What I learned today about Mesothelioma:
Houston's M.D. Anderson Cancer Center is one of only a handful of hospitals equipped to treat mesothelioma.
Most patients that get the disease, 75 percent are blue collar people that were exposed to asbestos during the course of those sorts of jobs earlier in life. About 4,000 Americans get mesothelioma each year and it can take decades to show up. It's also difficult to diagnose, because symptoms mimic pneumonia and other conditions.
Insurance companies say that there's no good treatment for this disease, and they basically don't want treatment to be given. So they put patients through lengthy review procedures and try to delay treating the patient.
There is a drug, Alimta, now undergoing clinical trials that's shown some promise. But even with the best treatment, most mesothelioma patients die within a year.
Purple Punk Rocker from Atlanta, Georgia. Now just a faded Goth Ghost in High Point, North Carolina. Missing my old haunts while looking for a new one.
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