Mesothelioma Help Cancer News
Panel Recommends Adding Mesothelioma To Conditions Covered by 9/11 Health Program
A medical advisory panel has recommended that mesothelioma be added to the list of cancers for which 9/11 firefighters and first responders are eligible to receive compensation for treatment under the James Zadroga Act. Mesothelioma is a cancer of the lining of the lung linked to inhaling asbestos. Asbestos was among the toxic substances in the dust cloud created by the collapse of the World Trade Centers.
After reviewing the emerging pattern of 9/11 health effects in recent scientific studies, the World Trade Center Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee recommended that the federal government cover cancers affecting the respiratory and digestive systems, as well as thyroid cancer, breast cancer, eye cancer, oral cavity cancer, urinary tract cancer, mesothelioma, melanoma, leukemia, lymphoma, soft tissue sarcomas and all childhood cancers.
The 15-member panel of doctors and health experts is responsible for tracking medical studies and recommending which illnesses should be covered by the Zadroga Act. Passed by Congress in 2010, the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act provides $4.3 billion to monitor, treat and compensate people suffering health problems associated with the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Cancer was not initially included among the illnesses covered by the federal law.
The advisory panel, which met last week, had until today to submit its recommendations to the World Trade Center health program administrator Dr. John Howard. Howard now has 60 days to review the recommendations and decide which cancers will be covered.
According to a 2011 study in British medical journal The Lancet, New York firefighters who worked at ground zero in 2001 were 19 percent more likely to develop cancer than firefighters who were not exposed to the hazardous conditions at the World Trade Center site. The researchers analyzed health records of nearly 10,000 New York firefighters and compared the rates of cancer among the firefighters who were exposed to toxic dust at the World Trade Center and firefighters who were not at ground zero. They found 263 cases of cancer among the exposed firefighters, reflecting a cancer rate 19 percent higher than in the group not exposed.
After the advisory panel’s recommendation, members of New York’s congressional delegation including U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, and Representatives Carolyn Maloney, Peter King and Jerold Nadler sent a letter to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius requesting a meeting to discuss how the agency will proceed with a decision on whether to add the various forms of cancer to the 9/11 Health Program Coverage.
Approximately 2,500 to 3,000 Americans are diagnosed with mesothelioma each year. Most are exposed to asbestos in a workplace setting. Symptoms of asbestos-related disease typically take 20 years to 40 years to appear. Asbestos was used in thousands of building material products because it adds strength and resistance to heat, but its use has limited since the 1980s.
Climber Who Survived a Night at Mt. Everest Succumbs to Mesothelioma
Six years ago, Australian mountain climber Lincoln Hall was given up for dead after reaching the summit of Mount Everest and then developing a severe form of altitude sickness. Broadcast reports of Hall’s death were premature though. The tough mountain climber managed to survive a freezing night alone at more than 28,000 feet without food or shelter. Delirious and frostbitten, he greeted an astonished group of ascending climbers at sunrise the next morning. Three days later, he walked off the mountain.
Mount Everest couldn’t vanquish Lincoln Hall. But the rugged climber faced a still greater risk: childhood exposure to asbestos. Six years after his miraculous feat of mountaintop survival, Hall, age 56, died of mesothelioma last Tuesday at a Sydney, Australia hospital after a year-long struggle with the disease, according to The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper.
Mesothelioma is a cancer caused by inhaling toxic asbestos. Hall was exposed to cancer causing asbestos-cement sheets as a child in the mid-1960s while helping his father build playhouses on their property, the newspaper reported. Most people are exposed to asbestos in the workplace, but some people inhale asbestos in the home as well. The microscopic fibers can lodge deep in the lung and remain there a lifetime, causing inflammation and eventually disease.
Many people exposed to asbestos in the 1960s and 1970s are still at risk of developing mesothelioma or may only recently have been diagnosed with mesothelioma symptoms. The respiratory cancer has a long development period and is difficult to diagnose. A skilled author who wrote several best-selling books about mountaineering, Hall was diagnosed with mesothelioma in 2011.
Through his experiences, Hall developed a spiritual affinity with the Himalayas and helped establish the Australian Himalayan Foundation, a not-for-profit organization that raised money for schools in his beloved mountains, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
Hall’s death surprised many of his friends who believed that Hall was virtually invincible and could overcome mesothelioma, an aggressive form of cancer.
Mesothelioma Patient Urges Registry of Buildings with Asbestos
A Canadian food inspector who has been diagnosed with mesothelioma wants the Canadian government to establish a registry of buildings containing asbestos to warn others of the workplace hazard. Once widely used as a building material, asbestos is associated with serious respiratory diseases including asbestosis, lung cancer, and mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the chest and abdominal cavities.
Howard Willems, 59, a federal food inspector for more than 30 years, contracted mesothelioma while inspecting a number of older food plants in Saskatchewan, according to a recent report by the CBC, Canada’a national news network.
Willems contends that everyone has a right to know when they enter a workplace that it is safe. He said he now realizes that he was exposed to asbestos when he inspected food plants while they were undergoing renovation. He said there were no warning labels that asbestos was harmful.
Workplace asbestos exposure is common among people diagnosed with mesothelioma, including construction workers exposed during remodeling and demolition of older buildings. Approximately, 2,500 to 3,000 people in the United States are diagnosed with mesothelioma each year and most are retired workers and veterans who breathed asbestos fibers in a workplace. In Canada, approximately 350 people are diagnosed with mesothelioma annually, according to the Canadian Medical Association. The numbers have increased significantly in the last two decades.
The Canadian Cancer Society also has called on the federal and provincial governments to maintain a public registry of buildings that contain asbestos. A registry would help ensure that asbestos is properly removed from them by trained workers. The government has not responded.
Willems had one diseased lung removed in 2011 and is undergoing monitoring of his remaining lung. Typically, mesothelioma symptoms appear 20 years to 40 years after exposure to asbestos. But once it appears, the cancer is aggressive and difficult to treat.
Willems said the Canadian provincial and federal governments had been aware of the harm caused by asbestos for years and had been negligent in allowing continued exposure to the cancer-causing material. He said the government had relied on questionable scientific studies to justify continued production and export of asbestos. Canada is a leading exporter of asbestos, primarily to developing nations, despite calls by many medical and health organizations for Canada to cease asbestos exports.
Enlisting the Body’s Immune System to Fight Mesothelioma and Asbestos Disease
Mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lung and abdomen, suppresses the normal immune system response designed to ward off disease. Scientists have been trying to understand the mechanics of the immune suppression process to develop more effective therapies for mesothelioma, an aggressive form of cancer.
One promising treatment is immunotherapy that enlists the body’s natural defense system to shrink cancerous tumors. A number of immunotherapies are currently being tested in clinical trials. Mesothelioma is among the cancers that appear to be responsive to immunotherapy, researchers say. But the failure of immunotherapies to stop the growth of malignant mesothelioma tumors suggests that the immune suppression process is complex and involves multiple targets.
In an article published in the journal Immunology and Cell Biology, researchers at Harvard University investigate the roles of three factors affecting the immune response: regulatory T cells, intratumoural transforming growth factor (TGF)-â and the protein cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen-4, which plays a regulatory role in the immune system.
The researchers say that immunotherapy treatments targeting multiple regulators simultaneously appear to be more effective than focusing on one regulator protein that is suppressing immune response. They report that a triple treatment involving all three immune system factors led to long-term shrinkage of tumors and residual resistance to cancer cells if tumors reappeared.
“These data suggest that clinical application of immunotherapies against tumors may be improved by simultaneously targeting multiple mechanisms of immune suppression,” said lead investigator Haydn T. Kissick in a summary of the research.
Mesothelioma is caused by exposure to asbestos fibers. When a person breathes asbestos dust, the microscopic asbestos fibers can penetrate deep in the lungs and cause inflammation and eventually disease.
Approximately 2,500 to 3,000 people a year in the United States receive a diagnosis of malignant mesothelioma. Many victims of mesothelioma are older workers, retired workers and veterans who were exposed to asbestos decades ago in a workplace. The symptoms of mesothelioma typically take 20 years to 40 years to appear, but the disease is aggressive once it appears.
Asbestos Trust Fund Established for Navy Veterans With Mesothelioma and Other Asbestos-Related Diseases
Mesothelioma, a cancer caused by exposure to asbestos, affects nearly 3,000 Americans each year. However, over one-third of the victims are military veterans. Due to the extended latency period of the disease some veterans exposed to asbestos between the 1950s and 1970s are just now exhibiting symptoms, and are dealing with their mounting medical bills. Financial relief will soon be available for some of these veterans through the formation of a fund designated for compensation to Navy veterans who were harmed by asbestos disease.
Under a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization plan, Leslie Controls, Inc, a manufacturer that supplied asbestos-containing gaskets and valves to the U.S. Navy from the 1940s until the 1980s, has established an “Asbestos PI Trust” available to Navy veterans.
According to the plan, Leslie’s parent company, CIRCOR, made a contribution of $74 million to the trust on behalf of itself and other CIRCOR-related parties. Leslie contributed $1 million with a yearly 5% interest payment.
The plan includes a pay level based on the medical issue affecting the claimant. Currently, a “powerhouse and below-deck Naval station claim” of mesothelioma will be awarded $100,000 with a maximum value of $350,000. Any “construction and maintenance claims” for mesothelioma will receive $25,000 with a maximum value of $125,000. Amounts are also established for lung cancer and asbestosis.
Asbestos was used as insulation around steam pipes and valves and led to the exposure of hundreds of thousands of Navy veterans to the cancer-causing mineral fibers over the decades. Asbestos is a known carcinogen that has been linked to respiratory diseases, including asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma. The symptoms of mesothelioma can be managed through chemotherapy and radiation. There is no cure for the disease.
Claims may be filed with the trust starting in March 2012. All claims are subject to review and approval by the trust committee.
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