Drug developer Bionomics Ltd plans to conduct a Phase II clinical trial of its leading compound, anti-cancer drug BNC105, on 60 Mesothelioma patients in Australia next year.

Researchers from the North Carolina State University, The Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences, and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences used a mouse model to examine the effect of inhalation of multi-walled carbon nanotubes on the lungs.

Purpose: Malignant pleural mesotheliomas (MPMs) are tumours associated with asbestos exposure involving the tissue lining surrounding the lung. Radiation therapy (RT) dramatically reduces the risk of tumour recurrence within the irradiated area (>90%). But patients continue to succumb to MPMs due to the tumour spreading outside the chest cavity. This may be due to tumour cells inadvertently contaminating areas outside the chest cavity during surgery. The study will look at whether giving a short intense course of chest radiation just prior to surgery will sterilized these tumour cells and thus, avoid or reduce contamination of the areas outside the chest cavity. The investigators hypothesize that short neoadjuvant (pre-operative) hemithoracic RT, followed by immediate planned extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP) (+/- adjuvant chemotherapy) will reduce the risk of intra-operative seeding and reduce the incidence of distant metastatic disease.

PINEHURST – The FirstHealth of the Carolinas Clinical Trials Department has partnered with the Wake Forest School of Medicine to promote participation in a research study investigating the development and progression of asbestos-related lung diseases and cancers.

The study showed that Hanford workers were 11 times more likely to develop mesothelioma, a cancer of the lungs strongly tied to asbestos exposure, than the general population. They were three times more likely to develop multiple myeloma, a cancer found in white blood cells.

Naturally-occurring asbestos has been carried downstream of Swift Creek and along the banks of the Sumas River, according to samples recently collected by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The asbestos comes from a landslide on Sumas Mountain that deposits asbestos-laden sediment into Swift Creek, the focus of previous health and environmental studies.

University of Minnesota health researchers began sending letters Monday to current and former taconite workers on the Iron Range to enlist them in a wide-ranging study of a rare cancer.