Plueral effusion

gdpawel said:

Talc Pleurodesis
Tina

My wife received talc pleurodesis secondary to ovarian cancer back in 1972. She went twenty-four years before experiencing any recurrent ovarian cancer.

A study published in the European Respiratory Journal revealed that talc stimulates healthy cells to produce endostatin, a hormone considered the magic bullet for treating metastatic lung cancer. The University of Florida researchers say talc is an exciting new therapeutic agent for cancers largely considered incurable.

They found that talc causes tumor growth to slow down and actually decreases the tumor bulk. Talc is able to prevent the formation of blood vessels, thereby killing the tumor and choking off its growth. The tumors appeared to grow much slower and in some cases completely disappeared.

Scientists have only recently discovered that talc stunts tumor growth, though the mineral has been used for almost 70 years to treat the respiratory problems that accompany metastatic lung cancer. About half of all patients accumulate fluid around the surface of the lungs, a condition known as malignant pleural effusion. That fluid can press down upon the lung, impair the breathing of the patient and cause the patient to feel very short of breath.

Pleural effusions indicate that the cancer, which might have started in the breast, lung or gastrointestinal tract, has spread throughout the body.

To make life more bearable for these patients, doctors close the extra space between the lung and the chest wall, where the troublesome fluid collects. The trick is gluing the two surfaces together. Talc is blown into the patients' chest cavity to irritate the tissue and create tiny abrasions. When the lung tissue heals, it becomes permanently adhered to the chest wall without impairing the patients' breathing. The effects of the procedure, called medical thoracoscopy with talc pleurodesis, are immediate and last a lifetime.

The Food and Drug Administration approved talc for use in medical thoracoscopy in 2003.

Talc has added benefits besides causing scarring and taking away the fluid that surrounds the lung. The cells that cover the lining of the lung are stimulated by the presence of talc to produce a factor that inhibits the growth of blood vessels and kills the tumor cells themselves.

Less than one day after treatment with talc, patients began producing 10-fold higher levels of endostatin, a hormone released by healthy lung cells. Endostatin prevents new blood vessels from forming, slows cell growth and movement, and even induces nearby tumor cells to commit suicide. All of these make it hard for tumors to grow and spread into healthy lung tissue.

What is being done is the normal pleural mesothelial cells continue to produce endostatin. Talc doesn't go away. Talc stays in the chest cavity, constantly causing the normal cells to produce this factor that inhibits the growth of the tumor. And the antitumor effects of talc appear to be long-lasting.

Source: University of Florida

http://news.ufl.edu/2007/06/06/talcum/

Greg

gdpawel said:

Talc Pleurodesis
Tina

I vividly remember, after her extrapleural lobectomy in 1996, for her metastatic transdiaphragmatic tumor from her original ovarian caner in 1972, the thoracic surgical oncologist telling me the talc oozed down to the bottom of the cavity and was as hard as rock. She had to literally use a hammer and chisle to clean it all out.

Besides talc causing scarring and taking away the fluid that surrounds the lungs, the cells that cover the lining of the lung are stimulated by the presence of talc to produce a factor that inhibits the growth of blood vessels and kills tumor cells themselves. It seems that my wife's 24 years without any recurrence gives some credence to the 2007 study at the University of Florida.

Greg