Mesothelioma Clinics

The New Form of Cancer : Mesothelimia

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 8 Feb 2012 07:27:00 -0800

Mesothelioma is a form of cancer that is almost always caused by exposure to asbestos. In this disease, malignant cells develop in the mesothelium, a protective lining that covers most of the organs. The most common site is the pleura (the outer layer of the lungs and internal chest wall), but may also occur in the peritoneum (the lining of the abdominal cavity), heart, pericardium (the sac that surrounds the heart) or tunica vaginalis.

Most people who develop mesothelioma have worked on jobs where they inhaled asbestos particles, or they have been exposed to asbestos dust and fibers in other ways. It has also been suggested that washing the clothes of family members who work with asbestos can put someone at risk for developing mesothelioma. Unlike lung cancer, no association between mesothelioma and smoking, but smoking greatly increases the risk of other asbestos-caused cancer. Compensation via asbestos funds or lawsuits is an important issue in mesothelioma.

Symptoms of mesothelioma include shortness of breath due to pleural effusion (fluid between the lung and the chest wall) or chest wall pain, and general symptoms such as weight loss. Diagnosis can be suspected with chest X-rays and a CT scan, and confirmed with a biopsy (tissue sample) and microscopic. A thoracoscopy (inserting a tube with a camera into the chest) can be used to take biopsies. This allows the introduction of substances such as talc to obliterate the pleural space (called pleurodesis), which prevents more fluid from accumulating and pressing on the lung. Despite treatment with chemotherapy, radiation therapy or sometimes surgery, the disease carry a poor prognosis. Research about screening tests for early detection of mesothelioma is ongoing.

The Symptoms of Pancreatic Cancer

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 8 Feb 2012 07:27:00 -0800

Hi friends ... I have not made any new posts .... I hope you miss me. This time I want to write about one type of cancer. We know there are many types of cancer, and it is featured each day, will never be finished. Cancer that I will tell is a cancer that attacks the pancreas or commonly referred to as Pancreatic Cancer.

Pancreatic Cancer often goes undetected until it's advanced and difficult to treat. In the vast majority of cases, symptoms only develop after pancreatic cancer has grown and begun to spread. What are the symptoms of pancreatic cancer, and can any symptoms lead to earlier detection? Because more than 95% of pancreatic cancer is the adenocarcinoma type, we'll describe those symptoms first, followed by symptoms of rare forms of pancreatic cancer.

Because the pancreas is located deep within the abdominal cavity in front of the spine, pancreatic cancer often grows silently months before detection. The first symptoms may be absent or it must be very thin. The most recognizable symptoms develop after a tumor grows large enough to overwhelm other nearby structures such as nerves (pain), intestines (which influence appetite and cause nausea, weight loss) or the biliary ducts (which causes jaundice, or yellowing of the skin and may cause loss of appetite and itching). Symptoms in women are often different from men. After the tumour is cancerous cells in the blood and lymph systems, and metastasized, more symptoms usually occur depending on the location of the metastasis. Frequent metastatic pancreatic cancer sites, including the liver, lymph nodes and the mucous membrane of the stomach (called peritoneum). Unfortunately, most types of pancreatic cancer are after cancer has grown outside of the pancreas or has metastasized to other places.

HOW TO PREVENT STROKE

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 10:35:00 -0800

Stroke is the third leading cause of death (after heart disease and cancer), and the number one cause of disability worldwide. The report of health department of the Republic of Indonesia (2007) noted that the stroke is the leading cause of death in hospital. Various studies have shown that stroke services in many parts of the world are still less than optimal. Delays in patients coming to hospital, lack of adequate diagnostic facilities and treatment, and lack of integrated cooperation among team members is a major provider of health problems in the treatment of stroke.
In each year, on October 29 is celebrated as "the day of stroke in the entire world." Day of stroke in the entire world that was initiated by the World Stroke Organization, a worldwide organization whose members include doctors, medical officers, and people who care about the stroke service. Day strokes around the world carrying the message that "stroke is a stroke can be prevented and treated." Theme days a year throughout the world stroke is "what can I do?". An important question for everyone who cares about the heart and stroke to inspire action. The challenge for everyone to be able to give a small contribution to stroke care in the world getting better.

Stroke can be prevented
Stroke is caused by the accumulation of risk factors for stroke. Stroke risk factors exist that can not be changed, and some can be changed. Risk factors for stroke that can not be changed are age, gender, race, family history, and history of previous stroke. Men are more prone to strokes than women. Old age is also more susceptible to stroke from a young age. Colored races are more prone to stroke than whites. Someone with a family history of stroke have a greater risk for stroke as well. Various risk factors for stroke are a risk factor that can not be changed.
There is also a risk factor for stroke that can be changed. Major risk factors for stroke are hypertension. Various studies show that 60% -70% of stroke patients suffer from hypertension at the time admitted. A common problem encountered is the ignorance and indifference to most members of the community about hypertension. Hypertension did not provide specific symptoms. A patient with hypertension will come of treatment because of complications caused by hypertension. That's what causes hypertension is called the "silent killer." Hypertension will kill people calmly and slowly, almost without symptoms. When we realize, the complications become more severe hypertension (eg heart disease, stroke and kidney failure).
Other risk factors for stroke can be changed are diabetes, high blood cholesterol, obesity, smoking, sleep disturbances, and excessive blood viscosity. Same with hypertension, stroke risk factors that are often overlooked and less well managed.
Stroke prevention begins with recognizing the risk factors for stroke in all of us. Ask the following questions to yourself: "? I know my last blood sugar levels?" "I know my blood pressure this month",, "I never measure my waist?", And "I Know my blood cholesterol?" . If there are 2 or more answers "no", then that means you are less concerned. Identifying risk factors for stroke that can be controlled to yourself, at relatives or your family, and the people around you.
The next step is to control stroke risk factors. Control high blood pressure by limiting salt intake, avoid stress, eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, quitting smoking, and exercise regularly. In circumstances that are often needed drug intervention to support the lifestyle changes that have been cultivated. Various studies have shown the success of intervention programs to reduce the incidence of risk factors for stroke. The incidence of stroke in different countries showed a decrease due to the success of the reduction of salt intake, stop smoking campaign, and a diet rich in fruits and vegetables.

Stroke can be prevented
One of the main issues in the handling of optimal stroke is a race against time. A term known as "time is brain". The main goal of stroke treatment is to save the brain tissue deficient supply of nutrients and oxygen. Time Limits optimal treatment of stroke is 4.5 hours. The more rapid diagnosis and appropriate treatment, the greater the like lihood of recovery.
One major obstacle is the delay in the management of stroke patients coming to hospital care. The main causes of delay in coming to the hospital are less familiar symptoms of a stroke by the public. Association of stroke in the United States campaign for the use of simple measuring tools for early detection of stroke. This tool is known as FAST (Face, Arm, Speech, and Say Test). In the Indonesian language of this size can be translated as "smile movement, and talk." Measurement campaign is shown to improve patient arrival to the hospital. This tool is used by asking the patient to smile, raised his hand, and speaking. One of the movement dysfunction, smile and greeting should be suspected as symptoms of a stroke until proven not.

What can I do?
Theme days a year throughout the world stroke is "what can I do?". A critical question that challenges all parties concerned about the stroke service. Society should be more concerned neighbor risk factor for stroke. Ask yourself and the people closest to you "already know whether blood tension this week?" When not measure your blood pressure, and when the high did immediately intervene to lower blood pressure. Do something similar to blood sugar and cholesterol. Remind yourself and those closest to you to stop smoking.
Stroke is a medical emergency. Step diagnosis and appropriate treatment will provide optimal results. Immediately recognize a stroke, and immediately taken to hospital with stroke facilities. Campaign "smile, movement, and talk" can be used to suspect that someone has a stroke. Medical officers involved in the management of stroke should look at stroke as a medical emergency. Treatment of stroke is a race against time. In such conditions, rapid and appropriate treatment would be necessary. Successful treatment of stroke will depend on the cooperation of patients, families, and medical officers. Let us welcome the day a stroke in the whole world, hoping "to get a better stroke services in Indonesia.

THE BENEFITS OF TEA for HUMAN BODY

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 10:35:00 -0800

The benefits of tea, like: an antioxidant, repairing damaged cells, to smooth skin, to slim body, to prevent cancer, to prevent heart disease, to lower cholesterol levels in the blood, the blood circulation. So, tea has many benefits for human body.

Groups and the naming of tea made from processing methods before and after they are picked from the tree, namely:

1. Black Tea / Black Tea:

It is processing through a full fermentation process. Also known as red tea.

2. Oolong tea / Oolong Tea:

It is processing through half the process of fermentation. This is a favorite beverage in China and India.

3. Green Tea / Green Tea:

It is not in processing through fermentation process. After the tea leaves are picked directly processed. Has the best efficacy. The results showed that green tea may reduce cancer risk. Gaining popularity in Asia namely China and Japan.

4. White tea:

It is processing through the process of oxidation. When the tree, tea leaves are also protected from sunlight so it does not produce chlorophyll or green leaf substance. Because produce fewer, more expensive.

The useful of substance in a cup of tea:

Tea not only use for soft drinks, tea can also be used as a therapy for health. If we drink a cup of tea, then we at least know what the substance is the best that is in a cup of tea we drink. Each substance contained in tea known as a beverage rich in benefits? Here are some useful main substances contained in a cup of tea.

Polyphenols

Tea polyphenols is like catechin and flavanols. These compounds act as antioxidants to capture free radicals in the body is also effective in preventing the development of cancer cells in the body. Free radicals in our body due to air pollution environmental pollution and also from the food we eat.

Vitamin E

In a cup of tea contains vitamin E as much as about 100-200 IU a day which is a requirement for the human body. This amount serves to maintain a healthy heart and make your skin smooth.

Vitamin C

This vitamin serves as an immunity or resistance to the human body. In addition, vitamin C also functions as an antioxidant that is necessary for the human body's defense against disease.

Vitamin A

Vitamin A has much of beta-carotene tea is a vitamin that the body needs can be met.

Kinds of Tea

A substance contained in tea is very easily oxidized. When the tea leaves in the sun, then the oxidation process occurs. Types of tea are commonly known in the community are green tea, Oolong tea (such as Java tea Oolung / Ulung), black tea and white tea. Green tea contains the most good because the manufacturing processes, the type of tea is not dried by sun drying but use this technique in particular. While the types of tea are processed by fermentation.

Some substance in tea that not good for human body

In addition to the benefits of tea, there are also other substances contained in tea that results are not good for the body. Caffeine in tea (tehine) can cause food absorption process becomes inhibited. Limit safe to consume caffeine in one day is 750 mg / day, equivalent to 5 cups of tea 200 ml.

Should be avoided when drinking tea

There also should you consider when you drink tea for useful substances in the body does not disappear, among others:

•Do not drink tea during or after a meal because of substances contained in foods can be stolen by tea stimulant substances.

• Do not drink tea on an empty stomach because it can increase stomach acid production.

• Avoid drinking tea laced with sugar because it causes the substances they contain will be reduced.

• Do not drink tea that has been all night because it has many substances that are oxidized and stale, so the impact is not good for the body.

• Avoid drinking tea during pregnancy and lactation.

Because the substance and the stimulant caffeine in tea can stimulate uterine contractions. In addition to nursing mothers would disrupt the production of milk-producing glands or breast-feeding mothers.

How to brew tea:

It is not lost in the manufacturing process is a way to brew tea. To avoid errors when brewing tea, you should consider how to make tea if it is correct or not. Because of this error can cause the tea does not provide benefits for people who drink it. To make tea, use boiling water temperature 80 degrees Celsius, do not use water with temperatures higher than 80 degrees because it can make us lose the benefits of tea.

In addition, the tea can be mixed with milk. Tea mixed with milk or commonly known as milk tea can reduce the stimulant effects of tea as a stimulant substance will bind calcium in milk tea.

Another way is to add the lemon that often we know called Lemon Tea. Lemon will provide protection for digestion, because the citric acid in the lemon to prevent the crust in the intestinal wall.

Around the world there are many ways people drink tea. In Britain, members of the United Kingdom have a habit of drinking a cup of tea every afternoon. In other parts of the world's tea drinking habit was also performed. All depends on you and habits in your culture. But do not forget to pay attention to some of the instructions mentioned above while drinking tea. Enjoy a cup of tea!

Breast Cancer

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 3 Jan 2012 08:34:00 -0800

Breast cancer usually begins in the cells in the lobules, the glands that produce milk, or milk ducts glands channels, channels that connect the lobules to the 'nipple'. Rarely, breast cancer began in the stroma tissue, including breast tissue.

Over time, cancer cells can spread to healthy breast tissue makes its way to the lymph nodes in the armpit, a small organ that filters objects small organ that filters foreign objects foreign substances in the body. If cancer cells have spread to lymph nodes, then this becomes a way to other parts of the body. Breast cancer is always caused by abnormalities in genes (a "mistake" in the genetic material). Only 5-10% of cancers than inherited from the mother or father. Kirakira 90% of breast cancer is because breast adala because of a genetic disorder that occurs as a result of aging and other processes.

A person affected by this disease must be willing to perform various types of tests, examinations and treatment to undergo a series of super-intensive. All this is done for the development of cancer cells to spread wild-level known. This is what is called 'stage'. Stage 1 to stage 4 which at this stage, usually the breast must be removed.

Hypertension

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 3 Jan 2012 08:33:00 -0800

Stroke is the number one cause of disability and third leading cause of death (after heart disease and cancer) worldwide. Stroke provides a large health burden for the disabled and their families. Economic burden caused by stroke is also so heavy. Hypertension is a risk factor for stroke, the most important and consistent.

Hypertension is one of the major diseases in the world, at nearly 50 million people in the United States, and nearly 1 billion people around the world. The prevalence of hypertension increases, in accordance with age. Someone called the have hypertension if their blood pressure more than 140/90 mmHg, or more than 135/85 mgHg in individuals with heart failure, renal insufficiency, or diabetes mellitus. Hypertension is a risk factor for stroke and coronary heart disease is the most consistent and important. Hypertension increases the risk of stroke 2-4 times as much, not depending on other risk factors.

For over three decades, various associations of health professionals across the globe are working hard to improve prevention and better treatment for hypertension. This work involves campaigns for the public to be more careful of hypertension. High blood pressure awareness campaign is a huge problem.

This is primarily due to high blood pressure causes no symptoms/complaints. A complaint occurs when target organ damage has occurred, and if that happened we were late step in managing hypertension. Large-scale epidemiological studies have shown that the number of people with hypertension worldwide has reached 1 billion, with mortality from diseases associated with hypertension reach 7100 thousand people die each year from diseases associated with hypertension (such as stroke and heart disease).

Obesity Linked to Higher Esophageal Cancer Death Rates

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 04:34:00 -0800

Obese people who have had surgery to treat esophageal cancerare twice as likely to have a recurrence of the disease or die from cancer within five years as patients of normal weight, according to a new study.

In the study, published in the Dec. 1 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, researchers from theMayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., suggested their findings could change the way some doctors treatobese patients with this type of cancer.

The investigators followed 778 people who had surgery for esophageal cancer and found that those who were classified as obese (a body mass index of 30 or higher) had a five-year survival rate of 18 percent. That survival rate jumped to 36 percent among people who were not overweight.

"Obesity is considered a risk factor in the development of this cancer, which is known to be both highly lethal and increasingly common," the study's lead investigator, Dr. Harry Yoon, an oncologist at the Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center, said in a Mayo news release. "But prior to this study, we did not really understand the impact of obesity in this upper gastrointestinal cancer."

The study authors pointed out that their findings applied only to nonsmokers who had their esophagus removed. Yoon added that previous research has linked obesity to greater risk for cancer as well as increased risk of death from other types of tumors because extra weight results in a chronic inflammatory state.

The researchers noted their findings could change the approach they take with obese patients with esophageal cancer.

"As an oncologist, I did not typically speak to my patients about excess body weight as part of their care, because we are more often concerned about weight loss and maintaining proper nutrition, but that may change," said Yoon. "It would be helpful to be able to offer patients some measures that they can take to possibly impact their prognosis."

More information

The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more about obesity and cancer.

Cancer Survivors Should Take Steps to Keep Healthy During Holidays

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 04:33:00 -0800

The holiday season can be especially meaningful for cancer survivors, but they need to take steps to ensure they stay healthy through this often hectic and stressful time.

One in 20 U.S. adults is a cancer survivor and their ranks are growing. Many of these folks have long-term health needs due to the disease and its treatment, experts at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center pointed out in a center news release.

Karen Syrjala, co-director of the center's Survivorship Program, offers holiday health tips for cancer survivors, including the following:

Be prepared for your holiday stress points. Take steps to deal with family conflicts or trying to do too much. For example, if you have to see a difficult relative, plan something fun afterward so you can look forward to doing something enjoyable.
Take control of your time and eliminate holiday events or traditions you feel you can do without. Also, try to postpone non-holiday events until the new year.
Make sure to schedule time with people who mean the most to you. Spending time with those closest to you has a beneficial effect on both the body and brain.
Keep physically active during the holidays and all through the year. It's good for your overall health and may even reduce your cancer-related risks.
Eat a healthy diet. Focus more on giving your body what it needs (such as fruits and vegetables) and less on trying not to eat certain foods. Eating healthy foods before going to a party will make it easier to resist sweets and other unhealthy foods. Consult a nutritionist if you're not sure what is healthy for you or if you have digestion problems.
Avoid alcohol or drink in moderation. Alcohol has been linked with an increased risk of cancer.
Find time to relax your body and mind, and tend to your body's needs. If you're having physical problems, make a list and schedule an appointment with your doctor in the new year. Knowing you have a plan for dealing with these problems can ease your mind during the holidays.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about cancer survivors.

Opting to track, not treat, early prostate cancer

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 02:20:00 -0800

John Shoemaker visited six doctors in his quest to find the best treatment for his early stage prostate cancer — and only the last one offered what made the most sense to the California man: Keep a close watch on the tumor and treat only if it starts to grow.

Very few men choose this active surveillance option. Yet Shoemaker is one of more than 100,000 men a year deemed candidates for it by a government panel. That's because their prostate cancer carries such a low risk of morphing into the kind that could kill.

The risk for them is so low, in fact, that specialists convened recently by the National Institutes of Health say it's time to strip the name "cancer" off these small, lazy tumors.

In the meantime, the panel wants more of those men offered the option of delaying treatment until regular check-ups show it's really needed. That endorsement promises to fuel efforts by the Prostate Cancer Foundation and a few other groups to spread the word to the newly diagnosed.

Shoemaker's journey shows how difficult that may be, from doctors who don't even bring it up to the fear factor.

"With prostate cancer, you hear the "C'' word, so to speak, and people freak out," says Shoemaker, 69, a businessman from Los Altos, Calif., who was intent on examining all his options.

Five years after his diagnosis — and five biopsies plus numerous blood tests and ultrasound scans later — Shoemaker's happy he found a surgeon who argued against immediate treatment. He's confident his prostate tumor hasn't grown, and avoided the pain and side effects of surgery or radiation.

Some 240,000 men a year in the U.S. are diagnosed with prostate cancer. Earlier this month, the NIH-appointed panel found that most have the low-risk kind, a legacy of using problematic PSA blood tests to screen healthy men for possible signs of this slow-growing cancer that will affect most men's prostates if they live long enough.

Yet 90 percent of such men choose immediate treatment such as surgery or radiation, risking serious and long-lasting side effects, such as impotence or incontinence, without good evidence about who will live longer as a result. One recent study tracked 731 men diagnosed with early stage prostate cancer for 10 years and found no difference in survival between those who had surgery and those who weren't treated unless they went on to develop cancer symptoms, an older option known as watchful waiting.

Active surveillance is much more aggressive than watchful waiting — men get regular scans, blood tests and biopsies to check the tumor, although the NIH panel found the degree of monitoring can vary by medical center. Active surveillance is designed to monitor men closely enough that they can get curative treatment quickly if it looks like they'll need it, well before any symptoms would begin.

"It's not treatment versus no treatment; it's about timing of treatment," Shoemaker's physician, Dr. Peter Carroll of the University of California, San Francisco, told the NIH. He's a well-known prostate cancer surgeon who also leads one of the country's few large active-surveillance programs, tracking more than 900 men for over five years. Most are treatment-free so far, and none has gone on to die of prostate cancer.

What's the advice for men? The NIH panel said men with a PSA level less than 10 and a Gleason score that's 6 or less are candidates for this type of active surveillance. The Gleason score measures how aggressive prostate cancer cells look under the microscope. Urologists can provide those numbers.

Then what? Today, what men decide to do next largely depends on the advice of the specialist they wind up seeing, and many either don't offer active surveillance or present it in a negative way, as doing nothing, the NIH panel learned. There's also the patient's instinctive "get it out" reaction.

Enter the National Proactive Surveillance Network — at http://www.npsn.net — a collaboration of two large active-surveillance programs, at Johns Hopkins University and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, with the Prostate Cancer Foundation. First, it aims to educate men about active surveillance.

Within a few months, an interactive section of the site will be added to link men with doctors who offer active surveillance and track how they fare with input straight from the patients themselves, said Hopkins' Dr. H. Ballentine Carter.

"To me, it's an individualized approach rather than the one-size-fits-all approach of treating everyone," Carter says.

Beyond whether and how men choose surveillance, behavioral scientist Kathryn Taylor of Georgetown University wants to know how they decide to stick with it. About a quarter of men abandon the observation approach within two or three years, and as many as half by five years, the NIH panel learned. It's not clear how much of that was because they needed treatment, and how much was just the anxiety or getting tired of repeat biopsies.

Taylor is beginning a study of 1,500 newly diagnosed, low-risk prostate cancer patients at Kaiser Permanente in Northern California to see how many are told about active surveillance and what helped or hindered their decision.

"Living with untreated cancer is very difficult," she says, "and not everybody can do it, not surprisingly."

Former Miss Venezuela dies of breast cancer at 28

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 02:19:00 -0800

Former Miss Venezuela Eva Ekvall, whose struggle with breast cancer was closely followed by Venezuelans, has died at age 28.

Her family said Ekvall died Saturday at a hospital in Houston.

Ekvall was crowned Miss Venezuela at age 17 in 2000, and the following year she was third runner-up in the Miss Universe pageant in Puerto Rico. She went on to work as a model, actress and television news anchor.

She also authored a book, "Fuera de Foco" ("Out of Focus"), about her struggle with cancer, which included images by Venezuelan photographer Roberto Mata.

She told the newspaper El Nacional in an interview last year after the book was published that "I needed to send the message of the need for cancer prevention."

On the cover was a portrait in which she appeared with makeup and her head shaved. The book also included images of her while going through chemotherapy.

"I hate to see photos in which I come out ugly," Ekvall told El Nacional. "But you know what? Nobody ever said cancer is pretty or that I should look like Miss Venezuela when I have cancer."

At the time, she was hopeful of overcoming cancer and wanted to write more.

Ekvall's family said in a statement Sunday that her remains were being cremated in Houston on Monday and that a service is to be held in Venezuela once her remains are returned to the country.

Ekvall said in a 2007 interview published in Venezuelan news media that although her mother is Jamaican and her father is American of Swedish and Hungarian descent, "I feel more Venezuelan than anybody."

She was married to radio producer John Fabio Bermudez and had a 2-year-old daughter.

In her book, Ekvall had described her joy at the birth of her daughter saying "that happiness, although (the daughter) may not know it or understand it, keeps me alive today."

The book included emails that she wrote to friends providing updates on her treatment and thanking them for their support, as well as short essays by relatives and friends reflecting on her ordeal.

Her father, Eric Ekvall, recalled in the book that his mother, also named Eva, had died of the same type of cancer at age 39.

"Those who know Eva know she doesn't give up," he said of his daughter. "She fights for what she wants."

Her death brought an outpouring of condolences from Venezuelans, including from some prominent artists and politicians who praised her in messages on Twitter.

One drawing posted online depicted her as an angel with white wings and a pink ribbon on her chest.

Ekvall's husband posted a photo on Twitter Sunday showing a close-up of his hand holding hers, resting on a bed, with the words "Always together ... I love you wife."

Health panel takes heat on cancer screening advice

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 14:03:00 -0800

Dr. Ned Calonge knows firsthand how hard it is to tell Americans they'd be better off with fewer routine medical tests.

A long-time family doctor in Colorado, Calonge presided over the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an influential government-backed panel of health experts, when it said that most women under 50 could skip their regular mammograms.

The recommendation two years ago challenged the conviction of many breast cancer patients that they survived precisely because they were screened early. It unleashed a public fury that has weighed on the panel's deliberations ever since.

"We blew the message," said Calonge, now president and CEO of the Colorado Trust foundation. "The nuance was completely gone."

Two men phoned in death threats to Calonge. Protesters showed up by the offices of the government agency that supports the panel, tucked away in a Maryland suburb. The furor slowed down work on a decision to limit prostate cancer screenings as President Barack Obama fought to pass his signature healthcare law and his Democratic party faced a mid-term election challenge in 2010.

"There was a lot of pressure from above to be more careful politically and orchestrate things better," said Dr. Kenneth Lin, who at the time was an officer at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), a Department of Health and Human Services entity that supports the panel. "Everything with the word 'cancer' got shoved back."

Calonge rotated off the panel this past March after eight years, while Lin quit AHRQ late last year in protest over the delay to prostate cancer screening guidelines that were only released in October. A White House official noted that Calonge has attributed the delay in a final decision on prostate cancer screenings to scheduling conflicts.

Their experience shows just how difficult it will be to curb spiraling costs in the world's most expensive healthcare system by determining what screenings work, based on a rigorous study of clinical evidence, and what can lead to unnecessary and risky procedures.

"More screening is not always better," said Dr. Christine Laine, a general internist and editor of the Annals of Internal Medicine who is not part of the panel. "That message is lost in healthcare in general."

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force is right on the firing line. For much of its 27-year history, it helped convince millions of Americans to get screened early for disease.

Now the panel of primary care doctors, nurses and academics has reviewed a growing body of research that shows some early screening harms more people than it helps. But it has struggled to convince patients and doctors.

In the wake of the mammogram guidelines, the rate of such screenings for women aged 40 to 69 was barely changed in 2010 compared with 2009, according to the National Committee for Quality Assurance.

"We have a public health measure that we know is effective. Why is it continually being questioned?" said Dr. Carol Lee, breast imaging commission chairwoman at the American College of Radiology.

Graphic on mammograms: http://link.reuters.com/zuc25s

Graphic on U.S. cancer rates: http://link.reuters.com/byc25s

BROACHING THE NEGATIVES

The public at large is no less skeptical. A recent Gallup poll showed that nearly 60 percent of Americans believed that standard cancer screenings - including mammograms and prostate specific antigen (PSA) blood tests - were performed often enough. Thirty-one percent thought they should be conducted more frequently. Only 7 percent said they were done too often.

"It's extraordinarily hard to give up the notion that there's a way to protect yourself from dying from cancer... Our goal here is to make it a matter of evidence, not a matter of opinion," said Virginia Moyer, a pediatrician from Baylor College of Medicine, who now chairs the 16-member panel.

"Our successes are measured in positives," she said of the public's growing awareness of screening in the last three decades. "We are just beginning to approach the negatives."

Burned by the experience with mammograms, the task force is looking for a better way to deliver the message, consulting with powerful consumer interest groups, hiring public relations professionals and reworking some of the language tied to its system of letter-based recommendations.

"We're spending more time paying attention to how we say things to make sure it's understood well," said long-time panel member and current co-vice chair Dr. Michael LeFevre, a professor of family medicine at the University of Missouri School of Medicine. "We have no interest in being some wizard behind the curtain."

The panel now issues its recommendations in draft form first and solicits public comment before making them final. In about a year, the public may have a chance to chime in early on the evaluation process, including posing questions for researchers and reviewing the evidence report draft used by the panel.

Task force officials concede that the comments are unlikely to change the recommended letter grade, unless they introduce crucial new evidence. But they can point to misunderstandings and help the panel better craft its message.

In late October, the panel met with consumer interest groups, including retired persons lobby AARP and the Consumers Union, to get input on how to frame recommendations that was once reserved for patient advocates.

The public's participation has been unprecedented. The panel is now finalizing its PSA prostate cancer recommendation and public comments on the subject have reached into the thousands, LeFevre said.

WEIGHING THE EVIDENCE

The 2009 mammogram guidance from the task force was based on the panel's assessment of new research that showed most women over 40 face a 3 percent risk of dying from breast cancer if they have not been screened. Beginning mammogram screening at age 50 and following up every other year reduced that risk to 2.3 percent, compared with 2.2 percent risk starting at age 40.

An extra decade of screening could invite harms such as unnecessary biopsies and tests, the possible treatment of non-deadly cancers and radiation. Women in their forties are also more likely to receive false positive results.

Another view of the data showed that starting screening at age 40 led to 5,000 more mammograms, 500 false positive results and 33 biopsies for every breast cancer death prevented, according to LeFevre.

"If it was just how many deaths do you cause versus how many deaths you prevent, that would be too easy, that would be simple math," LeFevre said. "We start with somebody who feels well, and we risk making them feel worse."

The panel voted on a "C" recommendation, which calls for patients to decide on the screening with their doctor. But when the recommendation came out in November 2009, it started with a sentence saying the panel "recommends against" routine mammograms for most women under 50, and that language triggered the controversy.

Under pressure, the task force dropped the phrase "recommends against" a month later. Its rating on mammograms remains a "C."

The American Cancer Society questioned the evidence, saying the panel focused on gold-standard clinical trials but weeded out newer observational studies that showed better results.

"Screening is not perfect and it's not error-free, but the question is... do you take protective measures against the unlikely probability that you develop cancer... or do you take your chances?" said Robert Smith, director of cancer screening at the ACS.

That calculation still appears to be guiding doctors, either out of concern of missing an early sign of disease or fear of lawsuits, health experts said.

"Shared decision-making (between doctors and patients) sounds nice, but in practice usually you just end up doing the test," said Dr. Roger Chou, an internist and researcher at the Oregon Evidence-Based Practice Center. Chou authored the report on prostate cancer behind this year's task force recommendation.

POLITICAL RUMBLINGS

The heat over mammograms weighed on deliberations over prostate cancer screening. In 2008, the task force gave an "I" recommendation on the PSA test in healthy men under 75, which meant it had insufficient evidence to make a call.

The panel usually updates its recommendations every five years, but new research published in 2009 warranted an earlier evaluation. One U.S. study showed a slightly higher risk of death for men with no symptoms of illness who received a PSA test, while European research showed a slightly lower risk of death.

Although the PSA blood test itself is innocuous, data reviewed by the task force also showed that 90 percent of American men who tested positive got treated, even if they may have been able to forego it, LeFevre said. Out of 1,000 men treated, five would die, 70 would have serious complications and 200 to 300 would be impotent or incontinent.

Given the possibility of false positives in the screening and the fact that prostate cancer can take many years to progress and show symptoms, the question is whether those risks are greater than the risk of doing nothing.

"It looks like your chance of being alive and well is greater if you don't get screened than if you do get screened," LeFevre said.

In November 2009, task force members voted on a stronger "D" rating on PSA tests, meaning they recommended against the prostate cancer screening in men under 75.

But the timing was poor as Obama struggled to win over a majority of lawmakers for his healthcare overhaul and Congressional elections loomed large. Once the law was passed in March 2010, it brought more attention to the task force by mandating insurance coverage of services it does recommend.

Republicans opposed to the bill used the mammogram example to show how government could intrude on life or death decisions. The task force's "C" and "D" recommendations don't dictate insurance coverage, but Congress quickly turned around legislation to make sure insurers covered mammograms for women in their forties.

"The thought that my work was being use as a fulcrum by one party to kill the most substantial part of healthcare legislation since I've been in practice? I've got to tell you, that's something to lose sleep over," Calonge said.

Officials working with the panel heard that more controversy could threaten the task force budget, up for Congressional approval. In 2010, Health Department funding for the panel was $4.3 million. This year, the agency overseeing the panel spent about $11 million on work related to the task force.

Calonge says the panel wanted more evidence of how the tests could harm healthy patients, and ordered further research. He canceled a new vote on PSA screenings in November 2010, citing scheduling problems, a decision that was widely criticized.

"In my heart of hearts I'd really like to believe that we'd delay it anyway," without the surrounding politics, Calonge said. "We were trying to make the recommendations solid."

That was too much for Lin, who believed the evidence was already enough to show the public was at risk. After talking with his pastor and his wife, he quit AHRQ.

"Even delaying it for a few months, much less a year, it was really relegating the men to the harms they were exposed to," Lin said.

Targeted Radiation for Breast Cancer May Be Overused: Study

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 23:50:00 -0800

The number of women with breast cancer who receive targeted radiation to the breast after a lumpectomy has jumped dramatically over the last decade.

However, only about a third of these women were considered "suitable" for the treatment, according to criteria used in a new study published in the Dec. 16 online issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

But guidelines on which women should or should not receive this type of radiation treatment, known as brachytherapy, are only newly published and it's unclear what the findings might mean to current breast cancer patients.

Use of "accelerated partial breast irradiation using brachytherapy" has risen steadily since about 2002, said study author Dr. Jona Hattangadi, a radiation oncologist with Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Harvard Radiation Oncology Program in Boston.

Although brachytherapy is vastly more convenient (taking place over the course of a week rather than six weeks), the worry is that directed radiation isn't comprehensive enough to find and kill all cancer cells lingering in the breast as compared with the current standard, whole breast radiation (WBI).

So, in 2009, the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) issued the first guidelines for the use of brachytherapy, which identified patients as either "suitable," "cautionary" (suitability unclear) or "unsuitable" for the treatment, depending on a number of factors including age as well as various tumor characteristics.

These authors rounded up data on 138,815 U.S. women who had been diagnosed with breast cancer from 2000 to 2007 and who had either undergone brachytherapy or whole breast irradiation after a lumpectomy.
Some 2.6 percent of women underwent brachytherapy, two thirds of whom were either deemed "cautionary" (29.6 percent) or "unsuitable" (36.2 percent) according to ASTRO criteria.

Only about a third (32 percent) of patients would have been considered suitable under ASTRO's recommendations, the study authors said.

Use of brachytherapy rose from less than 1 percent in 2000 to almost 7 percent in 2007, but this varied greatly between geographical regions, the researchers noted.

For instance, women in urban areas were more likely to get brachytherapy than women in rural areas, which is surprising given that rural women would have the most to benefit from the convenience.

And white women were more likely to get brachytherapy than black women if they were considered "cautionary" or "unsuitable."

It's unclear what accounts for the variation or for the rise in numbers, although the authors did postulate that reimbursement patterns may play a role. Medicare started reimbursing for brachytherapy in 2004.

The main drawback of this study, the authors acknowledged, is that the data was gathered before the ASTRO guidelines were published.

Dr. Eric Horwitz, M.D., chair of radiation oncology at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, agreed that brachytherapy is "not for everybody" but that "it's an excellent technique if used on the right patients."

But who is the right patient? Generally people with smaller, localized tumors, he said.

Still, in the absence of long-term data, Hattangadi recommends that women getting treatment for early-stage breast cancer have a "thorough discussion with their physicians on the pros and cons of the approach."

The findings come just a week after presenters at a national conference found that women who had brachytherapy had double the rate of mastectomy later on compared with women who got whole breast irradiation. That study was led by Dr. Benjamin Smith of M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium

What Is Esophageal Cancer, and Who Gets It?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 23:48:00 -0800

Author and atheist Christopher Hitchens, 62, died Dec. 15 from esophageal cancer. Hitchens was famously atheistic, even in the face of his own mortality. His final piece was written even as he succumbed to pain and the cancer took all of his strength.

The New York Times reports Hitchens' cause of death was complications from esophageal cancer. Here's a look at the disease from a statistical standpoint.

What is esophageal cancer?

The esophagus is the organ that delivers food from the throat to the stomach. The National Cancer Institute states esophageal cancer forms in the lining of the esophagus. There are two types of esophageal cancer--one that forms in the flat cells that line the organ and the type that forms in specialized cells that naturally secrete mucus in the throat.

Who gets esophageal cancer?

The American Cancer Society states cancer of the esophagus can occur anywhere along the lining of the organ. Although rare, more and more people are getting this type of cancer in the United States.

Around 17,000 new cases of esophageal cancer were diagnosed in 2011. Around 14,700 people will die of the disease in 2011. The most common risk factors for esophageal cancer are smoking and frequent alcohol use.

A new factor being observed in America is obesity. Acid reflux disease can also lead to esophageal cancer. Diets low in fruits and vegetables can also be a risk factor.

Men have a three times greater risk for getting esophageal cancer than women. The reason is that men use alcohol and tobacco more than women. Age is also a factor. People older than 55 are responsible for 85 percent of esophageal cancer cases.

Five-year survival rates for esophageal cancer are 37 percent if the cancer is localized. The rate drops to 17 percent for all stages of the cancer.

Which famous people have had the disease?

MSNBC reported Ron Silver died of esophageal cancer in March of 2009. Silver was a regular on the television show "The West Wing" and was 62 at the time of his death. Japanese actor Mako, an Academy Award nominee in 1966, also passed away from complications of esophageal cancer. He was 72 when he died.

The Oral Cancer Foundation states one of the most prominent actors in Hollywood died from esophageal cancer. Humphrey Bogart succumbed to the disease at age 58. The underlying cause of his cancer was smoking cigarettes.

The New York Times reported Robert Kardashian, Sr. died of esophageal in 2003. He was O.J. Simpson's lawyer shortly after Simpson's ex-wife's murder. He was also the biological father of famous reality television stars Kim, Khloe and Kourtnery Kardashian.

Cancer group aims to boost trust in guidelines

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 23:05:00 -0800

In a field plagued by frequent controversy, the American Cancer Society has taken "a major step forward" with a new system for developing trustworthy screening recommendations.

Instead of having cancer specialists develop its guidelines, the ACS now leaves that to generalist health care professionals accompanied by a patient advocate.

The approach has previously drawn criticism for another prominent guideline-writing organization. The ACS argues, however, that it gets rid of an obvious conflict of interest, because oncologists might benefit financially from recommending new screening tests, which lead to more diagnoses and treatment.

Still, pulling the cancer experts, or subspecialists, was the toughest part of revamping the guideline process, said Dr. Tim Byers of the ACS, who led the new efforts.

"The conflict is that they know the most about it, but they also have the most self-interest in it," he told Reuters Health.

The ACS is the largest voluntary health organization in the U.S., and its guidelines are used by patients, doctors, insurance companies and policymakers alike. An article in today's Journal of the American Medical Association outlines its new system.

Most other groups that develop medical guidelines still have leading specialists at the helm. One exception is the government-backed U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, which consists of generalists such as family doctors and public health experts.

A few months ago, the panel caused an uproar among urologists when it issued a draft recommendation that healthy men not get screened for prostate cancer with the so-called PSA test.

And in 2009, it triggered a media storm after it recommended that doctors scale back routine mammograms for women in their 40s and 50s. Both recommendations are at odds with the ACS's guidelines.

While the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force does consult with subject experts before making its recommendations, it hasn't been explicit about it, which has fueled criticism of its guidelines.

BE CLEAR ABOUT THE HARMS

Subspecialists will still have an advisory role in the guideline development at the ACS, but they will no longer be able to vote and will not be writing the guidelines.

Byers said making recommendations always involves some degree of value judgment, and that the new ACS guidelines will be more transparent about that.

"We need to more explicitly describe potential harms along with benefits, and when we make recommendations to be clear about the balance between benefits and harms," he said.

While some screening tests -- say, mammography or colonoscopy -- have been shown to save lives, all have downsides.

For instance, there is the cost of looking for disease in healthy people, the anxiety and the potential for procedure complications. The tests may also sound a false alarm that can lead to unnecessary biopsies, which carry their own risks. And in some cases, early detection means doctors diagnose and treat cancers that would never have caused any harm if left alone -- a phenomenon known as overdiagnosis.

"Overdiagnosis is an inherent issue in any screening, even screening that is proven to be beneficial like mammography," said Byers.

BREAKING NEW GROUND

The ACS will also conduct systematic reviews of the medical evidence before making recommendations, to make sure as much as possible of its guidance is based on data instead of opinion.

Recent studies have shown that many guidelines rely more on expert opinions that real experiments, making them vulnerable to personal biases.

In an email to Reuters Health, Dr. Sheldon Greenfield of the University of California, Irvine, called the ACS's new system "a major step forward."

He added that a major challenge would be to make sure the public grasps the complexity of the science in the guidelines.

Greenfield recently chaired an Institute of Medicine committee that released standards for how to make clinical guidelines better and more trustworthy.

Earlier this year, he told Reuters Health that good guidelines need to be based on extensive reviews of the medical literature done by researchers with no financial conflicts of interest.

Greenfield also said the guideline panels have to represent all stakeholders, including doctors from other specialties and patients. Fulfilling all three requirements, he said, was "about as common as peace in the Middle East."

Dr. Michael LeFevre of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force also applauded the ACS's efforts.

"This is the first time I have seen a major organization use the Institute of Medicine model," he told Reuters Health.

WILL CANCER SCREENING GUIDELINES EVER BE THE SAME?

LeFevre said he believes the new system might help align the advice from the two organizations.

"Many of the differences between Task Force recommendations and others have to do with the different processes by which those conclusions are reached," he said. "The process that was outlined certainly moves in the direction of the process that we use."

Byers was less convinced that the differences would disappear. Instead, his hope is "that we can be more explicit about what the reasons for those differences are."

The ACS is currently developing guidelines on lung cancer screening, a topic that sparked debate in the media earlier this year. According to Byers, the new system will be used "in spirit" to those guidelines, although it is too late to apply it full-out.

Endocyte slides on concerns about cancer drug

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 23:03:00 -0800

Shares of Endocyte Inc. continued to slide Wednesday on concerns about its experimental ovarian cancer drug EC145.

THE SPARK: Endocyte stock had lost two-thirds of its value Tuesday after the company reported additional data from a trial of EC145. It said patients who were treated with both EC145 and the cancer drug Doxil, a form of the drug doxorubicin, had median survival of 14.1 months after starting treatment. But it said patients treated with doxorubicin alone had median survival of 16.9 months.

Endocyte said some patients may have lived longer because they were treated after the trial ended.

It said the overall survival data was not statistically significant because that's not what the trial was designed to show. The trial was meant to show the drug could delay the progression of the disease, and Endocyte said in June that the drug met that goal. The new analysis was conducted by independent reviewers, while the earlier data came from the doctors treating the patients.

THE BIG PICTURE: The company has said it plans to file for marketing approval of EC145 in 2012, but a late-stage trial is being slowed down because of a shortage of Doxil.

Equipment failures and manufacturing problems have left thousands of patients on a waiting list.

Based on the new data, Endocyte plans to alter the design of its late-stage trial of EC145. It said it wants to include more patients with high levels of folate receptors, and will exclude patients who don't have the receptors because it is clear the drug won't work for those patients.

The clinical trial tested EC145 on 149 women whose cancer was no longer responding to platinum-based chemotherapy.

The company had said in June that women treated with EC145 lived for five months before their disease resumed progressing or they died and patients treated only with Doxil lived 2.7 months before their disease resumed or they died. EC145 is designed to target folate receptors on tumors, and patients whose tumors had high levels of those receptors had greater survival.

THE ANALYSIS: Wedbush analyst Gregory Wade said Wednesday that the drop in Endocyte's stock price was an "overreaction." He maintained an "Outperform" rating on the stock but cut his price target to $16 from $20.

Robert W. Baird analyst Christopher Raymond downgraded Endocyte shares to "Neutral" from "Outperform."

He said the new analysis will make it harder for Endocyte to get conditional approval of EC145 because the data show the drug didn't significantly postpone the disease's progression.

He cut his price target on Endocyte shares to $9 per share from $17.

SHARE ACTION: After falling 65.3 percent Tuesday, Endocyte shares tumbled another 6.4 percent, or 23 cents, Wednesday afternoon to close at $3.34.

Between its February initial public offering and Monday, the stock had traded as low as $6.15 and high as $14.80.

Memory issues after cancer may not be due to chemo

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 07:35:00 -0800

Women treated for breast cancer with radiation with or without chemotherapy had more thinking and memory problems a few years after their treatment ended than women who'd never had cancer, in a new study.

Research has suggested some women experience mental haziness, dubbed "chemo brain," during and soon after chemotherapy treatment. And one recent study found evidence of changes in the activity of certain brain regions in women who'd undergone chemotherapy (see Reuters Health story of November 15, 2011).

But some researchers have questioned whether those problems are due to the specific drug treatments, or possibly to the cancer itself. In the new report, breast cancer survivors showed certain small mental deficits, regardless of whether or not they'd had chemotherapy.

"It's a very, very subtle thing. We're not talking about patients becoming delirious, demented, amnesic," said Barbara Collins, a neuropsychologist who has studied chemotherapy-related cognitive changes at Ottawa Hospital in Ontario, Canada, but wasn't involved in the new study.

"We're talking about a group of people that are saying, 'I'm pretty much still able to function, but I find it harder...it doesn't come as easily, and I can't do as many things at the same time.'"

The current study involved 129 breast cancer survivors in their fifties, on average. About half of them had been treated with radiation and chemotherapy, while the other women only had radiation.

Six months after finishing treatment, and another three years later, women took a range of thinking and memory tests. Their scores were compared against the performance of 184 women who'd never had cancer, but were a similar age and from the same areas.

On three out of five types of memory tests, women who'd had either course of treatment performed similarly to the non-cancer group. But on two, their scores were noticeably lower.

At both six months and a few years after treatment, cancer survivors scored worse on tests of "executive functioning," which included naming words beginning with a particular letter.

And on tests of processing speed, which included marking specific numbers on lists of random numbers and letters -- a measure of speed and concentration -- women who'd received radiation only or chemo and radiation had lower scores than women with no cancer history at the later time point.

Those scores differed by about one to three points on a scale where 50 is considered average.

CAUSES STILL UNCLEAR

One limitation of using tests to measure cognition is that it's not clear how exactly they apply to functioning in everyday life, Paul Jacobsen, from the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida, and his colleagues wrote Monday in the journal Cancer.

The researchers also didn't have information on women's thinking and memory skills before they were diagnosed with cancer or treated.

Cancer survivors who'd had radiation without chemotherapy scored similarly to those who were treated with radiation and chemo on all measures of mental ability.

That challenges the notion that chemotherapy is the driving force behind mental changes in breast cancer survivors, researchers said.

"People talk about 'chemo brain,' and there's sort of a general view that if people have cognitive problems after the cancer treatment, it must be due to the fact that they had chemotherapy," Jacobsen told Reuters Health.

"We provided the most definitive evidence to date to suspect it's not just chemotherapy that is contributing to cognitive problems after breast cancer."

What exactly might be the cause, or causes, is still up for debate.

"There is very likely something to do with having cancer that already affects your cognitive function," Collins said. "What is it? Could it be stress? Could it be anxiety? Could it be depression? That's a possibility."

It could also be that the immune system's response to cancer affects the brain, she added.

Collins said that most of the data still points to some mental effect of chemotherapy in certain patients -- but that small differences between treatment groups might have been missed in this analysis.

Still, she said, "We can't be too quick to conclude, even if we find some subtle things, that they're all due to the chemotherapy. We have to step very carefully here in terms of understanding what the real factors are."

Collins told Reuters Health that women should know foggy thinking and memory after cancer treatment tends to improve over time. "Nobody's suggesting they don't get their chemotherapy, not at all," she said.

Many women won't notice any mental fuzziness after treatment at all, Jacobsen added, but he said those that do should talk to their doctors to rule out other causes and to consider strategies to compensate for those problems.

Pharmacyclics' blood cancer drug responses rise

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 07:34:00 -0800

Interim results from an early stage trial of Pharmacyclics Inc's experimental blood cancer drug show the number of leukemia patients responding to the medicine has increased over time.

At 10 months follow-up, 70 percent of patients treated with the lower dose of the drug, known as PCI-32756, had a significant improvement in their condition. That is up from the 48 percent response rate reported by trial investigators after six months of follow-up.

The trial includes 61 patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia who have stopped responding to at least two other types of treatment.

In the high-dose group, 44 percent of patients have responded to PCI-32756 after 6.5 months of follow-up.

The findings are "phenomenal," especially for patients who had already been treated with earlier rounds of therapy, said Dr, John Byrd, professor of hematology and oncology at Ohio State University in Columbus, and a lead investigator in the trial.

The updated results are being presented at a meeting of the American Society of Hematology.

PCI-32765 is an oral drug designed to target an enzyme known as Bruton's tyrosine kinase and block the function of cancerous B-cells. The drug is being studied as a treatment for a range of B-cell malignancies.

Side effects seen in the CLL trial included diarrhea, nausea and high lymphocyte counts.
Eighty-two percent of patients remain on treatment, and 8 percent have seen their disease worsen.

Pharmacyclics said earlier this week it had licensed PCI-32765 to Johnson & Johnson for $150 million upfront and as much as $825 million in payments tied to development milestones.

The announcement sent shares of Pharmacyclics down nearly 20 percent as investors theorized that the J&J deal made it less likely Pharmacyclics would be acquired by a larger company, at least in the near term.

Deadly Tasmanian Devil cancer found in 'clean' area

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 08:44:00 -0800

A deadly cancer riddling Australia's Tasmanian Devil has been found in an area thought to be free of the disease, troubling officials struggling to keep the animal alive in the wild.

The facial tumour disease has so far been confirmed across more than 60 percent of the small island state of Tasmania, but it came as a surprise that it was found in one animal in the Zeehan area in the state's west.

"Although our monitoring does indicate a westward movement of the disease, and we expected to continue to detect cases west of the known perimeter, this detection is not in an area we expected to see the disease at this stage," Save the Tasmanian Devil Program's Howel Williams said Friday.

The furry marsupials were declared endangered in 2009 after the contagious cancer began sweeping through the population, disfiguring their faces so badly they are unable to eat and starve to death.

Estimates suggest that some 70 percent of devils have already been lost to the infectious disease, which is spread by biting.

Williams said the sickness, which scientists believe could see the entire wild population of devils vanish within 20 to 50 years, was unusual in its persistence.

The detection of a case beyond the known perimeter highlighted to officials that they could not rely on a single measure to conserve the species in the wild, he said.

Williams said the government had a "thriving" insurance population of Devils, which secured the animals's long-term future in captivity and was working to keep other areas in the wild free of the disease.

Williams told ABC Radio that officials would press ahead with plans to build a 12.5 kilometre (almost 8 mile) fence to protect healthy devils in the wild from infected animals in one part of the state's west.

Tasmanian devils first came to prominence when their unearthly shrieks and grunts while devouring corpses of dead animals terrified European settlers arriving on the island in the 19th century.

Starchy Foods May Boost Risk of Breast Cancer Recurrence

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 08:43:00 -0800

Increased consumption of carbohydrate-rich foods, especially starches, may boost the risk of breast cancer recurrence, new research finds.

Researcher Jennifer Emond, a public health doctoral student at the University of California, San Diego, looked at changes in the amount of carbohydrates, particularly starchy foods such as potatoes, that breast cancer survivors ate over a one-year period. Then she tracked the number of recurrences.

"Women who increased their carbohydrates and particularly their starch intake had a greater risk of recurrence than the women who decreased [it]," she said.

A link between a high-carb diet and a higher breast cancer risk has been reported before, but this new study focused particularly on starchy carbs, said Emond. She was scheduled to present the findings this week at the 2011 San Antonio Breast Cancer Conference.

Carbohydrates provide needed nutrients and energy, but some carbs are healthier than others. Refined carbohydrates, such as white breads and white pasta, contain more starch than whole grains. "We didn't pinpoint the exact foods," Emond said.

Emond looked at a subset of women who participated in the Women's Healthy Eating and Living Dietary Intervention Trial, which evaluated the effects of a plant-based diet for breast cancer survivors.

She divided the roughly 2,650 women into four groups, based on lowest to highest carbohydrate intake. She found that cancer recurred in 9.7 percent of those who decreased starch consumption the most compared with 14.2 percent of those with the biggest increase in starch consumption.

The women reported their carb intake at the start of the study and a year later. Carbohydrate intake was about 233 grams a day at the study's start. Those whose cancer recurred had an average increase in carbohydrates of 2.3 grams a day. Those who did not see a recurrence had an average decrease of 2.7 grams of starch a day.

Changes in starch consumption were behind nearly half the carbohydrate intake change, she found. Those whose cancer did not return decreased starch intake by 8.7 grams a day, while those with a recurrence decreased starch by only 4.1 grams a day, she said.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, one slice of bread has 12.5 grams of carbohydrate, of which 10 grams are starch. A cup of pasta has 43 grams of carbs, 36 of which are starch.

Emond said she cannot explain the link between starch and breast cancer recurrence with certainty. However, starchy foods boost insulin levels, and elevated insulin levels have been linked with higher breast cancer risk, she said. The insulin may stimulate the growth of tumor cells, she explained.

The increased risk with higher starch intake held even when weight changes were taken into account, Emond said. Obesity and breast cancer have long been linked.

Marji McCullough, strategic director of nutritional epidemiology for the American Cancer Society, said the findings are noteworthy. "This is an important area of research because women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer want to know how to lower their risk of recurrence," she said.

But it's too soon to advise making any dietary changes, McCullough said. "Dietary recommendations change when several studies show the same thing," she said.

The effect of diet on breast cancer recurrence risk is much less clear than the data on the importance of maintaining a healthy body weight, she said.

"The American Cancer Society recommends that breast cancer survivors strive to achieve and maintain a healthy weight through a mostly plant-based, varied diet and regular physical activity," McCullough said.

Emond agreed it's too soon to make new diet recommendations. However, she suggested women follow the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which recommend limiting foods with added sugars that contribute to starch intake, she said.

In a second study involving diet and breast cancer, researchers found that following a low-carbohydrate diet just two days a week produced more significant weight loss than a standard low-calorie diet followed daily. People following the intermittent diet for four months lost an average of 9 pounds while the other dieters lost an average of 5 pounds, the British researchers found.

The two-day-a-week low-carb plan was also better than the daily diet at lowering blood levels of insulin, the researchers said. McCullough called that finding ''intriguing."

Because this research was presented at a medical meeting, the data and conclusions should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Mesothelioma Types

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 9 Dec 2011 02:40:00 -0800

Mesothelioma is a rare type of cancer. Although there is no cure for mesothelioma, early diagnosis provides doctors the opportunity to relieve a great deal of suffering, and prolong and improve many patients’ lives. These avenues of treatment depend on the extent of the condition and the progession of the disease.

It is caused by exposure to asbestos or asbestos related materials. It is believed that even one single fiber can begin the cascade of events that cause mesothelioma.

Because the time it takes for the asbestos particle to turn cancerous is very great - sometimes between 30 to 40 years - it can be difficult to spot. Most cases of pleural mesothelioma develop in the sac that contains the lungs.

Like most other forms of cancer, mesothelioma is separated into two groups: malignant and benign.

Unfortunately mesothelioma is rarely benign. Usually any mention of the condition refers to its malignant state, known as a tumor.

In most of the cases, a malignant tumor will grow and expand, and can spread cancerous cells into other parts of the body.

To understand mesothelioma is to understand cancer. Cancer is essentially uncontrolled cellular growth. Under normal circumstances, body cells in the hair, bone, organs, or blood grow to a certain point, die off, and are replaced by newer, healthier cells. Unfortunately, most cancer cells are damaged to some degree, and as the body reproduces them they begin to take over for healthy cells, leading to eventual system failure.

There are three main types of malignant mesotheliomas cells: epithelioid, sarcomatoid, and mixed/biphasic.

Epithelioid is the most common kind; 50-70% cases reported are of epithelioid type. This type also has the best possibility of survival. The epithelioid type affects the covering surrounding the internal organs and internal surfaces in the body. Under a microscope this type of the disease is seen as a papillary or tubular growth and generally affects membranes and tissues that cover organs and other internal bodily surfaces.
Sarcomatoid is much more serious. It affects the secondary tissues such as bone, muscles, cartilage, and/or fat. This cell is much rarer, occurring 7-20% of the time. It appears as spindle-shaped pattern of cells that overlap one another, and generally arises from support tissues. Death usually occurs within six months of diagnosis of sarcomatoid mesothelioma.
Mixed/biphasic mesothelioma is not a condition unto itself, but rather it is a combination of the other two types. It can take on both the good and bad aspects of sarcomatoid and epithelioid mesotheliomas and 20-35% of all mesothelioma cases are mixed or biphasic

There are three main types of mesothelioma. Each affects a different area of the body. The three types of this deadly cancer are:

Pleural Mesothelioma
Peritoneal Mesothelioma
Benign Mesothelioma

Pleural mesothelioma is found around the pleural cavity (sac) around the lungs and is caused by exposure to asbestos .

It is responsible for 75% of all mesothelioma diagnosed.

The pleura is a sac which contains the lungs and also a thin membrane called the mesothelium which secretes a fluid that enables the lungs to expand and contract during breathing. Inhaling asbestos causes a build-up of fibers inside the lungs. Due to the microscopic size and sharpness of the fibers it is possible for them to penetrate the walls of the lung and enter the pleural cavity. As they migrate from the lung into the pleural cavity, the sharp strands shred and mutilate the mesothelium, destroying it and potentially causing cancer.

Once asbestos fibers invade the pleural cavity, cancerous tumors may develop which thicken the pleural fluid and inhibit proper lung movement.

Tumors can also constrict the lungs and press on the ribcage or other organs resulting in agonizing pain. Also, because the lungs are responsible for re-oxygenating blood, should the cancer advance directly into the lungs it is possible for the cancerous cells to spread into other parts of the body through the bloodstream.

Pleural mesothelioma symptoms:

• Constant chest pain
• Chronic cough that worsens over time
• Coughing up blood
• Difficulty breathing
• Fatigue
• Lung infection (pneumonia, bronchitis)
• Shortness of breath
• Swollen lymph nodes
• Loss of appetite and weight loss
• Wheezing

Pleural mesothelioma is often confused with less serious or deadly diseases such as:

Pneumonia
Common Cold
Whooping cough
The Flu
Laryngitis
Bruised/Broken Ribs due to chest pain
Sometimes there are no symptoms at all

Common treatments for Pleural Mesothelioma include:

Surgery: Surgeons can remove all or part of the lung to excise tumors or prevent their spread. In some occasions fluid needs to be drained from the lungs, or in extreme cases the entire lung needs to be removed.
Radiation: Cancer is often treated with high doses of radiation. This treatment uses high energy waves to kill cancerous cells, but unfortunately it also kills healthy cells and causes a number of peripheral health problems.
Chemotherapy: Strong anti-cancer drugs are pumped directly into the tumors or taken orally can inhibit their growth and spread, but these drugs can also cause severe health problems in other bodily systems.

The asbestos industry allegedly knew of the dangers of their product, but rather than take action to prevent serious harm they hid this information from their workers and the public until the damage had been done.

Thousands of people hurt by this deception are coming forward to collect compensation for their pain and suffering, and you could be the next person to receive restitution for their condition.

Peritoneal mesothelioma is the second most common form. It affects the tissues in the abdomen, namely the stomach and intestines, and it accounts for approximately 10-20% of all reported cases.

Peritoneal mesothelioma is a cancer that affects the thin cell membrane called the peritoneum.

This collection of cells surrounds the gastrointestinal tract and provides lubrication for the stomach and intestines to move so that they may function properly.

These organs must be able to move properly in order to properly digest and process food, and a failure in the peritoneum can result in severe and debilitating consequences.

Unfortunately, the symptoms of peritoneal mesothelioma can be so subtle that it can be confused with other, less dangerous diseases, and this aspect of the disease significantly contributes to its already staggering mortality rate.

Common symptoms of peritoneal mesothelioma:

Stomach pain
Lower abdominal pain
Difficulty with bowel movements
Weight lost
Nausea
Loss of appetite
Weakness
Abdominal swelling

When asbestos is ingested, minute fibers enter the stomach and penetrate the stomach lining. As more and more fibers penetrate this delicate organ, the cells on the exterior lining begin to mutate into cancerous mesothelioma cells. These cells accumulate into tumors, and eventually overwhelm the peritoneum, killing off healthy stomach cells in the process.

Furthermore, these tumors prevent the peritoneum from making the protective lining that aids the stomach in movement. In less drastic instances, the tumors on the stomach lining grow and exert increasing pressure on surrounding organs causing agonizing pain.

There is no cure for any type of mesothelioma, but certain conditions can aid in treatment. Age, type of cell affected, size and stage of the tumor, and whether or not the tumor responds to treatment greatly affect what course of action doctors can take.

Common treatments for peritoneal mesothelioma:

Chemotherapy: Strong drugs are used to shrink the size and kill tumors, but these drugs are extremely potent and often cause significant damage to other healthy cells. These drugs can be taken orally, or in some cases the drugs are directly introduced into the tumors if they are resistant to other treatment
Radiation therapy: Radiation is one of the ways to treat peritoneal mesothelioma. Powerful X-rays can kill diseased cells, but they also can kill healthy cells, and many people undergoing radiation treatment for peritoneal mesothelioma often suffer hair loss and other side effects.
Surgery: This most drastic option often involves the removal of the tumor or cancerous tissue in the abdomen or gastrointestinal tract. The necessity of surgery is generally based on the extent and progression of the cancer.

Vigorous treatment and early diagnosis are often the keys to long term survival. Unfortunately, mesothelioma lies dormant for years, so most victims do not experience any side effects until the cancer is extremely advanced. After the cancer has overwhelmed the stomach, it is rare for patients to survive longer than five years.

Many victims of mesothelioma take comfort in knowing that the asbestos industry will no longer injure innocent people through deception and blatant lies.

Another source of comfort many victims discover is through the law.

Thousands of people are taking action against the asbestos industry in order to recover financial restitution for their pain and suffering, and you could be next.

The rarest form is called pericardial mesothelioma, which affects the sac and lining surrounding the heart.

The heart, as with any organ that requires constant movement to work properly, requires constant lubrication. Lubrication comes in the form of a thin layer of mucous, and in normal systems the heart beats on as normal.

Asbestos exposure is the most common culprit of this debilitating form of cancer, a type that usually comprises 5% of all mesothelioma cases.

Inhaled asbestos fibers can pierce and shred the pericardium and cause mutations that can result in mesothelioma.

Once the cancer begins to spread, it can cause chronic coughing, chest pain, shortness of breath, and heart palpitations.

Like the other forms of the cancer, decades pass without incident as pericardial mesothelioma slowly destroys the tissues around the heart.

Unfortunately, by the time symptoms appear it is usually far too late to treat pericardial mesothelioma with conventional drugs or therapies.

Common symptoms of pericardial mesothelioma include:

Shortness of breath
Different degrees of chest pain
Heart palpitations
Irregular heart beat
Coughing

There are a few marginally effective treatments for victims of pericardial mesothelioma.

Radiation treatments are usually the preferred course of action to help slow the spread of the cancer, and chemotherapy can provide help in bolstering the effects of the radiation.
Another type of treatment involves “fine needle aspiration” to draw out excess fluid that collects in the pericardium, which can help relieve some symptoms.
In rare cases, doctors perform surgery to remove the pericardium, although this is usually a treatment of last resort. This course of action usually only slows the growth of pericardial mesothelioma, for no amount of surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation will fully eliminate the cancer.

If you or a loved one developed pericardial mesothelioma as a consequence of asbestos exposure, you may have the right to seek financial compensation for your pain and suffering.

Regardless of the area it affects, mesothelioma is fatal.

Survival rates are usually 1-5 years after diagnosis, but medical technology is rapidly improving not only the length but also of the quality of life for those victims of asbestos exposure who contracted mesothelioma.

Mesothelioma is truly one of the most devastating diseases imaginable.

Mesothelioma Symptoms

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 9 Dec 2011 02:38:00 -0800

Mesothelioma is an extremely malignant and incurable cancer that infects the membrane that surrounds most of the internal organs.
Because mesothelioma is so deadly, early diagnosis and treatment can help prolong life, but the mortality rate for mesothelioma is usually 100% within five years.

Pleural mesothelioma symptoms:
• Constant chest pain
• Chronic cough that worsens over time
• Coughing up blood
• Difficulty breathing
• Fatigue
• Lung infection (pneumonia, bronchitis)
• Shortness of breath
• Swollen lymph nodes
• Loss of appetite and weight loss
• Wheezing

Peritoneal mesothelioma symptoms :

• Stomach pain
• Lower abdominal pain
• Difficulty with bowel movements
• Weight lost
• Nausea
• Loss of appetite
• Weakness
• Abdominal swelling
• Fever
• Anemia - a reduction in the number of red blood cells to below normal; this forces the heart and other organs to work harder to get oxygen where it's needed
Pericardial mesothelioma symptoms:

Shortness of breath
• Different degrees of chest pain
• Heart palpitations
• Irregular heart beat
• Coughing

Interesting Asbestos Facts

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 6 Dec 2011 03:37:00 -0800

The word "Asbestos" comes from a Greek word meaning inextinguishable or indestructible
In ancient times asbestos was prescribed for skin conditions
Emperor Charlemagne is said to have had a tablecloth made of asbestos. He impressed his guests by throwing the tablecloth into the fire and then removing it, undamaged.
The dangers of asbestos have been suspected for centuries: slaves who wove asbestos fibers into cloth were noted to suffer from lung conditions.
Canada continues to export chrysotile asbestos throughout the world, particularly to developing countries, and is the world's second largest exporter of asbestos. However, there is a movement to curb the exportation of this dangerous substance.
Asbestos, Quebec is the site of the world's largest asbestos mine.
OSHA regulations limit asbestos exposure to 0.1 fibers per cubic centimeter (f/cc) over an 8 hour period. However, there is no "safe" exposure level to asbestos.
It is estimated that 10,000 Americans die every year from asbestos related conditions.
Asbestos related deaths continue to increase. According to the CDC, mesothelioma deaths in the U.S. are likely to peak in 2010.
This trend is due to the long latency period of asbestos disease. It can take up to 50 years for conditions to manifest themselves and we are now seeing the results of asbestos use throughout past decades.
Asbestos litigation is one of the largest, longest-running mass torts in the United States.
Defendants and their insurance companies have spent more than $70 billion on asbestos litigation in the U.S.
Developing countries, such as India and China, are the world's main consumers of asbestos products. These countries have few regulations in place to protect their workers, and inadequate legal and medical systems to respond to the inevitable health crisis that asbestos will produce.
The state with the highest malignant mesothelioma death rate is Alaska, at 32.8 deaths per million. Alaska is followed by Maine, at 26.4 deaths per million.

How Do I Choose the Best Mesothelioma Clinic?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 4 Dec 2011 02:00:00 -0800

The best way to find the right mesothelioma clinic for you or your loved ones is to ask around and visit several locations to get an idea of how each one is run. There is no right or wrong opinion in terms of choosing a care provider. You should go with a clinic where the staff makes you feel comfortable, and that is fully equipped to handle the type of care you need. Start by visiting all clinics in your area, talking with the doctors and nurses, and discussing potential options by speaking to friends and family members.

While taking a tour of each facility, you will likely have many questions about the care you would receive as a patient there. Feel free to talk about any of your concerns, and discuss your questions openly with the physicians and nurses you meet. Questions may be about the types of treatment the mesothelioma clinic offers, how often you will receive treatment, how many doctors are in the practice, and what kind of insurance plans are accepted. If you receive a government-funded medical insurance plan, your options may be limited. Ask for a list of clinics that accept government insurance.

You may also wish to discuss the hospital with which the clinic and its doctors are affiliated. If there is more than one hospital in your area, this is an important thing to consider. If you have an emergency situation related to your illness, you will receive better care if you visit the hospital affiliated with your clinic. However, if that hospital is too far away from your home, you may want to consider an option closer to where you live.

If you don’t have insurance coverage or if your policy does not cover your treatment, you may want to find a mesothelioma clinic that provides payment plans for those who self pay. Some may be more agreeable than others, but most clinics will provide non-insured patients with some kind of lowered price or payment plan.

Another good way to find the best mesothelioma clinic is to talk with friends, family members, and colleagues that may have had an experience with a particular doctor or clinic. You can also speak with your general practitioner or family doctor and have him recommend specialists in your area. Since your primary doctor will know your medical history, conditions, and struggles, he may be able to recommend someone who is capable of working with you.

LPK Law Honors Larry Davis as Stop Mesothelioma's "Advocate of the Month"

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 07:42:00 -0800

Larry Davis was diagnosed with mesothelioma in 2006, but you won't find him sitting on the sidelines of life. Larry Davis is a runner. He has run 18 marathons since his first in 1978 and logs 25 miles per week when not in training.

These days, Larry is running to save his own life. Larry combined his love of running with his passion for mesothelioma advocacy and awareness to found the annual South Florida Miles for Meso 8K Run & 4K Tribute Walk. This annual road race raises money for the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation (Meso Foundation), which supports efforts to ban asbestos and research toward a cure for mesothelioma.

For his dedication to the mesothelioma community, Larry Davis has been named Stop Mesothelioma's first "Advocate of the Month." Stop Mesothelioma is a Facebook project created and sponsored by Levy Phillips & Konigsberg, LLP ("LPK Law"), which pledges to donate $1 to mesothelioma research and efforts to ban asbestos for every "Like" the page receives up to $100,000.

Larry's story starts like those of many mesothelioma victims - he was diagnosed with mesothelioma and told he had just six months to live. He was offered chemotherapy and radiation, the traditional approach to mesothelioma treatment. However, Larry decided to forego the traditional treatments. Instead, he decided to work with doctors he felt were more open-minded and offered more radical therapies. He also tried to maintain a more holistic approach to his treatment. Larry continued to run, to keep a positive attitude, and to drink healthy organic vitamin blends. He underwent a progressive tumor removal surgery with Dr. H. Richard Alexander at the University of Maryland Greenebaum Cancer Center and plans to have follow-up treatment with Dr. Dipnarine Maharaj at the South Florida Bone Marrow/Stem Cell Transplant Institute.

Larry credits his active lifestyle – including his running, continuing to operate his business called Extreme Eyewear, sailing, and traveling with his wife Carol and their award winning dogs – for his ability to keep a positive attitude and persevere through his mesothelioma treatments.

Larry also emphasizes the support his wife Carol has given him in his struggle to beat mesothelioma. "Caregivers don't often get the credit they deserve," says Larry. He proudly notes that Carol will be running the 2012 Boston Marathon in his honor and that Carol's daughter Heather and son-in-law Mark Malovos have also qualified for the Boston Marathon. Larry plans to join them at the finish line.

Despite his ongoing medical treatment, Larry continues to run. In the summer of 2011, Larry was getting ready for a fifth surgery to treat his mesothelioma. Although a prior surgery almost killed him, Larry refused to spend his time worrying. Two weeks before his June 27th surgery, Larry participated in a Father's Day Weekend Triathlon with his daughter Courtney.

It is this zest for life that impacts those around him. Sarah Hager-Karaz, whose husband passed away at the age of 44 from mesothelioma shortly after their first daughter was born, credits Larry Davis with helping her learn to believe in a cure. For Hager-Karaz, running became an outlet while she cared for her husband during his illness and raised their six month old daughter. After meeting Larry, "He instantly became my inspiration. [I felt] a hope I was not able to see with my husband… I looked at Larry and despite all the emotions that meeting him, knowing him and praying for him welled up in me… I suddenly in my heart knew I finally met a man that made me believe in a cure."

The Meso Foundation applauds Larry for his work. According to Mary Hesdorffer, Medical Liaison for the Meso Foundation, "Larry Davis is in the race of his life raising funds to support the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundations Peer Reviewed Grants Program. Larry leads the pack with many patients following in his footsteps helping the Foundation to raise awareness and fund research for more effective treatments and a cure."

Linda Reinstein, founder of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization, also praises Larry’s activism. "Larry is remarkable in every sense of the word," she says. "As a courageous and unwavering leader, Larry has boldly and tirelessly worked to ban asbestos and fund research for a cure. Always speaking the truth, Larry has greatly increased asbestos awareness to prevent exposure. I am honored to call him my friend."

Despite the efforts of Larry and other advocates, asbestos is still not banned in the United States, and you can hear the indignation in Larry's voice when he starts to discuss the fact that companies in the United States still import asbestos today. In an effort to change this fact, Larry actively participates in lobbying efforts to ban asbestos and to raise awareness about the health hazards of its continued use. In June of 2011, just days before his fifth mesothelioma surgery, Larry joined a group of mesothelioma advocates on Capital Hill to lobby for this important change.

LPK Law honors Larry Davis for his work on behalf of mesothelioma victims. "Larry is a tireless advocate for the mesothelioma community" says Sharon J. Zinns, an LPK Law attorney who will be running in the February 2012 South Florida Miles for Meso race. "Not only does Larry advocate for his own best treatment, but he also influences those around him to seek better care. It is because of research funded in part by South Florida Miles for Meso that such care is available. Larry's positive attitude shines through and impacts everyone who has the pleasure to meet him."

Although he is recovering from a medical set back and not currently running every day, Larry expects to be logging miles again soon and looks forward to running the 3rd Annual South Florida Miles for Meso 8K Run & 4K Tribute Walk on February 12, 2012. To register for the race, go to: http://actionagainstasbestos.wordpress.com/south-florida-miles-for-meso-2012. LPK Law is a Presenting Sponsor of the 2012 South Florida Miles for Meso race.

LPK Law is a national law firm that has represented families affected by mesothelioma for more than 25 years. For more information, please call 1-800-MESO-LAW (1-800-637-6529). Visit the Stop Mesothelioma project at http://www.facebook.com/stopmeso.

Stop Mesothelioma Raises $40,000 in One Week

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 07:41:00 -0800

In just one week, a new Facebook page called Stop Mesothelioma has raised $40,000 in an unprecedented social media campaign. Levy Phillips & Konigsberg LLP ("LPK"), the creator and sponsor of the page, has pledged to donate $1 to mesothelioma research and efforts to ban asbestos for every "Like" the page receives up to $100,000.

LPK announced last week the donation of the first $10,000 to a Florida mesothelioma fundraiser that benefits the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation ("Meso Foundation").

Today, LPK announced that it has donated the newly raised $30,000 directly to the Meso Foundation. Jerome H. Block, an LPK partner and asbestos lawyer, said, "We are thrilled to make this donation to the Meso Foundation because they are the leading non-profit seeking a cure for mesothelioma. We are even more thrilled that this money has been generated through a campaign that is raising awareness about the urgent need to cure mesothelioma and ban asbestos."

Each year, the Meso Foundation holds an International Symposium on Malignant Mesothelioma, which brings together patients and leading researchers from around the world. This year’s conference is scheduled for July 12-14, 2012, in Washington, D.C.

LPK is a national law firm that has represented families affected by mesothelioma for more than 25 years. For more information, please call 1-800-MESO-LAW (1-800-637-6529).