Thanksgiving was upon us and of course the major part is the dinner. But if one of your family or guests are suffering from mesothelioma and undergoing treatment, you could change how you prepare the dinner.

Radiation and chemotherapy, used to fight mesothelioma as well as other cancers, can change the patient’s sense of taste as well as their appetite, making some foods, which they used to love, unappetizing.

The ideal for those people undergoing mesothelioma treatment is to give them what are called super foods which help to fight cancer and introduce them into your Thanksgiving menu. These include mushrooms, pumpkins, cranberries and pomegranate.

Mushrooms and pomegranates help to block the hormones that make some cancers grow and spread. And in addition, according to the American Cancer Society, shiitake mushrooms especially, fight the progression of cancer by boosting the body’s immune system. So try and introduce some shitake mushrooms and make delicious mushroom gravy.

Pomegranates are rich in antioxidants so can also help those fighting cancer and one serving of cranberries provides at least 10 percent of the recommended daily amount of vitamin C and fiber, both of which are linked to reducing the risk of cancer. Add some pomegranates to your cranberry sauce.

And of course don’t forget the all important pumpkin pie.

If you have been diagnosed with any an asbestos related disease, you may be entitled to monetary compensation. To find out how we can help you recover for your asbestos related claim, contact the Law Office of Brayton Purcell, LLP  at  (800) 598-0314 immediately, or contact us online for a free consultation.

Scientists in Japan have just published details of a case they say could be a key to the treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma.

Pleural mesothelioma is usually caused by exposure to asbestos affecting the membrane around the lungs. Although there is no cure for mesothelioma, a chemotherapy combination of two drugs, cisplatin and pemetrexed, also known as Alimta, are the usual treatment. Unfortunately, many patients cannot have high doses of cisplatin because of the danger of liver damage.

However, respiratory medicine specialists at Uji Tokushukai Medical Center in Japan say that there may be a solution to the problem by stopping the cisplatin but continue with pemetrexed. Dr. Takayuki Takeda and his team have cited the case of a 69 year old mesothelioma patient who saw a partial tumor response but developed signs of liver toxicity after receiving five cycles of cisplatin and pemetrexed.

According to their report in Internal Medicine, they then stopped the cisplatin but continued with 18 more cycles of permetrexed which produced what they called a “complete response’ and stopped the tumor’s growth.

The researchers concluded that this appears very promising and further investigation is urgently needed.

If you have been exposed to asbestos, and have developed an asbestos related disease such as mesothelioma, contact the Law Office of Brayton Purcell, LLP  at  (800) 598-0314 immediately. Or contact us online for a free consultation.

Scientists at the University of Western Australia have announced that they have discovered a combination of three mesothelioma drugs that target immune system proteins has the power to knock out mesothelioma in mice.

According to Shruti Krishnan, lead author of the study at the UWA School of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, the three drugs with triple immunotherapy protocol produced complete clearance of established mesothelioma tumors in the mice.  It appears to make little difference whether the drugs were administered one at a time or all at the same time.

The new research is published in the Journal of Interferon and Cytokine Research and whilst it is thought it could work for many different types of cancer, the fact that it worked in mesothelioma is an exciting discovery as mesothelioma traditionally appears to have a limited range of treatment options.

If you have been exposed to asbestos, and have developed an asbestos related disease such as mesothelioma, contact the Law Office of Brayton Purcell, LLP  at  (800) 598-0314 immediately. Or contact us online for a free consultation.

One of the country’s top mesothelioma surgeons, Dr. David Sugarbaker, Director of the Lung Institute at Baylor College of Medicine in Texas, has just published a study he says confirms the role of lymph node involvement in survival after radical mesothelioma surgery.

Dr. Sugarbaker is one of the most experienced practioners of a radical surgical approach to malignant pleural mesothelioma called extrapleural pneumonectomy which aims to prevent the spread or return of mesothelioma, by not only removing the tumor and the pleural lining where it is, but also the nearest lung, all or part of the diaphragm, the lining around the heart, and other at-risk tissues.

Although some consider the procedure dangerous, in a new study, Dr. Sugarbaker proves that survival after EPP has a lot to do with how far into the lymph system mesothelioma has spread.

In the study, 5% of the mesothelioma patients who had EPP died either in the hospital or within 30 days of surgery. But 4% of patients who had the procedure lived for 10 years or more. Sixty-seven percent lived for at least a year after surgery and 14% were still alive at 5 years. The difference appeared to be influenced, in part, by whether or not the cancer had spread to patients’ lymph nodes.

The study confirms that lymph node status is significantly correlated with overall survival in patients.

If you have been exposed to asbestos, and have developed an asbestos related disease such as mesothelioma, contact the Law Office of Brayton Purcell, LLP  at  (800) 598-0314 immediately. Or contact us online for a free consultation.