Mesothelioma Blog

A judge had appointed a mediator to try to resolve the dispute between W.R. Grace and victims of asbestos hazards created by that corporation. Today in the news there is a story about the breakdown of that negotiation. Too bad, because this might mean more litigation that W.R. Grace cannot possibly win. Grace tried to [...]

In February the US Senate considered, and rejected, a bill to create a trust fund and limit mesothelioma lawsuits. Now Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Spector is trying to resurrect the bill to resolve what he calls a “crisis” in an opinion piece in The Hill. Spector wants to prevent mesothelioma victims from suing for full compensation. [...]

A woman in York, England got mesothelioma, and the way she was exposed to asbestos was from her husband’s work clothing. “Marjorie Fox, 61, is believed to have contracted fatal cancer after almost 20 years of shaking the dust from her husband Kenneth’s overalls which he wore while working as a carpenter before putting them [...]

Howard agrees to talks over asbestos. This newspaper article from Australia reports on the prime minister’s willingness to re-engage in talks about an asbestos compensation deal. Like the United States, Australia is trying to cope with the legacy of decades of asbestos use the tragedy of people with mesothelioma. It’s a tough public policy problem, [...]

The Belfast Telegraph reports that the number of hospital admissions for asbestos diseases in Northern Ireland has approximately doubled in the past 10 years. “Many sufferers are former shipyard workers or tradesmen who used asbestos as a popular building material in the 1950s and 1960s.” Just like in the United States.

The Cheerful Oncologist blog has a post called The Quest, where they compare today’s cancer research to Jason and the Argonauts:
a. commit suicide (by the process known as apoptosis, although a vicious six-foot drop from a wooden scaffold wouldn’t bring any tears to my eyes).
b. wound themselves, if not to the point of [...]

This article out of Australia describes the concern of geologists and health officials on the effects of natural asbestos. People living near these deposits can be put in danger when there is roadworks, construction, farming, or other disturbances. There has been no systematic medical assessment of this risk.

Academics at Texas Tech University did a review of the PubMed/MEDLINE database on pemetrexed (Alimta) articles. They conclude that “Pemetrexed should be used as a standard of care for unresectable MPM [malignant pleural mesothelioma] and recurrent metastatic NSCLC [non-small cell lung cancer].” They also mention decreasing toxicity of the drug by giving the [...]