Novel Clinical Trial Helping Late-Stage Mesothelioma Patients
Late-stage patients with pleural mesothelioma have survived longer than anticipated — with good quality of life — in a phase I clinical trial studying the effectiveness of a novel combination treatment.
The treatment involves galinpepimut-S, the latest targeted cancer vaccine also known as GPS, in combination with Opdivo, a popular immunotherapy drug.
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center is hosting the study sponsored by SELLAS Life Sciences Group, a late-stage clinical biopharmaceutical company based in New York City.
“We’ve seen some very, very positive results,” Dr. Dragan Cicic, director of Clinica...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - June 14, 2022 Category: Environmental Health Authors: Sophia Clifton Tags: Clinical Trials/Research/Emerging Treatments Source Type: news
Sudden Rise in Asbestos Imports as Ban Draws Closer
Importation of raw chrysotile asbestos into the United States increased dramatically earlier this year, despite the growing movement toward tighter regulation and a potential future ban of the product.
The chloralkali industry — the only known user of raw asbestos today within the U.S. — imported an estimated 114 metric tons over the first three months of 2022, according to the United States International Trade Commission.
In all of 2021, by comparison, the industry imported only 100 metric tons, the smallest amount in more than half a century.
This sudden and dramatic rise in imports stems from a stockpiling ...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - June 9, 2022 Category: Environmental Health Authors: Sophia Clifton Tags: Asbestos (general) Source Type: news
Carbone: Building the Guide to BAP1 Mutation in Mesothelioma
Over the years, I have “collected” many families affected by the BAP1 cancer syndrome, a novel medical condition we discovered in 2011. Pathogenic germline mutations, most of them BAP1 mutations, are estimated to be found in 10% of all those diagnosed with mesothelioma.
BAP1 germline mutations occur in people born with only one functioning copy of the BAP1 gene, while the other copy is mutated and inactive. The mutations make these people very susceptible to developing cancer, in particular mesothelioma and melanoma.
On the bright side, when mesothelioma develops in carriers of germline BAP1 mutations, patients h...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - May 31, 2022 Category: Environmental Health Authors: Sophia Clifton Tags: Clinical Trials/Research/Emerging Treatments Source Type: news
Targeted Therapy Making Progress with Pleural Mesothelioma
Future treatment of pleural mesothelioma cancer continued its move toward a more personalized, targeted approach with the latest results from a multi-center clinical trial involving tazemetostat, a novel protein inhibitor.
Tazemetostat, also known as the brand name Tazverik, showed impressive effectiveness in a second line setting for patients with the BAP1 genetic mutation.
The disease control rate for patients was 54.1% at 12 weeks and 32.8% at 24 weeks, numbers that exceeded expectations. There currently is no FDA-approved second-line treatment for pleural mesothelioma, an aggressive cancer with no cure caused pri...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - May 24, 2022 Category: Environmental Health Authors: Sophia Clifton Tags: Clinical Trials/Research/Emerging Treatments Source Type: news
Veterans Getting Closer to Justice at Camp Lejeune
Veterans and their families who were exposed to the contaminated drinking water at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina may soon find the justice they have been seeking for many years.
The U.S. Senate is expected to soon pass legislation that delivers more comprehensive health care and benefits to veterans affected by all toxic exposure during their service.
The Honoring Our PACT Act, a broad, nationwide plan already passed in the House of Representatives, will include the Camp Lejeune Justice Act of 2022, which focuses on four decades of water contamination at the base and the serious health problems it ...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - May 19, 2022 Category: Environmental Health Authors: Sophia Clifton Tags: Veterans Source Type: news
Increasing Numbers of Women Dying from Malignant Mesothelioma
The number of women dying annually from malignant mesothelioma climbed by 25% over the past two decades, despite a nationwide drop in the use of asbestos, the primary cause of the cancer.
The rise in deaths among women contrasts with the numbers among men, which have fallen slightly in recent years, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The statistics were part of the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published on May 13. The report analyzed the annual mesothelioma death rate for women from 1999 to 2020.
“The increasing number of malignant mesothelioma deaths among women m...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - May 17, 2022 Category: Environmental Health Authors: Sophia Clifton Tags: Asbestos Exposure Source Type: news
EPA Proposes Stricter Asbestos Reporting
The United States Environmental Protection Agency has proposed a new rule that would require much stricter reporting and record keeping for all uses of asbestos throughout the past four years.
The rule would require companies that manufacture or process asbestos-containing products to report all types of use, quantities of use and exposure-related information, much of which is not currently required.
It also includes articles containing unintended impurities, such as talc products contaminated with asbestos fibers.
According to the EPA, the data obtained will be used to more accurately guide the agency in future a...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - May 11, 2022 Category: Environmental Health Authors: Sophia Clifton Tags: Asbestos (general) Source Type: news
New Mesothelioma Immunotherapy Clinical Trial Opens at MD Anderson
The acclaimed MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston is opening a phase II clinical trial involving a new immunotherapy drug aimed specifically at advanced, rare cancers, including both pleural and peritoneal mesothelioma.
This single-institution clinical trial will be measuring the safety and effectiveness of vudalimab, also known as XmAb20717, which was designed by the California-based biopharmaceutical company Xencor.
Vudalimab’s uniqueness stems from its ability to block the activation of cell surface proteins PD-1 and CTLA-4. These proteins stop the immune system from working properly and promote T-cell acti...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - May 11, 2022 Category: Environmental Health Authors: Fran Mannino Tags: Clinical Trials/Research/Emerging Treatments Source Type: news
Johnson & Johnson To Continue Global Sale of Talc-Based Baby Powder
Johnson & Johnson will continue selling its iconic talc-based baby powder outside the United States and Canada after shareholders rejected a proposal that would have ended its worldwide production and distribution.
The proposal failed to receive the majority vote needed at J&J’s annual meeting of stockholders last month, which was held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ending global sales was one of 14 issues – and the most controversial – listed in the company’s proxy statement.
J&J discontinued selling Johnson’s Baby Powder throughout the U.S. and Canada in 2020 after being flooded with ...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - May 9, 2022 Category: Environmental Health Authors: Fran Mannino Tags: Asbestos Exposure Source Type: news
Heated Intrathoracic Chemotherapy Could Extend Mesothelioma Survival
Patients with pleural mesothelioma undergoing aggressive surgery should consider combining it with controversial hyperthermic intrathoracic chemotherapy to extend survival, according to a recent study.
Although the procedure, also known as HITHOC, has yet to be proven effective in a randomized clinical trial – and still is being debated by mesothelioma specialists – the report has elevated its status as a potentially useful adjuvant.
“We concluded that the heated chemotherapy, delivered in a specialty center, has shown benefit,” researcher Alan G. Dawson told The Mesothelioma Center at Asbestos.com. “It...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - May 3, 2022 Category: Environmental Health Authors: Fran Mannino Tags: Pleural Treatment Source Type: news
United Kingdom Proposes 40-Year Asbestos Removal Deadline
The United Kingdom’s Work and Pensions Committee has proposed a 40-year timeline to complete the regulated removal of all long-standing legacy asbestos from public and commercial buildings, potentially setting a new standard for other nations to follow.
Its proposal was recently delivered to the House of Commons with a recommendation that the government and Health and Safety Executive incorporate the findings into their approach to asbestos management.
The U.K. already is one of more than 60 nations in the world to have banned asbestos, but none have passed this type of regulation for legacy asbestos, which has bee...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - April 28, 2022 Category: Environmental Health Authors: Fran Mannino Tags: Asbestos Exposure Source Type: news
Peritoneal Mesothelioma HIPEC Program Comes to Alabama
Patients in Alabama diagnosed with peritoneal mesothelioma cancer no longer need to leave the state in pursuit of optimal care and long-term survival. The best possible mesothelioma treatment is now closer to home.
The O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham recently launched a complex treatment program for several abdominal malignancies that combines extensive cytoreductive surgery with hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy, also known as HIPEC.
This combination, used only at select specialty centers throughout the U.S., has been especially effective for peritoneal mesothe...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - April 21, 2022 Category: Environmental Health Authors: Fran Mannino Tags: Treatment Source Type: news
Johnson & Johnson Bankruptcy Plan Won ’t Halt Industrial Talc Lawsuit
Johnson & Johnson may have used a controversial bankruptcy spinoff to avoid almost 40,000 cosmetic talc lawsuits, but it now must face plaintiffs harmed by industrial talcum powder decades ago.
U.S. federal Judge Michael Kaplan ruled earlier this month that the recent bankruptcy plan halting the majority of cases would not apply to this latest class-action lawsuit.
The ruling in a New Jersey Superior Court stems from a complaint first brought in 1986. A man claimed his lung disease was caused by asbestos exposure linked to contaminated talc at his job at Windsor Minerals, a mine in Vermont owned by Johnson & ...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - April 19, 2022 Category: Environmental Health Authors: Fran Mannino Tags: Legal Source Type: news
Study Finds Benefits to Second Peritoneal Mesothelioma Surgery
Patients with peritoneal mesothelioma cancer can survive considerably longer if they are willing and able to undergo a second aggressive surgery following tumor recurrence.
History has proven that an incentive for a repeat surgery is there.
A recent 30-year retrospective review at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center has shown how beneficial the combination of cytoreductive surgery and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy, or HIPEC, can be for several cancers with peritoneal metastasis.
“People often think it’s a one-and-done procedure,” Wake Forest Baptist surgical oncologist Dr. Edward Levine told The M...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - April 13, 2022 Category: Environmental Health Authors: Fran Mannino Tags: Clinical Trials/Research/Emerging Treatments Source Type: news
EPA Proposes Asbestos Ban on Chrysotile
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed a potentially historic ban April 5 that would prohibit all current uses of chrysotile asbestos.
Chrysotile is the only known type of asbestos still being imported into the country today.
The EPA asbestos ban would prohibit the ongoing importation of raw asbestos along with the manufacturing, processing, distribution and commercial use of products containing chrysotile asbestos. It is being proposed under the Toxic Substances Control Act, which was amended in 2016 and designed to address the safety of existing chemicals.
Asbestos is still used in the U.S. today in p...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - April 6, 2022 Category: Environmental Health Authors: Fran Mannino Tags: Asbestos (general) Source Type: news
