Breathe was featured at the Australian Centre for Photography from July 17 through August 22, 2009 and will next be exhibited at the Latrobe Regional Gallery in Australia from September 5 through October 4, 2009.

From Pool, a website of several Australian artists including Ireland, the exhibit is defined through the following poetic statement:

Asbestos leaves a cruel legacy. In the dread that it engenders, in the pain and suffering it brings to many families, in arrested dreams, in the sheer contemplation of what may lie ahead, it knocks us breathless.

View the images at Chris Ireland’s Website

Using a more sensitive pleural fluid cytology test to evaluate the fluid that builds up around the lungs, researchers determined that a protein known as meothelin is higher in mesothelioma patients than in those with other diseases. Mesothelioma patients had up to a 10 times higher concentration of the protein than did patients with other conditions.

Mesothelioma is typically diagnosed when the patient is in the late stages of the illness resulting in a survival time of 4 – 12 months. The anticipation is that this test will limit invasive diagnostic tests and will increase patient survival time once mesothelioma is diagnosed.

A clinical trial is one of the final stages of the rigorous cancer research process. Clinical trials are studies that enroll patients to determine whether a new approach to cancer prevention, diagnosis or treatment is safe and effective. During the trial period the medical team monitors the health of the participants and gauges the efficacy of the treatment against the side effects.

Traditional mesothelioma treatments have been unable to stop the cancer from metastasizing, or spreading, to other organs in the body. According to the Mesothelioma Research Foundation of America, whose mission is to fund research that will lead to the quickest cure for mesothelioma, “malignant mesothelioma drug trials testing new chemotherapy drugs are ongoing and believed to be capable of producing significant advancements in the treatment of malignant mesothelioma.”

Mesothelioma Trial Successes

The use of clinical trials for new chemotherapy agents in the treatment of malignant mesothelioma has resulted in additional treatment options for mesothelioma patients. One of the newer chemotherapy drugs receiving attention is Alimta (pemetrexed) used in combination with Cisplatin. Combined use of chemotherapy drugs increases the effectiveness of treatment when surgery is not possible. Another combination found during clinical trials includes gemcitabine and cisplatin.

A drug currently being researched for mesothelioma treatment is Veglin which is designed to inhibit the formation of new blood vessels to tumors. With this nourishment the tumors grow and eventually cause death in the patient. A similar drug, Bevacizumab (Avastin™), was the first U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)- approved therapy found to inhibit the formation of new blood vessels to tumors.

Benefits of Clinical Trials

Participants in clinical trials not only help the medical community in general, but they can realize many benefits for their specific medical needs. Specifically, benefits from well-designed and well-executed clinical trials allow patients to:

• Take an active role in their own health care.
• Gain access to new research treatments before they are widely available.
• Obtain expert medical care at leading health care facilities during the trial.
• Help others by contributing to medical research.

There are risks associated to clinical trials of which participants should be aware. Primarily, the experimental treatment may not be effective for the patient, or the patient could have a serious or life-threatening side effect.

More Patients Needed for Clinical Trials

An advisory group established by Congress to monitor the war on cancer asked oncologists and researchers what can be done to speed the progress on finding new, effective treatments for cancer. Researchers responded that more patients are needed for participation in trials. Statistics show that of adult cancer patients only 3 percent participate in clinical trials for cancer treatments.

According to clinicaltrials.gov there are close to 6,500 cancer clinical trials seeking adult patients. Further disheartening to the committee is that “more than one trial in five sponsored by the National Cancer Institute failed to enroll a single subject, and only half reached the minimum needed for a meaningful result.”

Resources:
Mesothelioma clinical trials recruiting volunteers
Mesothelioma Research Foundation of America (MESORFA)

Doctors, patients, and cancer advocates alike are now emphasizing the importance of early detection of mesothelioma to increase the effectiveness of treatment options leading to an increased survival time. In fact, the American Cancer Society states “if you can’t prevent cancer, the next best thing you can do to protect your health is to detect it early.”

Some studies have shown that among patients where mesothelioma is diagnosed early and treated aggressively, about half can expect a life expectancy of two years, and one-fifth will have a life expectancy of five years. As a comparison, for patients whose mesothelioma is advanced only five percent can expect to live another five years.

Early diagnosis of mesothelioma cancer often means that the cancer will be localized, with the cancer cells found only at the body site where the cancer originated. Using the Brigham staging system, the localized cancer would be identified as Stage 1 and can involve a surgically removable tumor. Once the cancer cells have spread beyond that original location, the mesothelioma is considered advanced and surgery is often no longer an option.

The importance of early diagnosis for mesothelioma cannot be overemphasized. Treating a limited area of cancer is easier, and includes more treatment options, than trying to treat cancer that has spread, or metastasized, to several sites or throughout the body. Mesothelioma is typically diagnosed within three to six months of the first visit to a doctor with complaints about breathing problems or chest and abdominal pain.

Early diagnosis can improve life expectancy; however, the following factors for a mesothelioma diagnosis are all important when assessing life expectancy.

• Latency period
• Age at diagnosis
• Type of mesothelioma
• Smoking or non-smoking patient
• Overall health of patient