Source: Alfacell Corporation

Dr. Michele Carbone, one of the world's leading mesothelioma researchers, has discovered that Alfacell Corporation's ONCONASE has great potential as a chemopreventative agent for mesothelioma. ONCONASE triggers apoptosis, the natural death of cells, in cancer cells and has been shown to block the pathway that causes asbestos carcinogenesis. Dr. Carbone's initial research has shown that ONCONASE may be used as a chemopreventative agent for people who are at-risk for developing mesothelioma or it could be used to reduce the doses of cytotoxic agents in those who've already developed the disease. Dr. Carbone hopes to start clinical trials on this topic soon.

"The potential of ONCONASE as an early first-line preventative treatment for mesothelioma is an exciting development that we plan to investigate through clinical trials," said Dr. Carbone. "With approximately more than 25 million asbestos exposure cases reported worldwide, we believe that ONCONASE might play a greater role in the treatment protocols for a much larger population than was originally envisioned for this dismal disease."

Labels: asbestos, mesothelioma

Source: InsuranceNewsNet

The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) has released its latest report on the patient profile of asbestos victims. Contrary to what many people's view are on asbestos exposure, ADAO reported that the average victim is aged 50, which is younger than what has been previously been reported, is a woman, also contrary to the expectation of men as the primary victim class, and, perhaps most disconcerting, that nearly forty percent had exposure that was environmentally-based and not work-related. Dr. Robert Taub, Milstein Professor of Clinical Medicine and Director of the Columbia University Mesothelioma Center in New York City, reported that the average age of peritoneal mesothelioma patients at his clinic is 51.7 and that less than fifty percent had immediately recognizable asbestos exposure.

These results from ADAO show that the patient profile for asbestos-related disease is changing. They note that in 1986 the Center for Disease Control (CDC) reported that the median age was nearly 70 and another study estimated that eighty percent of patients were men. According to ADAO, studies estimate that as many as 100,000 victims in the United States alone will die of an asbestos-related disease over the next ten years.

Labels: asbestos, mesothelioma

Source: National Underwriter

In a ruling made public on Wednesday, May 9th, 2007, The New York Supreme Court held that aggregate limits in insurance policies do not apply to all possible claims arising during business operations. The ruling, which upheld the claims against CNA of thousands of individuals seeking coverage for asbestos-related personal injuries, is considered to have broken legal ground by establishing that operational claims are not subject to the aggregate limits clauses regarding a products hazard. August J. Matteis Jr., lead trial counsel for the claimants, argued that "their claims were not barred by the aggregate limits in the policies because claims that arise out of exposure to asbestos during the installation process are considered 'operations' claims—therefore not subject to aggregate limits."

The ruling is considered a victory for policyholders as it expands the domain of coverage that insurers are responsible for fulfilling.

Labels: asbestos

Source: CancerMonthly.com

In an interview with CancerMonthly.com, Dr. David Sugarbaker, a thoracic surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, MA, stated that the goal of every surgery for pleural mesothelioma should be a macroscopic complete resection (MCR), where all tumor tissue visible to the human eye is removed. According to Dr. Sugarbaker, if all of the visible tumor tissue can be removed, post-surgical drug treatment will have less tumor cells to eradicate, which should increase the likelihood of longer survival times.

Because mesothelioma can attack the pleural areas in multiple ways, different surgical techniques will be required for different malignancy types. If the tumors are limited to the surface of the lung then a pleurectomy, which is the surgical removal of tumors confined to the surface of the lung, can often achieve MCR. For those patients with a more invasive malignancy, where tumors have grown into the fissures of the lungs and other areas, an extrapleural pneumonectomy, where the affected lung, the covering of the heart, and the diaphragm are removed, may be required.

In all cases, Dr. Sugarbaker maintained, the needs of the mesothelioma patient — and not the services offered by the surgeon — should dictate the surgical methods utilized.

Labels: mesothelioma

Belluck & Fox Partner Joseph W. Belluck has been appointed to another term of the Binghamton University Harpur Law Council Steering Committee. The Law Council provides legal programs and services to Binghamton University alumni and pre-law students.

Mr. Belluck is a 1989 graduate of Binghamton University.

Labels: Firm

Source: World Health Organization

The World Health Organization is calling on governments to enact meaningful reform to workplace safety laws and to increase the measures used to protect workers from work-related injury or death. At least 200,000 people die every year from work-caused cancers and millions more are regularly exposed to carcinogenic agents that can dramatically shorten their life expectancy. Mesothelioma, lung cancer and leukemia are just three examples of work-related cancers that can be prevented with the passage and enforcement of meaningful reform.

Specific WHO recommendations include:

• Stop the use of asbestos;
• Introduce benzene-free organic solvents and technologies that convert the carcinogenic chromium into a non-carcinogenic form;
• Ban tobacco use at the workplace; and
• Provide protective clothes for people working in the sun.

The majority of workplace-related deaths currently occur in the developed world, but developing nations represent a new horizon of workplace health epidemics. The WHO's policy recommendations are made to governments in both the developed and the developing world in order to protect workers everywhere.

Labels: asbestos, lung cancer, mesothelioma

Source: CancerMonthly.Com

Research into the treatment of mesothelioma is taking place on many fronts. While the typical treatment regimen is still a combination of surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, new avenues of therapy are being researched and many hold great promise for the future. Some of these cutting-edge therapies target the molecular pathways by which the disease grows and spreads itself throughout the body. Therapies based on anti-angiogenesis drugs target the signaling pathways involved with the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) protein or the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) protein and attempt to disrupt the processes by which tumors develop. Other signaling pathways being studied for the treatment of mesothelioma include the Wnt pathway, which is thought to play an important role in activating mesothelioma stem cells, as well as the P53, pRB, BCL-2 pathways. Along with the development of targeted anti-cancer agents, work in genomics also promises to revolutionize cancer treatment. By looking at how the body works at its most basic level, scientists hope to develop therapies based on the interaction of drug agents with an individual's genetics.

Labels: mesothelioma

Source: New York Times

Research into the cognitive functions of people who've undergone high-dose chemotherapy has shown that a small number of survivors show some long-term neurological effects from the treatment. The phenomena, now known as "chemo brain", had been anecdotally noted by a number of patients but oncologists were historically dismissive of claims regarding long-term neurological effects of the chemo. However, recent research on this subject estimates that as many as fifteen percent of patients, many of them women, do show symptoms of chemo brain. The cognitive effects are rarely life-threatening, but they do impact the daily lives of these survivors and often take the form of short-term memory loss, proneness to confusion and an inability, or at least a slower ability, to choose among a set of dichotomous options.

The majority of patients who've undergone chemotherapy do show limited, short-term signs of neurological impairment, such as memory loss and poor concentration, but most get over these effects and return to one hundred percent cognitive ability within a few months. It is not yet understood why survivors with chemo brain do not regain full neurological ability and the answer to this question is still years away. However, the identification of chemo brain as a real condition has been an important development in the lives of all survivors, as it has provided some legitimacy to the effects that each struggles with in the wake of their chemotherapy.

Labels: cancer, general

Source: CancerMonthly.com

Virotherapy is a rapidly-evolving treatment regimen where viruses are engineered to replicate only in certain types of tumor cells and to specifically attack only those cells. The difficulty is designing a virus with the proper molecular composition to target only certain types of cancer cells, such as those involved with mesothelioma, while ignoring normal cells.

Researchers at the Division of Human Gene Therapy at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), led by Zeng B. Zhu, MD, have done just this. They have engineered an adenovirus-based agent with a recently identified tumor specific promoter (TSP) called "survivin". The TSP is important because it can restrict the expression of certain genes and viral replication in tumor cells. In this case, the viral agent the team engineered has shown great promise for the treatment of mesothelioma because it only replicates in mesothelioma cells while ignoring normal cells.

While the team was quick to point out that this is only one step in developing new treatments for mesothelioma, it is an important step nonetheless. Besides mesothelioma, virotherapy offers promise for the treatment of other types of cancer and the team at UAB is specifically working on treatments for ovarian cancer and glioma.

Labels: mesothelioma

Source: Syracuse.com

Aapex Environmental Services is contesting the recent fine by the Occupational Safety and Health Association (OSHA) of $57,000 for allegedly violating six occupational health standards relating to asbestos exposure. The alleged citations occurred during Aapex's cleanup of the former Agway building in DeWitt, New York. Aapex and the U.S. Labor Department, which OSHA is a member of, are now entering a litigation period. If they are unable to agree to a settlement, both parties will be able to present their cases to a judge in the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

Labels: asbestos