Skip to main content

Mesothelioma Article: FREE DOWNLOAD

Malignant mesothelioma is a 20th century phenomenon and as we begin a new century it is timely to review the clinical, research, epidemiological and legal aspects of this disease.

It is a canser, and canser is " a slang or slang-like term for any malignant growth or tumor caused by abnormal and uncontrolled cell division". Cancer affects people at all ages with the risk for most types increasing with age. Cancer caused about 13% of all human deaths in 2007(7.6 million).

Tumor is derived, via the Old French tumour, from the Latin tumor "swelling". It originally meant an abnormal swelling of the flesh. In contemporary English, tumor is synonymous with solid neoplasm.

A tumor may be benign, pre-malignant or malignant. The nature of the tumor is determined by a pathologist after examination of the tumor tissues from a biopsy or a surgical excision specimen.

The epidemic of mesothelioma has been seen throughout the world, not just in Australia. In Europe mesothelioma has risen up the ‘league ladder’ of cancers, such that it is no longer considered a rare tumour. In some heavily industrialised parts of the world it is likely that mesoth. occurs frequently but, in the absence of careful record taking, it is difficult to know for certain what is happening to the incidence of the disease.

Detailed study of mesothelioma is important not only in its own right but for a number of other reasons:
1- IT is an example of an occupational lung disease
2- Malignant mesothelioma has a number of features which make it an ideal ‘model’ for learning about cancer in general.
3- It has been an excellent target for immunotherapy protocols and has been one of the first tumours treated by gene therapy.

When we began our research into this subject in the mid-1980s there were very few laboratories studying this disease, few cell lines available, few animal models available and little was known about the basic cell biology underlying the disease.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The mesothelial cell

The mesothelial cells line the serosal cavities of the body, the pleural, peritoneal and pericardial spaces. Geographically, across the serosal surfaces, mesothelial cells canbe seen to have a variety of morphologies between flat or cuboidal and showing few or a dense forest of microvilli. Although their important in vivo functions have not been identified, they have the potential to regulate cell traffic, the balance between coagulation and fibrinolysis, cell proliferation, and fibrogenesis within and around the pleural space. They likely represent the progenitor cell for mesothelioma. In in vitro studies, the mesothelial cell demonstrates a multitude of abilities. Mesothelial cells can produce most of the components of the submesothelial matrix, at amounts comparable to that of fibroblasts. They can also release growth factors such as TGF-beta and insulin-like growth factorI. The cells may regulate the fibrinolytic and procoagulant activities on their cell surface and in the pleural ...

Novel Molecular, Epidemiological, and Therapeutic Issues in Mesothelioma: The Role of SV40

The rise in mesothelioma cases that has occurred since 1950 has been associated with the widespread commercial use of asbestos. However, less than 10% of asbestos workers exposed to high levels of asbestos actually develop the disease, suggesting that additional factors may increase an individual’s susceptibility to the carcinogenic effects of asbestos. In addition, about 20% of mesotheliomas are not associated with asbestos exposure, suggesting that alternative factors may also cause mesothelioma. * The SV40 SV40 is a DNA tumour virus which was introduced into a significant portion of the human population between 1955 and 1963 through polio vaccines and adenovaccines contaminated with the virus. SV40 and human tumours The discovery that SV40 produced tumours in hamsters led to the PCR analysis of human mesotheliomas for the presence of SV40. Our group was the first to investigate whether there was any correlation between Polyomavirus and mesothelioma, and this was accom- plished in tw...