After working hard for half his life, he suffered from "malignant pleural mesothelioma"! Doctors reveal the culprit: the incubation period can be as long as 40 years
Does asbestos exposure significantly increase cancer risk? Which occupations may be high-risk?
Workers engaged in construction or decoration, beware of the cancer risk caused by exposure to “asbestos”! It is understood that most Taiwanese people are not familiar with malignant pleural mesothelioma. They often do not know that malignant pleural mesothelioma is not only a cancer with a long incubation period and high malignancy, but its cause is closely related to asbestos commonly used in construction and decoration. The materials are related, and its incubation period is as long as 40 years at most.
Chen Yumin, chairman of the Taiwan Association of Thoracic and Intensive Care Medicine and director of the Thoracic Surgery Department of Taipei Veterans General Hospital, said that most patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma cancer develop cancer due to the “working environment”, such as construction or demolition industry, shipbuilding Or ship breaking industry, automobile and motorcycle manufacturing or maintenance industry, heat insulation or thermal insulation engineering and other industries. Only about 20% of them are suitable for surgery. Even if chemotherapy is used as the first step, the patient’s survival time is only one year, and the prognosis is very poor. The plight of patients with advanced malignant pleural mesothelioma who have few treatment options and limited effectiveness has finally seen a turn in recent years.
Dr. Huang Yanxiang, an attending physician at the Department of Thoracic Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, pointed out that after patients with cancer receive combined immunotherapy, the three-year survival rate can increase to 23%. He himself met a patient who was nearly 70 years old and received combined immunotherapy. Finally, he even managed to get rid of the shackles of the wheelchair and was able to walk on his own feet again. Recently, the National Health Insurance Administration has included combined immune therapy into the first-line health insurance coverage for malignant pleural mesothelioma for the first time. It is believed that it will reduce the burden on cancer patients and lighten the hope of fighting cancer.
69-year-old asbestos worker supports family in fatal crisis! Malignant pleural mesothelioma may lie dormant for 40 years
Although malignant pleural mesothelioma is rare, its highly carcinogenic factor has always been hidden in people’s lives. Chairman Chen Yumin explained that asbestos was a commonly used substance in early construction and decoration projects. After it was recognized as a first-level carcinogen by the international community in 1977, Taiwan Asbestos materials have also been included in regulatory management since 1976. However, since the incubation period of asbestos may be as long as 40 years, most patients are already elderly when diagnosed, and half of them are in the advanced stage of the disease and have only 4-8 months to survive. In the past, hard work to support the family has laid the foundation for death, which often makes it more difficult for cancer patients and their families to accept it.
Dr. Huang Yanxiang said that he was also treating a patient who had been engaged in a high-risk occupation with asbestos exposure for 40 years. The patient came for treatment because of unexplained symptoms such as shortness of breath, chest pain and back pain, but after many After the first examination, it was confirmed to be malignant pleural mesothelioma. The diagnosis was very sad and difficult to accept.
The dawn of treatment for patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma! Doctor: Dual immunotherapy is expected to improve three-year survival rate
In the past, the treatment methods for malignant pleural mesothelioma were quite limited. Chairman Chen Yumin pointed out that only 20% of patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma can be treated with surgery, but the recurrence rate after surgery is as high as 75%, resulting in more than 80% of patients unable to survive for more than 5 years. years; patients who are not suitable for surgery have only chemotherapy as an option. The average survival time after treatment is only one year, and half of them will have their disease worsen within six months. This shows that the development of malignant pleural mesothelioma treatment still faces bottlenecks.
With the rapid development of medical treatment, immunotherapy has joined the ranks of treatments for advanced malignant pleural mesothelioma in recent years. Dr. Huang Yanxiang said that data showed that compared with chemotherapy, patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma who received dual immunotherapy not only increased the three-year survival rate from 15% to 23% and reduced the risk of death by 27%, but also achieved stable control of the disease. The proportion of disease-free disease progression per year increased from 1% to 14%.
In addition, Dr. Huang Yanxiang further shared that even if some patients terminate treatment due to treatment-related side effects, the three-year survival rate of these patients is still about 34%. Compared with the past situation where the survival period was less than one year, it can be said that dual immunotherapy has finally It has successfully broken through the difficulties faced by patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma for ten years and become a new hope for patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma.
“After discussing with his family, the patient decided to undergo combined immunotherapy. At the beginning, he needed to prepare an oxygen machine to go home to help control his breathing. However, after two months of treatment, he no longer needed to use the oxygen machine. When he returned to the hospital, he no longer needed it. I can now walk on my own without relying on a wheelchair, which has improved my condition and quality of life!”
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