| Malignant mesothelioma is a cancer of the lining of the lung, usually induced by long years of exposure to asbestoes. Treatment is very unsatisfactory -- the disease is resistant to radiotherapy and poorly responsive to chemotherapy. In America, we try treatment with adriamycin, taxanes, or platinal but the odds are against success. In a managed care enviroment, I could understand a reluctance to offer anything more than drainage of the fluid, oxygen, and morphine. I dont think your fathers care is wrong since most treatments are likely to be futile. |
| >Studying 18- to 26-year-olds who probably had been exposed to the >contaminated vaccine, Fisher found a 19.6 percent greater incidence of the >two major brain cancers linked to SV40 when compared with the incidence in >people the same age who were not exposed. She also found 16.6 percent more >bone cancers and 178 percent more mesotheliomas among those exposed to the >vaccine. Did she control for tobacco use and other carcinogen exposure? Are the % differences with an incidence rate high enough to be statistically useful, or so small that a difference of one or two cases makes a big % diference? |
| Gunisha Singh is a 46 year old Indian female with no significant past medical history who presents for evaluation of a newly diagnosed right-sided pleural malignant mesothelioma. Mrs. Singh was in her usual excellent state of health until approximately January 1996 when she noticed the onset of right neck, arm, and shoulder discomfort gradually increasing in intensity. This was often accompanied by a burning sensation in the distal arm and fingers on the right side. At that time she was living in Hong Kong and was evaluated by a neurosurgeon who felt that her symptoms were consistent with two herniated cervical discs. The patient then came to the U.S. for evaluation by a neurosurgeon at the University of California in San Francisco who felt that she had cervical spondylosis with herniated discs without evidence of frank neurological impairment. At this time, her primary intervention was manipulation of pain to control her symptoms. &nbs. |
| >Studies had linked mesothelioma to asbestos exposure - with tumors usually >appearing many decades later. Yet 20 percent of victims had no asbestos >exposure. Actually, smokers with heavy asbestos exposure are the most likely to get it. Carcinogens can havwe an additive or multiplicative effect. |
| >>>>> Normally I wouldnt send out blitzmail like this but I have >>some >>>>> saddening news and a very big favor to ask of all of you. >>>>> My mom, Gunisha Singh, was diagnosed about a month ago with >>>>> cancer--she has malignant mesothelioma, which is cancer of the >>inner >>chest >>>>> cavity. This is a rare and mostly incurable form of cancer. >>Standard >>>>> treatment like chemotherapy and radiation therapy is not very >>effective >>>>> against it, and by the time her particular cancer was diagnosed it >>was >>>>> judged inoperable by Dr. M.S. Bains of the Memorial >>Sloane-Kettering >>Cancer >>>>> Center in New York City. >>>>> As far as we know, the only treatment that can potenti. |
