Mesothelioma news articles are here. It's such an intractable form of cancer that any ray of hope is positive.

Immunotherapy sometimes called biological therapy, uses the body's own immune system to protect itself against disease. Researchers have found that the immune system may be able to recognize the difference between healthy cells and cancer cells, and eliminate those that become cancerous. Immunotherapy is intended to repair, stimulate, or enhance the immune system's natural anticancer function. Research into immunotherapy for mesothelioma treatment is ongoing.

Chemotherapy for mesothelioma information can be found here.

Mesothelioma cancer cells differ from normal cells partly because they keep dividing and forming more cells without control. Anticancer drugs destroy cancer cells by stopping them from growing or multiplying. The presence of chemotherapy drugs in the body also hurts or kills healthy cells, especially those that divide quickly, and it is this harm to healthy cells that causes side effects.

Because some drugs work better together than alone, two or more drugs are often given at the same time. This is called combination chemotherapy.

Other types of drugs may be used to treat your cancer. These may include certain drugs that can block the effect of your body's hormones. Or doctors may use biological therapy, which is treatment with substances that boost the body's own immune system against cancer. Your body usually makes these substances in small amounts to fight cancer and other diseases. These substances can be made in the laboratory and given to patients to destroy cancer cells or change the way the body reacts to a tumor. They may also help the body repair or make new cells destroyed by chemotherapy.

AdSense: the worst thing that ever happened to the web.

Google introduced a program called AdSense a couple years ago, and it has contributed to a cheapening of the web experience and the creation of a lot of bad sites. The type of person who thinks nothing of clicking on ads to cost advertisers money, just because they want to support the website.

Look at some of the webmaster discussion forums where AdSense sleazeballs talks about ways to increase their income. It's clear that many of them regard the program as a big game, like a video game where the worst that can happen is that your character can die. Then you start the game again. The worst that can happen to these sleazeballs is that they get kicked out of AdSense, in which case they start a new account.

The whole system is wrong. And people complain: "But 99% of the AdSense publishers are honest and follow the rules!" But that's missing the point. Even the fraction of the percent that commit fraud ruin the system and make it (1) implausible for advertisers to put their ads on content sites, and (2) cheapen the Internet overall.

I try to be a forgiving person. I would certainly not discriminate against ex-convicts and would be willing to work with them. But I would never work with anyone who has run AdSense, not after I've seen their mentality.

Prognostic factors in mesothelioma.

Prognostic factors can help clinicians and patients when deciding a treatment plan. Patients in the best prognostic groups can be considered for more intensive or experimental therapy. Alternatively, patients in the best prognostic groups might prefer a period of observation prior to commencement of therapy. For patients with mesothelioma prognostic factors are potentially especially important because of the lack of a widely applicable anatomical staging system. Both the International Mesothelioma Interest Group (IMIG) and Brigham staging systems are of limited relevance to patients not undergoing radical debulking surgery.

The incidence of malignant mesothelioma, a neoplastic process affecting the pleura, and to a lesser extent the peritoneum, is increasing. Mesothelioma is almost always caused by inhalation of asbestos fibers years before the development of the malignancy. Since asbestos exposure generally occurs on the job site, obtaining a thorough occupational history is critical. The elapsed time between first exposure to asbestos and the development of an asbestos-induced disease is called latency. The minimum latency for mesothelioma is 10 years; however, a latency of 30 to 40 years is more usual (Finnish Institute. Scan J Work Environ Health 1997; 23:311). Latency and longevity are key factors in the mesothelioma epidemic of 2000.

Current surgical management of malignant pleural mesothelioma

Malignant pleural mesothelioma is a rare and very aggressive malignancy with an increasing incidence. Single-modality therapy has failed to improve median survival. Current surgical therapies include palliative and cytoreductive procedures. The rarity of the disease, the lack of randomized surgical studies, and the lack of a universally accepted and validated staging system make it difficult to reach consensus and establish stage-specific protocols. However, with strict criteria, subsets of patients can be identified who can benefit from aggressive cytoreductive surgical approaches, such as extrapleural pneumonectomy, and adjuvant chemoradiation protocols. Our experience with this type of protocol in carefully selected patients has resulted in increased median survival. The lack of cure in any of the published protocols demonstrates the need for new therapies and approaches for this disease.

Patients with a cancer of the lining of the lung, known as malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM), lived longer than previously reported(1), when treated with Eli Lilly and Company's Alimta(®) (pemetrexed) in combination with cisplatin, according to updated data presented at the 11th annual Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC).

Mature data presented at WCLC represent an update from trial results from the largest randomized, Phase III mesothelioma trial ever reported involving 448 patients published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO) in July 2003(2). This data showed median survival of patients treated with Alimta plus cisplatin was almost thirteen (12.8) months after diagnosis and 42 percent (3.8 months) longer than patients who received cisplatin alone (p = 0.003).

There are many variations when it comes to the type of slate available on your pool table. The best way to distinguish between these variations is to refer to the BCA Rule Book’s requirement for tournament play. The BCA specifically states that the slate on a tournament table should be “1 thick, 3 piece slate, with a wooden frame attached directly to the slate”. With this being such an important part of your table, you should be very wary of manufacturers who are willing to make sacrifices. Good source for pool tables in Michigan.

The investment industry is rife with sleazeballs. If you've been taken advantage of by financial advisors or salesmen, contact a lawyer. There are securities attorneys that represent investors.

Asbestos Company Litigation

It has been clearly established that many of the corporations which manufactured asbestos insulation in the 1940's, 50's, 60's and early 70's knew it was hazardous but kept this information secret, choosing profits over safety.

Mesothelioma patients can recover compensation from companies who manufactured various asbestos-containing products. The legal basis of these suits is the asbestos companies' failure to warn consumers and workers about the hazards of asbestos. It has been proven that some of these companies have known about the hazards of asbestos as far back as the 1920's. This has been established through internal company documents, through testimony of company employees, and through medical literature which they had access to.

Over the following 40+ years the industry made billions of dollars manufacturing asbestos insulation for almost every building, industrial site, home, school, ship, car, plane, pipe, etc. in America.

Contrary to popular belief, it is still legal to sell products that contain asbestos.

Many construction workers and industrial tradesmen prior to the mid-1970's were exposed to dangerous levels of asbestos, which they inhaled, as asbestos insulation was being cut, sawed, mixed or sprayed. These workers were never warned about the dangers of asbestos and considered it harmless. They were never given masks or ventilation, nor were dust counts ever taken.

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