnson & Johnson Will Pay $100M in Baby Powder Lawsuits
Pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson has agreed to pay more than $100 million to settle more than a thousand lawsuits claiming its iconic talc-based baby powder caused cancer, according to Bloomberg News.
The settlement stems from burgeoning litigation after earlier asbestos-contaminated talc was found in one of its products.
Johnson & Johnson, the world’s largest maker of health care merchandise, recalled 33,000 bottles of its baby powder in 2019, “out of an abundance of caution.”
It also stopped selling talc-based baby powder the same year in the United States and Canada, switching to a cornstarch-based ...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - October 6, 2020 Category: Environmental Health Authors: Matt Mauney Source Type: news
Johnson & Johnson Settles 1K Baby Powder-Asbestos Lawsuits
Pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson has agreed to pay more than $100 million to settle an more than a thousand lawsuits claiming its iconic baby powder caused cancer, according to Bloomberg News.
The settlement stems from burgeoning litigation after earlier asbestos-contaminated talc was found in one of its products.
Johnson & Johnson, the world’s largest maker of health care merchandise, recalled 33,000 bottles of its baby powder in 2019, “out of an abundance of caution.”
It also stopped selling talc-based baby powder the same year in the United States and Canada, switching to a cornstarch-based product....
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - October 6, 2020 Category: Environmental Health Authors: Matt Mauney Source Type: news
