Author: Fran Mannino

The COVID-19 pandemic closed educational institutions everywhere, but it also opened a door to the acceleration of vitally important asbestos abatement in schools where children would have been in attendance. Business has been booming. “It does look like a lot of schools took advantage of it [the closing of facilities],” Brent Kynoch, managing director of…

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Doctors, scientists and occupational health experts from across the country are openly criticizing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s recent asbestos draft risk evaluation. At a virtual press conference arranged by the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization last week, speakers labeled the asbestos evaluation inadequate and in need of serious revision. The year-long evaluation was required as…

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An international, much-anticipated phase III clinical trial that could change standard-of-care treatment for patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma will open soon, pending COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. The randomized trial will be studying the effectiveness of the immunotherapy drug durvalumab (Imfinzi) when used in combination with chemotherapy drugs pemetrexed (Alimta) and cisplatin for mesothelioma. Opening dates may…

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Surgical oncologist and mesothelioma specialist Dr. Byrne Lee spent close to a decade in Southern California, building a well-respected peritoneal surface malignancy program at City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center. He wants to build a bigger and better one now — second to none — almost 400 miles away. The quest is well underway. Lee,…

The post Mesothelioma Specialist Brings HIPEC Expertise to Stanford appeared first on Mesothelioma Center – Vital Services for Cancer Patients & Families.

Johnson & Johnson announced Tuesday that it will stop selling its iconic, talc-based baby powder, the target of thousands of lawsuits claiming that its talc was contaminated with asbestos, which led to cancers such as mesothelioma and ovarian cancer. The company said the stoppage is only in the United States and Canada, citing a decline…

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The Scientific Analytical Institute in Greensboro, North Carolina, recently uncovered asbestos-contaminated talc in two new eyeshadow makeup products sold online on sites like Amazon and eBay. Its findings were the latest example in a growing list of talc-based cosmetic products found to contain toxic asbestos. Scientific Analytical Institute found asbestos fibers in 40% of the…

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No town in America has a higher percentage of asbestos-related lung disease — and resulting respiratory issues — than Libby, Montana, making its population uniquely vulnerable to the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet no town has responded to the threat so effectively. The home of the longest-running man-made environmental disaster in U.S. history — the mining of…

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U.S. military families around the world are living in government-owned and -operated housing containing serious health and safety risks, according to the most recent report by the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General. The report stems from the inspection of eight military installations — seven outside the U.S. — that uncovered systemic deficiencies in…

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Dr. Nagla Abdel Karim of the Medical College of Georgia has seen the effectiveness of cabozantinib with certain types of thyroid, kidney and liver cancers. She believes it may also work with pleural mesothelioma, making this rare and tough-to-treat cancer more manageable than it ever has been. Karim has begun recruiting patients for the first…

The post Latest Clinical Trial for Pleural Mesothelioma Opens in Georgia appeared first on Mesothelioma Center – Vital Services for Cancer Patients & Families.

Pharmaceutical giant Bristol Myers Squibb continues to tout its immunotherapy combination of Opdivo and Yervoy for first-line treatment of patients with pleural mesothelioma cancer. Bristol Myers Squibb recently announced that overall survival “significantly improved” when the combination was measured against standard chemotherapy in a randomized, phase III clinical trial of previously untreated mesothelioma patients. Its…

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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency postponed indefinitely a peer review of the recent asbestos risk evaluation draft done by its Science Advisory Committee on Chemicals. A peer review virtual meeting was scheduled for April 27-30, but several independent scientific experts on the panel are no longer available. A Bloomberg Law article published this week explained…

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Medical oncologist Dr. Angus Dalgleish never did like standard of care treatment for pleural mesothelioma cancer, even when he reluctantly recommended it in the past. He believes now there is something better. Dalgleish, of St. George’s Hospital, University of London, recently published a case report detailing a novel treatment regimen that turned a six-month life…

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Neoadjuvant chemotherapy — often used before aggressive surgery — has shown no definitive survival benefit for patients with pleural mesothelioma cancer, according to a recent study at the Duke University Medical Center. The study strengthened the growing belief among mesothelioma specialists that the combination of chemotherapy drugs cisplatin and pemetrexed might be a more effective…

The post Duke Study Challenges Mesothelioma Chemotherapy Practices appeared first on Mesothelioma Center – Vital Services for Cancer Patients & Families.

Medical centers across the country have slowed or stopped the enrollment of new patients in mesothelioma clinical trials because of the all-consuming COVID-19 pandemic. The pause in enrollment options could be critical for newly diagnosed patients with pleural mesothelioma, whose life expectancy is often just six to 12 months. Clinical trials are research studies where…

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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released an asbestos draft risk evaluation Monday that found serious health dangers to workers in the chloralkali industry, the country’s last remaining user of raw asbestos. There is an “unreasonable risk to workers, occupational non-users, consumers and bystanders” the EPA found when evaluating several asbestos products still being imported and…

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