WOMAN DIAGNOSED WITH MESOTHELIOMA IS PREGNANT
A woman from Adelaide, Australia who was diagnosed with mesothelioma a decade ago is now pregnant with her second child.
Belinda Dunn's only contact with asbestos dust was as a small child when she played on a pile of fibro while her parents were extending their house. The 39-year-old, from Adelaide, was diagnosed with mesothelioma soon after the birth of her first child, Nathan, 10 years ago. She was told that had little chance of living beyond a year.
But here we are, ten years later, and not only has she survived the disease, but she is pregnant as well.
Dunn took part in an experimental gene therapy trial in the United States soon after her diagnosis but doesn't credit her current good health exclusively to that treatment.
She says "I've taken lots and lots of vitamins at the time of - under the guidance of my naturopath - with the gene therapy trial, and I'm just wondering if it was because my immune system was in good shape when I had the trial that perhaps that's helped it."
Sadly, however, the doctor who diagnosed Dunn's mesothelioma, Professor Doug Henderson from the Flinders Medical Centre in Adelaide, says that Dunn's longevity and comparative good health cannot be explained by science and , therefore, has little significance for other sufferers. He went on to say that spontaneous regression is not unheard of.