Skip to contents
In This Issue:
Norm Larker and Karen Grant were given no hope and only months to live when they were diagnosed with mesothelioma, a deadly and incredibly rare cancer often linked to asbestos exposure.
That diagnosis was more than three years ago for Larker of California, a retired Major League Baseball player and member of the 1959 World Series champion Dodgers, and more than a year ago for Grant, who was a 29-year-old newlywed when diagnosed with mesothelioma. Both are patients of the International Mesothelioma Program, a multi-disciplinary team directed by Dr. David Sugarbaker that draws clinical, surgical and research expertise from BWH, Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard Medical School and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
“If it were not for BWH’s International Mesothelioma Program, I wouldn’t be here today,” Grant said last week when about 125 people gathered as the International Mesothelioma Program accepted its largest financial gift ever.
The Boston law firm of Thornton & Naumes, a firm that specializes in representing victims of asbestos-related diseases like mesothelioma, pledged $3 million to the International Mesothelioma Program over the next five years. Thornton & Naumes attorneys last week presented their first, $1.2 million installment.
“I’ve represented more than 500 mesothelioma victims in the last 25 years, and there has been no hope medically for any of them, ” said attorney Michael Thornton. “But Dr. Sugarbaker and the International Mesothelioma Program team are making the first real serious advances we have observed. Finally, these victims have an honest hope.”
The International Mesothelioma Program’s mission of providing patients with quality life extension leading to a cure has drawn patients from all over the world to Boston where a team of surgeons, pulmonologists, medical and radiation oncologists, radiologists, pathologists and patient care staff study, evaluate and treat hundreds of patients. Malignant mesothelioma is an aggressive form of cancer that grows in the membranes lining the chest cavity, lungs, abdominal cavity or heart. While its exact cause remains a mystery, between 50 and 80 percent of people diagnosed with it can recall asbestos exposure at some point in their lives.
“We have a very unique situation here that does not exist anywhere else in the world,” said Sugarbaker, chief of Thoracic Surgery and director of the International Mesothelioma Program.
Karl Kelsey, MD, is using an epidemiologic approach to research mesothelioma’s cause and pathway. Raphael Bueno, MD, a BWH surgeon, concentrates on gene discovery strategies to enable the team to tailor individual therapy for each patient. Jonathan Fletcher, MD, of BWH’s Pathology Department, is working to discover therapeutic targets within mesothelioma cells.
The entire team is energized from battle-tested patients who are making strides against what was once a rapid death sentence. Patients like Karen Grant, the youngest person ever diagnosed with bilateral pleural mesothelioma, show remarkable bravery in going forward with aggressive and experimental treatments. “She’s a pioneer,” Sugarbaker said.
Sugarbaker performed two surgeries on Grant, each time removing the lung lining, burning off mesothelioma cells with a laser and surrounding the outside of the lung with a heated chemotherapy wash to kill any remaining and unseen cancerous cells. A year later, she is cancer free.
“Karen is a tangible result of what this program is doing,” her husband, Jeff, said.