One of the many mesothelioma community members on Facebook posted a question today about a clinical trial being conducted at the Mesothelioma Center, located at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. MyMeso discussed this clinical trial in a July post. The clinical trial is a program of targeted radiation and chemotherapy protocol for pleural mesothelioma, which is a cancer of the lung’s lining almost always caused by asbestos. In response to the Facebook thread, meso survivor and awareness advocate (read: warrior) Debbie Brewer, who many of you know from her story and updates here (thanks Debbie!), mentioned a similar study currently ongoing in Australia.

Debbie provided a link to a story published in November 2009 by ABC News that outlines the work of specialists at Austin Health Centre in Victoria. The treatment, spearheaded by Dr. Malcolm Feigen, a radiation oncologist at the Centre, uses high doses of radiotherapy, concentrated on specific areas of the lining of the lungs to target mesothelioma tumors.

According to the ABC report, 13 patients participated in a pilot program to test this new targeted radiotherapy treatment. Most had some surgery prior to the radiotherapy treatment, and some also had chemotherapy before or after the treatment, although Dr. Feigen believes the patients showed the most benefit primarily as a result of the radiotherapy regimen.

Participants in the U.S. clinical trial at the Mesothelioma Center receive a multi-modality therapy that incorporates surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy in combination.

Listen to the interview with Dr. Feigen about the Australian research, which was broadcast on ABC’s AM morning current affairs program.

The Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation has announced the recipients of its 2009 Mesothelioma Research Grant Awards. Through the generous contributions of its supporters, the Foundation was able to fund eight promising research projects. Executive Director Christopher E. Hahn reports that this is 60 percent more than the organization funded in 2008, when the Foundation, along with many charitable endeavors were beset by budget cuts resulting from the tough economic climate. In an email to Meso Foundation supporters, Hahn said he is hopeful the organization will soon be able to return to its target goal of funding 10 mesothelioma research projects per year.

Projects funded by the 2009 Grant Awards include vaccine studies offering hope of targeted treatment without drastic side effects; a novel investigation of the role of hormones in mesothelioma treatment; developing pathway targets synergistic with current first-line therapy Alimta/Cisplatin; and a study specifically focusing on improved detection and treatment of peritoneal mesothelioma (affecting the lining of the abdomen). Visit the Meso Foundation online for details of each study.

Each year, the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation funds critically needed research to develop more effective treatments and ultimately, a cure. The Foundation has provided more than $6 million in grant funding, advancing mesothelioma science through promising studies around the world. The Meso Foundation’s funding objectives are to directly fund basic research and support clinical trials in worthy, peer-reviewed projects as well as to stimulate additional federal research funding opportunities.

The Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation is a nonprofit collaboration of patients and families, physicians, advocates, and researchers dedicated to eradicating the life-ending and vicious effects of mesothelioma.

You can help! There are many ways to get involved with the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation. These include signing up to receive and respond to Action Alerts, which are specific campaigns for particular aspects of mesothelioma advocacy efforts; visiting your government officials to lobby for mesothelioma funding and awareness; volunteering in the meso community both locally and nationally; education; sharing your meso story; and donating to mesothelioma research.

For more information or to make a donation, visit the How You Can Help page at www.curemeso.org. The Meso Foundation is the recipient of the Charity Navigator “Four Star Charity” award and is recognized as the 2009 Great Nonprofits winner in the category of Cancer Fighters.

A recent report on WDIO-DT and WIRT-DT ABC stations 10 and 13 says approximately 1,000 Iron Range miners and their families have been screened as part of an ongoing study into the link between taconite mining and mesothelioma. The study is being directed by the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota Department of Health, and funded by the Minnesota State Legislature, which allocated $4.9 million to the project in April 2008.

An investigation into the link between taconite mining – which takes place in what is known as Minnesota’s Iron Range – began when state health officials noted an unusually high incidence of mesothelioma occurring in taconite mine workers. Mesothelioma is traditionally linked only to asbestos exposure. There is a theory that the taconite mineral may contain similar fibers to asbestos mineral.

Researchers began screening workers and their immediate family members in July. According to the news report, researchers say the study is on track. They would like to see about another 1,000 people, however. Analysis of the respiratory is estimated to take another 18 months.

This screening is one part of the comprehensive five-year study. There are four health studies associated with the project, including a mortality study under the direction of the Minnesota Department of Health and related to miner deaths; a cancer rate incidence study; a respiratory health assessment for miners or former miners (and expanded to include spouses or other close family that may have had secondary exposure to taconite dust), and an occupational exposure study.

Princeton University announced Edward Taylor, its A. Barton Hepburn Professor of Organic Chemistry Emeritus, will be inducted into the American Chemical Society (ACS) Division of Medicinal Chemistry Hall of Fame in 2010. Additionally, Taylor has been inducted into the New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame and was selected to receive the 2010 Alfred Burger Award in Medicinal Chemistry from the ACS. Taylor was instrumental in the development of Alimta, a drug manufactured by Eli Lilly and Co. and approved for the treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration in 2004.

Taylor was recently honored for his accomplishments at the Celebrate Princeton Invention reception, held Dec. 18. He developed Alimta in partnership with scientists at Eli Lilly and Co.  after spending more than 40 years on the Princeton faculty. However, he began research that would lead to the mesothelioma drug’s development while a graduate student at Cornell University.

According to a Princeton news release, Taylor became fascinated by reports of a compound obtained from spinach and liver that had a unique chemical structure with a nucleus previously only observed in the pigments of butterfly wings. The compound from liver, now known as folic acid, he found was essential for the synthesis of DNA and RNA, and for the growth of cells.  Taylor observed that changes to the structure of folic acid could transform it from a growth-promoting to a growth-inhibiting compound, and dedicated his career to determine how it could be used to kill cancer cells.

Since its approval by the FDA in 2004, the drug has received three additional FDA approvals, most recently in July when it became the first chemotherapy approved for use as a maintenance therapy for patients with locally advanced or metastatic nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer. Alimta has been successful in improving the quality of life and extending the lifespan of millions of cancer patients in nearly 100 countries around the world.

Taylor has previously been honored with the ACS Heroes of Chemistry Award, the International Society of Heterocyclic Chemistry Senior Award in Heterocyclic Chemistry, and the Research and Development Council of New Jersey’s Thomas Alva Edison Patent Award for Invention.

As 2009 draws to a close, the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation would like to remind those of us in the meso community that there is still much work to be done in the quest for a cure. The Meso Foundation has created a powerful two-minute video featuring the testimonies of mesothelioma victims and their families, including heartbreaking stories of loss, but also triumphant declarations of success against this dreaded cancer.

Please share the following video with your family and friends, and fellow mesothelioma warriors, and help raise awareness about the many lives touched by mesothelioma.

You can visit the Meso Foundation online to make a donation to help this organization fund mesothelioma reserach and continue providing patient services, or mail your contribution to:

Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation
P.O. Box 91840
Santa Barbara, CA 93190-1840

You may specify a loved one in whose memory the contribution is made, which will be acknowledged on the Tribute Wall, displayed at the annual International Symposium on Malignant Mesothelioma in June 2010. Contributions over $100 also will be acknowledged in the Meso Foundation Annual Report. There is much more information online about how you can help. Please visit them today!

Everyone following Debbie Brewer’s story on this site knows that last December it was determined she was in remission from mesothelioma – a miracle! – following successful chemoembolization treatment in Germany. Then, in September, she received a worrying report that appeared to show growth in a lymph node in her chest, which showed up on a CT scan. Subsequent tests revealed that there was growth, which would require treatment.

This week, Debbie started radiotherapy on the lymph node. She tells me that the radiotherapy treatment is a 3-week course, Monday to Friday, and depending on how the lymph node responds could go to 5 or 6 weeks.

Doctors also did a biopsy on her right groin area, which was the site where Dr. Vogl introduced the chemoembolization procedure. There is some question about whether the mesothelioma could have seeded at the induction site. Debbie says Dr. Vogl – who is pioneering the chemoembolization treatment at the University in Frankfurt – is hopeful and optimistic that this is not the case. However, the treatment is still experimental, so it is hard to know what to expect, she says. The chemoembolization treatment was done six times, each time in the same area.

The biopsy was done on Tuesday, with doctors taking two samples. Debbie is now waiting on the results.

She is in good spirits and keeping a positive outlook, so I’m sure she’d appreciate the continued well wishes and encouragment. She promises to let us know when she receives the results. You can also read more about Debbie’s story, and the other goings-on in her life, at her own blog, Mesothelioma & Me.

Among the many wonderful speakers at the 2009 International Symposium on Malignant Mesothelioma, presented by the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation in June, was Dr. Jill Ohar of Wake Forest University. She has been researching mesothelioma and other asbestos diseases for more than 20 years, and currently is heading a study to determine if there could be a genetic predisposition between asbestos exposure and the development of mesothelioma.

Dr. Ohar told conference attendees that her goal is to try to discover why some people may be exposed to asbestos and never develop any type of asbestos disease, while others may develop asbestosis, lung cancer or mesothelioma. She had already collected blood samples and DNA from 6,000 people exposed to asbestos for an epidemiologic study. Of that number, she said, 250 people developed mesothelioma.

“What is different in those people?” she wondered.

The next phase of the study is a genome study involving the 250 patients who did develop mesothelioma. In addition, Dr. Ohar is seeking additional participants.

A news release on Oct. 5 announced that FirstHealth of the Carolinas, a comprehensive health care network serving 15 counties in the mid-Carolinas, will partner with the Wake Forest School of Medicine to encourage participation in the study, which is investigating the development and progression of asbestos-related lung diseases and cancers. The FirstHealth Clinical Trials Department will work on this project.

Dr. Ohar is the study’s principal investigator. In the news release she says, “Families have been devastated by this disease, but what is surprising is that despite the strong association of asbestos exposure to mesothelioma, only a small number of people exposed to asbestos actually develop mesothelioma. Over years of research, we have determined that there is a strong tendency for mesothelioma to run in families and it tends to be associated with a family history of cancer, which suggests a genetic susceptibility.”

The mesothelioma study requires the collection of one ounce of blood from the participant and the completion of a tw0-page survey, both to be conducted at FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital’s Chest Center of the Carolinas.

The study will examine associated environmental factors and genetic markers of people diagnosed with mesothelioma, basically identifying how frequently encountered environmental pollutants affect the body and determining the genetic factors that make some families more susceptible than others to mesothelioma and other forms of cancer.

If you or a a friend or family member has been diagnosed with mesothelioma and are interested in participating in this study or have questions, please call FirstHealth Clinical Trials at 910-715-2200 or Dr. Jill Ohar at 866-487-2344 or 336-716-8426.

A report in the Big Island Chronicle, which reports news from the Hawiian Islands, says leading mesothelioma researcher Michele Carbone, MD, PhD, has been selected as the new director of the Cancer Research Center of Hawaii (CRCH). The Center, which is a research unit of the University of Hawaii, is located in downtown Honolulu.

According to the CRCH web site, the Center was originally a part of the Pacific Biomedical Reserach Center before becoming a freestanding independent institute in 1981.

Carbone was selected to head the Center by the university’s Board of Regents, which is comprised of 15 board members, the Chronicle reports. According to the news story, Carbone was elected to a three-year term, and began his new position Sept. 1, 2009. He had previously served as interim director beginning in December 2008 when the Center’s previous director resigned.

According to the Chronicle, Dr. Carbone is “deemed an authority on malignant mesothelioma, a rare cancer related to asbestos exposure. Dr. Carbone and his team have comprehensively studied the impact of genetics, environmental carcinogens and viral infections on mesothelioma development and have subsequently worked to develop preventative and therapeutic treatments.”

An October 2008 story about Carbone published by MidWeek, an Oahu-based publishing company, noted that the physician previously discovered that many people who develop mesothelioma are genetically predisposed to developing the cancer. He and his team conducted extensive studies in Turkey, near the small village of Cappadocia.

Dr. Carbone is the recipient of the 2008-2010 Landon Foundation-AACR (American Association for Cancer Reserach) INNOVATOR Award for International Collaboration in Cancer Reserach for his project, Gene Environment Interaction and Early Detection of Mesothelioma in Cappadocia, Turkey.

A recent study published in the September 2009 issue of the American Journal of Industrial Medicine reports workers at four U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) facilities have elevated risks for developing cancer, and former construction workers at the Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington state are 11 times more likely to develop mesothelioma, in particular.

The study, Mortality of Older Construction and Craft Workers Employed at Department of Energy (DOE) Sites, was funded by the DOE and involved a medical screening program that began in 1996 and followed older construction workers at four DOE nuclear weapons complex sites. Sites in the study were Savannah River Site (SRS), South Carolina; Hanford near Richland, Wash.; and facilities at Oak Ridge, Tenn., and Amchitka, Alaska.

The study indicated Hanford workers were 11 times more likely to develop mesothelioma, and three times more likely to develop multiple myeloma, a cancer found in white blood cells. Additionally, Hanford workers died of asbestosis, a severe scarring of the lungs resulting from asbestos inhalation, at rates 30 times higher than the general population. The study also found higher rates of deaths from cancers of the trachea, bronchus and lungs among Hanford workers.

According to the report, significantly excess mortality was observed for all cancers, lung cancer, mesothelioma and asbestosis at all four sites studied. Additionally, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma was in excess at Oak Ridge and multiple myeloma was in excess at Hanford. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) was significantly elevated among workers at the Savannah River Site.

Workers participating in the study, called the Building Trades National Medical Screening Program, were followed to determine their vital status and mortality experience through Dec. 31, 2004. There were 8,976 workers included in the initial screening program, all of whom had participated in the building trades at the sites. Their data was gathered between 1998 and 2004, and compared to the National Death Index.

Approximately 31 percent of the people in the study – or close to 3,000 workers – had done construction work at the Hanford facility. Since the beginning of the study, 266 Hanson workers had passed away, and 94 of those deaths were attributed to cancer. That number reflects 14 more cancer deaths than would be expected in the general U.S. population.

According to its web site, the Building Trades National Medical Screening Program was developed to identify health problems caused by hazardous substances that workers may have been exposed to while working on a Department of Energy site. It is led by the CPWR, The Center for Construction Research and Training, in Washington, D.C. The consortium includes the University of Cincinnatie Medical Center (Ohio), Duke University Medical Center (N.C.), and Zenith Administrators, Inc., Seattle, Wash. The program is sponsored by the Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO and endorsed by various state and local Building and Construction Trades Councils.

Additional sources:

Seattle PI
Aiken Standard
The News Tribune

The results of a study published recently in The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery supports the use of extrapleural pneumonectomy-based multimodal therapy in carefully selected patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma. The Journal is published by The American Association for Thoracic Surgery.

According to the research summary, the objective of the study was to evaluate the perioperative and long-term outcomes associated with extrapleural pneumonectomy for patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma. Pleural mesothelioma affects the lining of the chest cavity and lungs. Other forms of mesothelioma include pericardial, which affects the lining of the heart and is extremely rare; and peritoneal, which affects the lining of the abdomen. Mesothelioma is atributed almost exclusively to asbestos exposure.

According to the Multimedia Manual of Cardiothoracic Surgery, extrapleural pneumonectomy was introduced in the 1940s for the treatment of extensive infections of the lung and pleural space. Over the past 20 years, the extrapleural pneumonectomy technique has been modified and applied to the treatment of locally advanced malignant pleural mesothelioma, achieving substantial reductions in mortality. The surgery involves the removal of the lung with visceral and parietal pleurae, pericardium and diaphragm.

Researchers selected 70 patients between October 1994 and April 2008 to undergo the procedure. Prognostic factors included age, gender, side of disease, asbestos exposure, histology, positron emission tomography, date of surgery, neoadjuvant chemotherapy, completeness of cytoreduction, lymph node involvement, peioperative morbidity, adjuvant radiotherapy and pemetrexed-based chemotherapy.

The mean age of patients was 55 years. The median survival was 20 months, with a 3-year survival of 30 percent. Analyses showed improved survival for patients with asbestos exposure, negative lymph node involvement, and receipt of adjuvant radiation or postoperative pemetrexed-based chemotherapy.

The study was conducted by physicians from the University of Sydney, Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital; The Baird Institute for Applied Heart and Lung Surgical; Department of Medical Oncology, Sydney Cancer Center, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital; and Department of Radiation Oncology, Sydney Cancer Center, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital; all in Sydney, Australia.