Mesothelioma Help Cancer News
Veterans With Mesothelioma Should Get Counsel About Compensation, Study Says
Veterans who served in many occupations in the military including boiler room work, shipyard work, insulation work, demolition and construction may have breathed asbestos fibers, a known cause of cancer. Malignant pleural mesothelioma is an aggressive cancer that produces tumors in the lining of the lungs and is a signature disease of mesothelioma.
But veterans are rarely advised during treatment of the cause of malignant pleural mesothelioma or the potential to obtain compensation for the harmed caused by asbestos manufacturers, according to a study in The American Journal of Medical Sciences. Mesothelioma is most commonly caused by occupational exposure to asbestos.
The 2011 study, conducted by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System and Stanford University, reviewed the charts of 16 patients who had been diagnosed with malignant pleural mesothelioma. The researchers found documented occupational exposure to mesothelioma in 75 percent of the patients while two patients were presumed to have had bystander exposure. Workers who work around asbestos may bring the dust home on their clothes or hair and expose family members to asbestos dust.
Among the 16 veterans diagnosed with mesothelioma, the researchers found documentation of patient counseling about the cause of mesothelioma and opportunities for compensation in only one of the patient files.
The authors concluded that Veterans Affairs physicians may be missing opportunities to provide newly diagnosed patients beneficial information about their legal options and the potential of compensation.
Diseases caused by asbestos exposure take decades to develop. Most cases of asbestos-related lung cancer or asbestosis, a scarring of the lung, occur 15 years or more after the initial exposure. The time between exposure to asbestos and development of mesothelioma is 20 to 50 years. Most cases of mesothelioma are diagnosed 30 years or more after exposure.
Approximately, 2,500 to 3,000 people are diagnosed with mesothelioma each year in the United States. Most are men and many are veterans who were exposed during their years of military service. Mesothelioma is incurable, but treatments are available to control the disease, particularly if it is diagnosed before it becomes advanced.
For more information about mesothelioma treatment and legal options, click here.
Higher Risk of Mesothelioma Among Workers at Chlorine Chemical Plant, Study Finds
A new study published in June issue of the American Journal of Industrial Medicine reports excessive rates of pleural mesothelioma and bladder cancer among workers at a major chlorine chemical plant in France. Pleural Mesothelioma is an aggressive cancer of the lining of the lungs associated with exposure to asbestos.
The study, performed by French researchers in Grenoble, France, analyzed the incidence of tumors from 1979 to 2002 among 2,742 men who worked at the chlorine plant. The study found an significant excess of mesothelioma tumors among workers hired before 1964.
France now bans asbestos because it’s a known cause of cancer, including pleural mesothelioma, peritoneal mesothelioma and lung cancer. But for many years, asbestos was used in the diaphragm-cell process of making chlorine. Asbestos is still used in chlorine manufacturing plants in the U.S. Workers may be exposed to asbestos when transporting sacks of asbestos or when cutting open and emptying sacks of asbestos into mixing tanks. The handling of the empty sack also presented an exposure hazard.
Unlike France, asbestos is not banned in the United States, though its use has dropped significantly since its peak in the 1970s. But the chlorine manufacturing industry remains a significant consumer of asbestos in the U.S. Many older chlorine plants in the U.S. use asbestos diaphragms and gaskets as part of the production process, putting workers at risk of exposure to asbestos. Some have converted their chlorine manufacturing processes to more environmentally friendly, safer technology that do not use asbestos.
According to the 2012 United State Geological Survey of mineral commodities, U.S. industries consumed 1,100 metric tons of asbestos from January through July 2011. The chlorine manufacturing industry, which uses asbestos diaphragms in the manufacturing of industrial chemicals, accounted for about 30 percent of asbestos consumption, the report said.
As a result of past asbestos use in the U.S., Americans are now dying from asbestos cancers and asbestosis, a chronic scarring of the lungs, at the rate of 10,000 people per year, according to Barry Castleman, an environmental and public health consultant who testified before the U.S. Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee in June 2007.
Symptoms of mesothelioma typically take 20 to 50 years to appear after workers inhale microscopic asbestos fibers. Many workers exposed to asbestos in the 1960s or 1970s may only recently have begun noticing symptoms such as pain beneath the ribs or shortness of breath or only been diagnosed with mesothelioma or asbestos disease.
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Belluck & Fox Defeats Challenge to New York Mesothelioma Verdict
New York, NY, May 26, 2012 — A recent ruling by the New York Court of Appeals has upheld a $1.5 million asbestos verdict obtained by the New York mesothelioma lawyers of Belluck & Fox, LLP, including the landmark finding by the jury that the defendant, Fisher Controls International, LLC, acted with a reckless disregard towards the safety of the plaintiff, Ronald Drabczyk.
The case is Drabczyk v. Fisher Controls International, LLC (Erie County Index No. 2005/1583).
Drabczyk, died from his exposure to asbestos in Buffalo, NY in 2005. Despite only being assessed a small percentage of fault, the finding that Fisher was reckless means it is liable for the entire judgment under New York law.
In the May 8 court order, the Court of Appeals denied a motion that had been filed by Fisher, seeking to set aside the reckless disregard finding made by an Erie County jury in October 2009.
In declining to address Fisher’s motion, the Court of Appeals also declined to address arguments made by Crane Co., another valve manufacturer who had filed a brief in support of Fisher and pleaded with the Court of Appeals to decide an issue that could have benefited both Fisher and Crane Co. in future asbestos cases.
The Court of Appeals’ ruling upholds the jury’s finding that Fisher had acted with a reckless disregard for the man’s safety.
As a result of the reckless misconduct finding, under New York law, the Iowa-based valve manufacturer is liable for the full $1.5 million amount of the judgment (reduced by settlements received by the plaintiff from other parties).
“This is the first asbestos verdict in the country against Fisher for injury resulting from exposure to asbestos in Fisher products,” said Seth Dymond, a New York mesothelioma attorney and a Belluck & Fox, LLP partner who handled the appeal for the law firm.
“This verdict reaffirms that corporations that fail to warn workers of known dangers in their products will be held fully accountable for the damage they cause,” Dymond said. “And if they act with a reckless disregard for workers’ safety, they will be responsible for the full weight of the verdict under the laws of the State of New York no matter their percentage of fault.”
According to court documents, Mr. Drabczyk had worked at the Hooker Chemical plant in Niagara Falls, NY, from 1970 to 1996. He repaired and refurbished valves sold by Fisher, which is a subsidiary of St. Louis-based Emerson Electric Co. More than half of the valves that Fisher sold to the repairman’s employer contained asbestos. Further, Fisher supplied asbestos-containing replacement parts to the plant for use in its valves that further exposed Mr. Drabczyk to lethal doses of asbestos.
According to Dymond, in October 2004, the valve repairman was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the chest that is caused by exposure to asbestos. He filed the personal injury action in Erie County Supreme Court before he passed away in November 2005, just 13 months after his diagnosis.
After a four-week trial, the jury returned a verdict in October 2009, apportioning five percent of the liability for the man’s damages, including pain and suffering, to Fisher. The same jury found that Fisher had acted with reckless disregard for the man’s safety.
Under New York law, a defendant is only liable for its share of fault unless, among other factors, it is found to have acted recklessly. Once that finding is made, the defendant can be held liable for the full amount of damages.
Belluck & Fox, LLP partner Jordan Fox led the trial team that obtained the verdict and the judgment, which was entered in September 2010. Dymond handled the post-verdict litigation for the New York personal injury firm.
The Supreme Court of New York denied Fisher’s motion to set aside the verdict in July 2010. The Appellate Division, Fourth Judicial Department, affirmed in part in February 2012. The Court of Appeals’ May 8 ruling denied Fisher’s motion to review the case.
The ruling comes after two Belluck & Fox, LLP mesothelioma verdicts – a $32 million verdict in Dummitt v. A.W. Chesterton (No. 190196/10) and a $19.5 million verdict in Konstantin v. 630 Third Avenue Associates (No. 190134/10) – were listed among the top 10 New York verdicts of 2011.
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Research Focuses on Treatments That Target Mesothelioma Tumors
For 15 years, Dr. Raffit Hassan, a clinical oncologist at the National Cancer Institute, has been researching the protein mesothelin and its use in the treatment of mesothelioma. Mesothelioma is a cancer of the lining of the chest cavity and abdomen associated with exposure to asbestos.
A protein, mesothelin is present in normal tissue. But certain types of malignant tumors including mesothelioma express high levels of the mesothelin, making it a useful target for tumor-specific drugs. The ultimate goal of the National Cancer Institute is to develop new treatments for mesothelioma and other forms of cancer.
“Mesothelioma is not a very common disease, but it’s a tumor for which we really need to develop a good treatment,” Dr. Hassan said during a recent teleconference sponsored by the Meso Foundation, which provides information, research funding and advocacy for mesothelioma victims.
The first drug targeting mesothelin that Hassan has studied in clinical trials involving mesothelioma patients was Amatuximab, an experimental drug developed by Morphotek, a Pennsylvania company that develops cancer treatments. The treatment is an immunotoxin,a human-made protein that is designed to bind to cancer tumor cells, then inject toxins to kill them.
“I have been working on the same project for 10 years,” Dr. Hassan said. “I think we are starting to see some good results.”
The drug has been through phase I and II clinical trials and the results will be presented this summer. It has not yet been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
The researchers are evaluating whether the drug when combined with chemotherapy drugs is more effective at controlling mesothelioma.
“The results show the drug is safe and there is activity,” Hassan said. “To be really sure the drug benefits patients we’ll need to do a randomized clinical trial. That will be the next step.”
Approximately 3,000 people are diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma each year. Most are older workers, retired workers and veterans were exposed to asbestos dust in the workplace or during military service. Symptoms of mesothelioma typically take 20 to 40 years to appear. But the cancer is aggressive and more effective treatments are needed to control the disease and extend the lives of mesothelioma patients.
For more information about mesothelioma, click here.
Gene Therapy Moves Scientists One Step Closer to a Mesothelioma Cure
Finding a cure for mesothelioma did not seem possible just several years ago. The asbestos-caused cancer is extremely aggressive, and the cancerous cells invade the lungs and spread throughout the body often rendering standard cancer treatments ineffective against the disease. However, with the recent advances in gene therapy, now being touted as the next frontier in medicine, there is new hope in the medical field that cures are on the horizon for patients with rare and incurable diseases such as mesothelioma.
Ricki Lewis, a New York-based geneticist and author, explores this “next frontier” in her latest book The Forever Fix. The book follows the journey of the use of gene therapy to restore the vision of a young boy who was nearly blind from a hereditary disorder. The doctors replaced the single defective gene in the New York boy’s eyes that prevented his eyes from using vitamin A to send visual signals to his brain. Once the defective gene was replaced, the boy’s vision was restored and no further treatments or surgery were required.
“The goal of gene therapy is to replace faulty instructions,” said Lewis, who has a Ph.D in genetics from Indiana University. “It’s not right for every disease. But it is an approach that can be considered some day along with drugs, surgery and everything else.”
Most rare diseases, of which there are nearly 7,000 in the United States, are caused by a single gene defect, making them better candidates for gene therapy, Lewis said. Cancers, however, are often caused by a combination of genes as well as environmental factors. In the case of mesothelioma, asbestos is known to cause the disease, but researchers now believe a person’s genetics may determine whether they will actually contract the disease.
Lewis points to a study led by Dr. Jill Ohar of Wake Forest University, first reported in Oct. 2009, where as part of a new mesothelioma clinical trial, her team is investigating whether a person’s genes increase the risk of developing mesothelioma. Ohar began her research when she found “that there is a strong tendency for mesothelioma to run in families and it tends to be associated with a family history of cancer, which suggests a genetic susceptibility.”
“Getting at the basis of why one person develops mesothelioma and another person doesn’t, that is going to hold a clue to really fighting it,” Lewis said. “Then we will know what to do the gene therapy on.”
Mesothelioma victims typically show disease symptoms years or even decades after exposure to asbestos in an industrial or manufacturing workplace. The disease is eventually fatal, but aggressive therapy may prolong the lives of patients who are diagnosed early. Hopefully soon, mesothelioma patients will enjoy long, productive lives through research on genetics.
Sources :
- The Forever Fix
http://us.macmillan.com/theforeverfix/RickiLewis - mesothelioma clinical trial
https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01590472?term=mesothelioma+and+genetics&rank=1
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