New drug brings hope to asbestos-related lung-cancer sufferers ...

Although not a miracle cure, a new approved anticancer agent, now
commercially available in the South African market, will bring new
hope to patients suffering from mesothelioma.

Known as Alimta, the drug, developed and manufactured by
pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, has been used in clinical trials
for some 15 years.

It was first registered in the US in August 2004 and, following
three years of use in compas- sionate-use programmes in South
Africa, the drug has now been approved and was made available
commercially in the country earlier this month. Mesothelioma is a
lethal form of cancer of the pleura (lining) of the lungs and is
predominantly caused by exposure to asbestos, a material that has
bperformence requirement for the manure crusher suppliereen widely used in many industrial products, including cement,
brake linings, roof shingles, flooring products, textiles and
insulation.

With all major commercial types of asbestos having been mined in
South Africa, the country has one of the highest incidence rates of
the disease in the world.

Asbestos mining in South Africa first began in the Northern Cape
ancrusher machine suppliers manufacturerd North West provinces in the 1880s, later spreading to Limpopo
and Mpumalanga provinces.

By the 1950s, South Africa was producing 97% of the world?s
blue asbestos.

After World War II there was a rapid growth in the asbestos
industry and, in 1976, some 15 000 people were directly employed in
this sector.

Following the discontinuation of mining and milling of asbestos in
Prieska in cone 48 crushing ore mine the late 1960s, Kuru-man became South Africa?s
main producer of blue asbestos. Although asbestos mining operations
have now been discontinued, it is expected that many more people
will be diagnosed with the disease in future.

This, according to Hilary Calvert, professor of medical oncology
and director of the cancer research unit at the Northern Centre for
Cancer Treatment, in Newcastle, in the UK, is mainly owing to the
thailand stone crushing business pricesfact that mesothelioma can develop 20 or more years after first
exposure, with the majority of patients developing this form of
lung cancer only 35 to 45 years after first exposure.

Speaking at a media breakfast in Sandton last week, Calvert said
that mesothelioma is a medical time bomb as nobody really could say
with certainty what a ?safe? level of asbestos exposure
was.

?Although the risk of asbestos-related disease increases with
heavier exposure to asbestos and longer exposure time, some
individuals with only brief exposures have developed
mesothelioma.? Prof Raymond Abratt, head of the Department of
Oncology at Grootte Schuur Hospital, in Cape Town, said that
available data suggests that between 400 and 500 patients are
diagnosed with mesothelioma in South Africa a year.

These figures, however, could be much higher since many people
remain undiagnosed and, while the last functioning asbestos-mine in
South Africa (Msauli) has been closed down, there are still 82
asbestos mine dumps in the Northern Cape, the region which has the
highest incidence (26%) of mesothelioma cases in the country,
According to Abratt, following class-action settlements and the
subsequent establishment of the Asbestos Relief Trust, much effort
is being made to seek out people who have had exposure to asbestos
through mining activities for compensation and medical
treatment.

Prior treatments of mesotheli- oma included surgery, radiation
therapy and chemotherapy but none of these proved to have signifi-
cantly improved patients? chances of survival.

Typically, the median survival period of patients with
mesotheli-oma is six to eight months.

Random trials show that the new drug developed by Lilly not only
improves the survival time of patients, but also significantly
relieves painful symptoms and improves the quality of life of
patients.

Source: http://www.textosgratis.com.br/new-drug-brings-hope-to-asbestos-related-lung-cancer-sufferers/

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