With the health care system in disarray… maybe we should all consider prevention as a method to sustain longevity. Prevention is key and that is no more evident in the State of Minnesota. With the Iron Range territory produces three hundred percent more Mesothelioma cases than the rest of Minnesota. And within Fridley, Minnesota being a Erin Brockovich cancer cluster it’s important to have the facts concerning cancer prevention.
Generally, Minnesota has probably some of the better cancer rates in the United States. While the State, also has more people getting cancer screened than most States (60% versus the national average of 50%). While providing some really informative internet websites for cancer awareness, the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota provide State of the Art Treatment (Surgery for Mesothelioma After Radiation Therapy-SMART approaches.)
Therefore, with the outlook for patients with Mesothelioma having often been quite dire, when the lungs are impacted the disease is known as (MPM)Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma. With also the most common subtype of the disease, epithelial mesothelioma, which is slow growing and more treatable form affecting about 70 % of patients. While sarcomatoid mesothelioma is the most aggressive type and another form “biphasic” is a mix type of the disease .
Researchers, in a recent study has found giving mesothelioma patients radiation therapy before surgery can extend life expectancy. Dr. John Cho and Dr. Marc de Perrot, has led a study at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in the University Health Network in Toronto, Canada. While evaluating the effectiveness of a special approach: SMART (Surgery for Mesothelioma After Radiation Therapy.)
Dr. Cho and a team recruited 25 mesothelioma patients for his study. All of the participants were treated with a special type of radiation called, Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT). Which conforms radiation around the tumor, sparing healthy nearby tissue and with the most common IMRT – related side effects being fatigue, nausea and inflamed esophagus. At three years, the cumulative survival reached 84 percent and disease – free survival of 65 percent in patients with epithelial histologic subtype.
Study co – author Dr. Marc de Perrot, M.D., professor of surgery at the University of Toronto and Head of the Toronto Mesothelioma Research Program said in research. The SMART approach, not only, shortened time of treatment, but also, blocked the cancer’s ability to spread and seed itself elsewhere in the body during surgery. These research results offer hope to mesothelioma patients who have been told all to often that they have only six months to live. http://mesotheliomalung7.reachlocal.net/
By the early 1900s, medical scientists and researchers had uncovered “persuasive evidence of the health hazards associated with asbestos.” Manufacturers and insurers knew this, and even as evidence mounted they continued to hide these findings and deny responsibility. Tens of millions of American workers have now been exposed to asbestos; more than 27 million people were occupationally exposed between 1940 and 1979.
Millions of those exposed have fallen ill, or will fall ill in the future; many have died and many more will die as a result of their exposure. The most serious asbestos – related disease is mesothelioma, a virulent cancer of the lining of the lungs that can be caused by even a short period of exposure, and is inevitably painfully fatal, often within months of diagnosis.
The Asbestos Cancer Victims’ Rights Campaign established to bring awareness to the legislation called, The FACT Act, or The Furthering Asbestos Claim Transparency Act. The legislation designed: to make it more difficult for asbestos victims, including those with mesothelioma and other cancers, receive compensation for injuries through asbestos trusts and the court system.
As it stands, asbestos victims rarely receive anything close to adequate compensation. The goal of the FACT Act, under the guise of transparency, is designed to reduce this compensation even more. Our goal as an organization is to gain opposition to the FACT Act and support victims of asbestos. While living with mesothelioma or another asbestos related disease. Please consider signing our petition in opposition to this anti-victim bill.
A video we’ve produced you can use if you’d like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?
More background on my involvement: http://cancervictimsrights.
Warmly,
Sue Vento
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_DZ0gquqRY