Every year, people with rare disorders and their families, friends and communities mark Rare Disease Day, an initiative launched by the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD). In 2019, the day will be marked on February 28 with events, awareness programs and activities across the country. There are over 7,000 rare diseases that affect 25
Though all physicians treating patients with mesothelioma have the same goal of providing their patients with the best possible outcome and longest possible survival, there are disagreements about how that should be achieved. Most agree that patients do best with a combination of surgery and other modalities such as chemotherapy and radiation therapy, but where
Healthcare professionals treating patients diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma have identified surgery and chemotherapy as the two most effective treatment modalities currently available, but there are many variables in how these protocols are applied. There are multiple types of surgery used to resect mesothelioma’s tumors, multiple types of chemotherapy medication provided to patients, and even variations
Chinese physicians confronted with an acute case of mesothelioma may have stumbled upon a third line of treatment to extend overall patient survival. Physicians at 363 Hospital in Cheng Du were asked to treat a 58-year-old woman who arrived at the hospital with uncomfortable respiratory symptoms, including breathlessness, fluid in her lungs and a tightness
A long-running legal battle over Willis “Charley” Eddenfield’s 2011 death from pleural mesothelioma has entered a new phase, as Eddenfield’s widow begins her lawsuit against asbestos company Union Carbide in a New Jersey state court. Mrs. Eddenfield’s wrongful death lawsuit accuses Union Carbide of failing to warn workers about the dangers of the asbestos that
There have been countless mesothelioma victims whose lawsuits against the companies they blame for their illness have run up against the “bare metal defense” – where a manufacturer whose equipment uses an asbestos-containing component denies responsibility because that component was provided by a third party supplier. Those cases have been emotional roller coasters, as some
Though most patients diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma are treated using a multimodality treatment combining surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy, it has long been accepted that radiation therapy provides the least benefit of the three. Though the tool can effectively kill cells, its lack of precision has made it unwieldy when treating the challenging landscape of
R. Taylor Ripley M.D. is a board-certified thoracic surgeon specializing in oncology surgery, particularly the surgical treatment of mesothelioma. Fellowships at Sloan-Kettering and the National Cancer Institute helped him discover a passion for thoracic oncologic surgery, robotic surgery, and mesothelioma. Dr. Ripley recently took leadership roles at the Mesothelioma Treatment Center in Texas after the
In the wake of the death of Dr. David Sugarbaker, Baylor College of Medicine has announced that mesothelioma specialist Dr. Taylor Ripley will be joining the Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery in their Division of General Thoracic Surgery as an associate professor of surgery. Dr. Ripley has extensive expertise in thoracic surgical oncology and
Atelectasis is a complete or partial collapse of the lung, which can cause serious complications like pneumonia and respiratory failure, although it is treatable. There are many causes of atelectasis, including tumors in the airways and pleural effusion, a complication of mesothelioma. Asbestos may cause a particular type of atelectasis in which the lung tissue