Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center: Mesothelioma Treatment
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center holds the distinctions of being both the oldest and largest private cancer center in the world. Currently located in Manhattan’s Upper East Side, the center was originally founded across town in the West Side as the New York Cancer Hospital in 1884. After Alfred P. Sloan and Charles G. Kettering founded the Sloan Kettering Institute in 1948, the hospital came into its current form when the foundation joined forces with Memorial Hospital in 1960.
The hospital now holds more than 10,000 employees and helped as many as 466,000 outpatients in 2008. It has also benefitted from a number of new buildings to help expand their research in recent years, including The Ralph Lauren Center for Cancer Care and Prevention in 2003 and a new 23-story research building that opened in 2006.
The hospital’s mesothelioma program is headed by Dr. Lee M. Krug, a thoracic oncologist who has led a team of doctors and researchers that have conducted national studies exploring the benefits of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation treatments for patients who are suffering from the early stages of mesothelioma cancer. He is also leading a “phase III trial” of vorinostat on mesothelioma patients who have previously received chemotherapy.
Patients who have been diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma and are receiving treatment at Sloan-Kettering most often undergo a chemotherapy treatment of pemetrexed (or Altima) and cisplatin to best fight the disease while also improving their quality of life as much as possible. However, the hospital also offers a number of specialized surgical and radiation therapy options for certain forms of mesothelioma that best suit the stage it is in and placement in the body.
The hospital also specializes in follow-up and support care for patients and their families, as well as a pain management program for mesothelioma cancer patients so they can live as comfortably as possible following their diagnosis.
As those with mesothelioma undergo treatment, they may also wish to pursue options regarding an
mesothelioma settlement if
asbestos is found to be a potential cause of the illness. If one wishes to pursue legal recourse, consulting with a
mesothelioma lawyer may be the best way to learn of their legal options.