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- Asbestos News
- Philadelphia Asbestos Verdict $25.2 Million The jury in the case of Baccus v. Crane Co. recently awarded James Baccus’ Estate $25.2 million in compensatory and punitive damages.
- Navy Firefighter Awarded $2.6 Million for Asbestos Related Cancer David Fortier was diagnosed with mesothelioma in October of 2006, and died in June of 2008. He filed a lawsuit shortly after his diagnosis, but he did not live to see his case decided.
- Asbestos Plaintiff’s Body Subpoenaed, Taken from Graveyard Just Before Burial Harold St. John's body was never laid to rest when a court issued a subpoena for his body to collect tissue samples. Chrysler, one of the defendants in the lawsuit, maintains that the proceedings were necessary to obtain additional information about the way Mr. St. John died.
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Mesothelioma Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is a cancer treatment that uses specific drugs or combinations of drugs that are selectively destructive to malignant cells and tissues. It can be prescribed as the patient's sole form of mesothelioma treatment, or administered with surgery or radiation therapy.
The American Cancer Society has specified that chemotherapy is not a means of curing mesothelioma, but may be effective in relieving the symptoms of the disease.
How Does Chemotherapy Work to Ease the Symptoms of Mesothelioma?
Chemotherapy drugs can be administered to the patient in pill form or intravenously, either as a systemic therapy (circulating throughout the entire body) or injected directly into the chest or abdominal cavity.
Chemotherapy is normally an out-patient procedure that is administered in cycles. The number of cycles depends upon the stage a patient's mesothelioma has reached and whether the cancer seems to be responding to initial chemotherapy cycles. To begin treatment, the drugs are normally given to the patient over a few days. Then, after a few weeks in which the patient's body recovers from the effects of the drugs, another cycle of chemotherapy begins.
Will Chemotherapy Cause Side Effects in Mesothelioma Patients?
The main concern with chemotherapy is its tendency to damage healthy cells, especially cells of the bone marrow that are responsible for producing blood and white blood cells, which may leave the patient susceptible to potentially fatal infections. Therefore, the health of a patient undergoing chemotherapy should be thoroughly monitored by doctors, even in the hiatus between chemotherapy cycles. A shortage of blood platelets can also increase a patient's risk of bruising or bleeding. Also, a shortage of red blood cells may lead to fatigue and shortness of breath.
Chemotherapy is known to cause a number of additional side effects, which normally disappear shortly after the treatment is stopped. Such side effects may include loss of hair, nausea and vomiting, loss of appetite and mouth sores. Specific side effects will depend upon the drug or combination of drugs administered to the patient, dosage, and the length of his or her treatment.
