Mesothelioma Cancer

Suzette Allinger, 56, remembers the day in July of 2008 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Allinger, of the Creve Coeur area, had gone to see Dr. Alan Londe, a general surgeon, after she’d had severe breast pain. His diagnosis of cancer couldn’t have come at a worst time.

Allinger, whose husband of 20 years, Justin, had been laid off from retail management the year before. They had no private health insurance.

But with a part-time job in the cosmetics field, she couldn’t qualify for Missouri Health Net, Medicaid or other government programs.

“As I was crying a bucket of tears, Dr. Londe told me to take a deep breath and talk to Gateway to Hope,” she said.

That suggestion changed her life.

Londe is one of many doctors and other medical providers who donate services and products to the non-profit Gateway to Hope.

Based in Creve Coeur, the organization arranges no-cost comprehensive medical care for breast cancer patients who lack sufficient financial resources or insurance, but are ineligible for assistance through state and federal programs.

It was founded in 2005 by Dr. David Caplin, of Frontenac, a plastic/reconstructive surgeon, and Dr. Marlys Schuh of Creve Coeur, an oncology breast surgeon.

Caplin recalls a patient who was the catalyst for establishing the organization.

“This young woman was the sole breadwinner for her kids and disabled husband. She made enough so she wasn’t qualified for Medicaid but couldn’t afford insurance,” he said…. Read more…

Breast cancer survivors who took aspirin after completing treatment were half as likely to die or have their tumors spread around the body compared with survivors who didn’t take aspirin, a long-running study of 4,164 nurses showed.

The study is the first to find that regular aspirin users had a lower risk of dying from breast cancer, according to the study, published online today in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Aspirin may help control cancer by fighting inflammation, says study author Michelle Holmes of Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Breast cancers produce more inflammatory chemicals than normal breast cells. Lab tests show that aspirin keeps breast tumor cells from growing and invading other tissue.

A study in August also found that aspirin offered a potential benefit against colon cancer.

Yet neither study proves that aspirin keeps cancers in check, Holmes says. That’s because doctors in each study merely followed patients for several years, noting which patients developed cancer and, of those, which took aspirin. So it’s possible that something other than aspirin controlled their tumors, Holmes says.

For proof, doctors would need to conduct a “gold standard” trial in which doctors randomly assign one group of patients to take a aspirin, then compare their progress with patients randomly assigned to a placebo, says Eric Jacobs, a scientist at the American Cancer Society…. Read more…

Actor Michael C. Hall, who plays a serial killer in the TV seriesDexter,said this week that he has been battling cancer but the treatment is almost finished and the disease is in remission…. Read more…

A man and a teenager who kicked a terminally ill cancer sufferer to death in Suffolk have been jailed for life.

Father-of-three John Vry, 55, suffered a “horrific and sustained” attack in an alleyway in Lowestoft in December 2008, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

James Killingback, 23, of Denmark Road, Lowestoft, was sentenced on Thursday to a minimum of 19 years in prison.

Aaron Breffitt, 17, of no fixed address, must serve a minimum of 12 years.

Mr Cry was confronted when he left his family home to buy chips and died in hospital from serious head injuries, prosecutor Karim Khalil told the court.

He had been told during the summer of 2008 he had between three and six months to live because of his illness…. Read more…

Dexter Star’s Cancer Scare? – Actor Michael C. Hall, who plays a serial killer in the TV series “Dexter,” said on Wednesday that he has been battling cancer but the treatment is almost finished and the disease is in remission.

The 38-year-old actor said in a media statement that he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a treatable cancer of the lymphatic system. He did not say when the diagnosis was made.

“I feel fortunate to have been diagnosed with an imminently treatable and curable condition, and I thank my doctors and nurses for their expertise and care,” Hall said.

His spokesman Craig Bankey said in the statement reported by People magazine that Hall’s cancer is in remission and the actor will continue treatment as planned….. Read more…

LONDON (Reuters) – A simple “see and treat” approach using a test costing $2 could help doctors prevent 100,000 cervical cancer deaths a year in women in poorer countries, British scientists said on Friday.

Cervical cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among women in developing nations where the main barriers to tackling the disease are poor health service infrastructure and high costs of screening and vaccines….. Read more…

Organization (ADAO) will continue a longstanding tradition of lighting a candle in memory of those loved ones lost to mesothelioma. This is actually the first of two candlelighting ceremonies. The second will be held Monday, January 4, 2010, in honor of all the mesothelioma “warriors” still battling and conquering this devastating disease…. Read more…

LIBBY — It was six funerals in six weeks that prompted Gayla Benefield to lay down her torch a couple of years ago.

Libby’s tireless advocate for justice and health care for asbestos victims was worn out, physically and mentally. She had accomplished a lot, gotten people to listen, moved them to action.

But she’d been at it since 1974 when her father died from asbestos disease.

He and Benefield’s mother were among the more than 300 Libby residents who have succumbed to the razor-sharp asbestos fibers that slowly turn lungs useless.

“That’s when I started fighting them,” Benefield recalled about her years of going up against W.R. Grace & Co., the corporation that operated the vermiculite mine from 1963 to 1990.

Five of those six funerals two years ago were for family members, including two relatives who died on the same day…… Read more…

The country’s biggest cancer charity has expressed shock at government figures revealing huge variations in patients’ chances of surviving from one area of the UK to another. The biggest survival gap was in lung cancer, where Department of Health figures showed patients in Herefordshire were three times more likely to die within a year of diagnosis than those in Kensington and Chelsea. In the London borough, 44% of patients survived the first year after diagnosis, compared with only 15% in Herefordshire.

In bowel cancer there was also a big gap in survival – 80% in Telford and Wrekin after one year, but only 58% in Waltham Forest and Hastings and Rother. The gap was less pronounced in breast cancer, with the best rate in Torbay, where 99% survived for one year, compared with 89% in Tower Hamlets.

“There is no excuse for such a big difference between different areas,” said Harpal Kumar, chief executive of Cancer Research UK. “It is appalling that someone with lung cancer in Herefordshire should be three times more likely to die within a year than a patient in Kensington, or that a person diagnosed with bowel cancer in Waltham Forest or Hastings should be 22% more likely to die within a year than a patient in Telford. This is the worst kind of postcode lottery.”

Very few primary care trusts (PCTs) had survival rates that were as good as other countries in Europe now or even as good as Europe was achieving 10 years ago, which Kumar called “a disgrace”.

“We’re pleased that the Department of Health have been bold enough to publish these figures,” he said. “The NHS now needs to take them very seriously.”…. Read more…

Former Test cricket umpire David Shepherd – famous for hopping about on one leg when the score reached 111, 222 or 333 – has died after a long battle with cancer, his former club Gloucestershire has confirmed.Shepherd, 68, who played for Gloucestershire for 14 years, came to prominence as a leading umpire, standing in 92 Tests around the world….. Read more…