The participants ranged from walkers to casual joggers to potential future Olympians. Some of the world’s fastest runners from as far away as Kenya and as nearby as St. Louis competed in the race for over $6,000 in prize money. Julius Koskei of Kentucky, a Kenyan native, came in first place at 13 minutes, 48 seconds. Second place went to Emmanuel Bor, also from Kenya, coming in three seconds later.

Mark Motley, vice president of communications for Simmons, said, “We have some of the fastest people here who are helping us reach our goal of raising awareness through the race. The more people we get and the bigger the deal we can make of it, the better.”

Julie Gundlach, a mesothelioma survivor, also participated in the race. Gundlach was diagnosed with mesothelioma in 2006. Mesothelioma is an aggressive cancer that affects the lining of the lungs, chest, heart and abdomen. The cause of the cancer is typicallyexposure to asbestos fibers, yet it often takes between 10 and 40 years for mesothelioma to develop. “I’m here to tell you there is hope for a cure for this disease,” Gundlach said, “and everyone here is helping to further that.”

If you were exposed to asbestos and subsequently diagnosed with mesothelioma, contact a mesothelioma attorney. If you have any questions about the details of asbestos law and what is required to pursue a settlement, check out the information available on theSokolove Law website as well as this Mesothelioma Resource website.

Mesothelioma

Frank Bender, a well-known forensic sculptor who came to be known as the “recomposer of the dead,” passed away from mesothelioma last month at the age of 70 after battling the deadly asbestos diseasefor nearly two years.

The asbestos exposure that likely caused Bender’s eventualmesothelioma diagnosis may have come during his years working in the engine room of a navy ship before he began his career as a forensic sculptor. He joins a group of notable public figures who have passed away from mesothelioma, including NFL Hall of Famer Merlin Olsen, Olympic gold medalist Terrence McCann, musician Warren Zevon, actor Steve McQueen, architect Paul Rudolph, and band manager Malcolm McLaren.

Bender became well known throughout the U.S. – and attained local fame in Philadelphia where he was born and raised – following his involvement in the case of John List, a N.J. man who disappeared after killing his family in 1971. A Bender-designed bust of List’s head that reflected what he would look like 18 years after the murders that was used in an 1989 episode of “America’s Most Wanted” that resulted in the murderer’s capture and eventual conviction

“In many ways, Frank’s bust of John List really launched “America’s Most Wanted” into a national force for catching fugitives,” America’s Most Wanted host John Walsh said in 2009, according to thePhiladelphia Inquirer. “Whenever I get the tough cases, I call Frank.”

If you have previously served in any branch of the U.S. military and are now suffering from mesothelioma cancer, you may be entitled to financial compensation from companies that manufactured or sold asbestos products and may be at fault for the illness. Contact amesothelioma attorney if you have any questions about pursuing amesothelioma lawsuit and/or would like to take action.

Mesothelioma

Elbert County in Denver, CO has a unique asbestos abatement project to tackle – that of a public landfill and trash compactor site. The site has historically been used to dispose of roofing and building materials, much of which was from before the mid 1970’s when buildings were routinely constructed with an abundance of asbestos. The landfill has been the primary dumping site for such rubbish but then it is compacted into bundles and shipped off to another landfill.

Concern about asbestos at the site arose when a backhoe company began excavating the grounds in preparation to remove an old missile silo. Local residents in the area called in complaints to authorities that contaminants were being spread by the excavation. Subsequent soil tests and tests to the debris at the landfill showed the presence of asbestos. No charges were filed because the asbestos had not yet gone airborne, but rather was contained to the landfill site.

Upon learning of the presence of asbestos among other environmental contaminants, the excavating was ceased and the area was covered, pending professional asbestos abatement services.

Cory Stark, director of Elbert County Emergency Management determined that the backhoe company, Backhoe Services, was operating without having tested the soil first and without a formal contract with the city. As reported by the Denver Post, Backhoe Services could not be reached for comment.

Stark asserts that there has been no danger to local residents so far as the toxins have been contained. Still, local residents have remained cautious and concerned. They are now taking their trash and debris to an alternate dump site.

Asbestos diseases such as lung cancer, asbestosis, and mesothelioma are the unfortunate result of asbestos exposure. If you have been diagnosed with an asbestos-related disease, contact a mesothelioma lawyer at Sokolove Law today for a free consultation.

Asbestosis

Phase 0 mesothelioma clinical trials are designed to determine if and how a new mesothelioma drug might work in a human. Mesothelioma patients are currently not eligible to enroll in phase 0 studies, but they may be in the near future.

Phase 0 studies for mesothelioma often use only a few small doses of the new drug in each patient. Researchers test whether the drug reaches the tumors, how the drug behaves in the body and how the cancer cells respond. Due to the very low doses of drug in phase 0 studies, there is low risk to mesothelioma patients compared to other phases. However, there’s likewise virtually no potential benefit to a patient enrolled in a phase 0 study. With the requirement of having extra biopsies, scans and blood samples taken, enrolling in a phase 0 study is not usually worth a patient’s time and effort.

Then why conduct phase 0 studies at all? Phase 0 studies help researchers determine whether drugs will do what they’re expected to do in a human body based on studies in the laboratory. Testing conservatively this way with phase 0 studies will usually bring any potential problems to light quickly. Phase 0 studies aren’t included in clinical trials for every drug and when they are used, they’re very small, usually with less than 20 subjects.

Phase I  Mesothelioma  Clinical Trials

Phase I studies are typically the first time a new drug will be tested in people. Treatments for patients involved in phase I studies are aggressive, as the goal of the study is to determine the highest dose that can be tolerated without causing serious side effects. It is not technically a goal of a phase I study to determine how well the new drug works against the cancer. Phase I clinical trials for mesothelioma are usually a high safety risk to patients and offer a low chance of helping patients. If the drug is found to be reasonably safe in phase I studies, it will advance to phase II studies.

Phase II  Mesothelioma  Clinical Trials

Between 25 and 100 patients might be enrolled in a phase II study, which is a larger group than that in phase I. The goal of the phase II study is to determine if the drug is effective in fighting the cancer. Researchers look for benefits patients may be experiencing such as increased comfort and quality of life, living longer than expected, shrinking the tumors or preventing the growth of the tumors. If enough people benefit from the treatment, and the side effects aren’t too bad, the treatment is allowed to go on to a phase III clinical trial.

The third and final part of this clinical trials overview blog series will focus on phases III and IV clinical trials.

Mesothelioma

A new study from a section of the National Institutes of Health has made a landmark connection between certain genetic mutations and an individual’s susceptibility to developing mesothelioma at some point in their life.

The study - which was funded by the National Cancer Institute and recently had its results published online in Nature Genetics – uncovered evidence that people who possess BAP1 gene mutations may have an increased chance of developing multiple cancer types such as mesothelioma, breast, ovarian, pancreatic and renal cancers. The study highlighted two U.S. families that contain individuals who have the BAP1 gene mutation. Both families also have “a high incidence of mesothelioma.”

Dr. Joseph R. Testa, a study co-leader and the Carol and Kenneth E. Weg chairman in Human Genetics at Fox Chase Cancer Center, said the study was the first to “demonstrate that individual genetic makeup can greatly influence susceptibility to mesothelioma.”

“This discovery is a first step in understanding the role of the BAP1 gene and its potential utility when screening for mutations in those at high risk,” added Dr. Michele Carbone, another study co-leader and the director of the University of Hawaii Cancer Center. “Identifying people at greatest risk for developing mesothelioma, especially those exposed to dangerous levels of asbestos and erionite worldwide, is a task made easier by virtue of this discovery.”

While only a first step, the discoveries noted in this study could one day lead to bigger and better breakthroughs to come that could possibly lead to a cure for mesothelioma.

Mesothelioma and asbestosis are both deadly illnesses that are caused primarily by prolonged exposure to asbestos fibers. If you were exposed to asbestos while working for a company and have since developed one of these illnesses, it may be worth pursuing amesothelioma lawsuit that could potentially result in a substantialasbestos settlement.

If you think that a mesothelioma attorney could help prove your illness was caused by a specific entity’s negligence, please contact Sokolove Law for a free legal consultation.

Asbestos

While asbestos-related illnesses such as mesothelioma usually take so long to manifest themselves that most victims are over the age of 50, Kevin Morrison, a 21-year-old resident of Norwood, MA, is proving to be a rare exception to the rule as he battles mesothelioma.

Morrison, the captain of Norwood High School’s football and hockey teams when he graduated in 2008, was diagnosed with peritoneal mesothelioma in February. He has since begun treatments at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and has more recently gotten involved in alternative treatments that his doctors hope will be more effective.

Fundraisers have already been set up to aid his family as they try to pay off the mounting medical bills for the treatments.

Morrison’s story seems to unfortunately mirror that of Austin Lacy, an 18-year-old who passed away from mesothelioma complications in June who had recently graduated from Pasadena High School in California. Like Morrison, Lacy was a star of his school’s football team and had doctors confused as to how he developed the rare asbestos-related cancer so quickly.

We here at Asbestos.net wish Kevin the best of luck, and send our condolences to the Lacy family as well.

For those who have been diagnosed with mesothelioma cancer that can be linked to asbestos exposure caused by a product or former employer, you may be entitled to financial compensation. Contact an experienced mesothelioma attorney to learn more about your rights, and to see if pursuing a mesothelioma settlement is in your best interest.

Mesothelioma

MetLife Inc. joins a number of other insurance companies that have noticed an increase in mesothelioma and asbestos-related claims in 2011, a sign that asbestos lawsuits continue to be an aggressive and effective means to fight a company that has exposed its workers to the deadly fibers.

According to Reuters, MetLife Inc. reported this week that it had received 2,306 asbestos-related claims during the first half of 2011. That figure is an 11 percent increase over the 2,076 claims it had received on the same type of claims mid-way through 2010.

The increase signals a change in pace regarding mesothelioma claims, as the insurer had seen a steady decline in claims from 2003-2010. However, MetLife’s data falls in line with American International Group Inc. and Hartford Financial Services, both of which have also seen an uptick in mesothelioma claims this year.

A.M. Best, a ratings agency, has said that there there could be as much as $75 billion in asbestos claims this year alone.

Mesothelioma and asbestosis are both deadly illnesses that are caused primarily by prolonged exposure to asbestos fibers. If you were exposed to asbestos while working for a company and have since developed one of these illnesses, it may be worth pursuing amesothelioma lawsuit that could potentially result in a substantial asbestos settlement.

If you think that a mesothelioma attorney could help prove your illness was caused by a specific entity’s negligence, please contact Sokolove Law for a free legal consultation.

Mesothelioma Claims

In honor of National Mesothelioma Awareness Day, we’re launching a three-part blog series highlighting the newest scientific research regarding mesothelioma. New science has emerged in the last two years that may have significant implications for the future treatment of malignant mesothelioma. In this series, we will look at three important scientific breakthroughs that have the largest potential to affect the future ofmesothelioma treatment.

In early 2010, results of a study were published in the American Thoracic Society’s American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine that proved the safety of a possible vaccine for mesothelioma.

In late 2010, Dr. Rachel Ostroff, the clinical research director of Somalogic Inc., presented results of an ongoing study at the Fourth AACR International Conference on Molecular Diagnostics in Cancer Therapeutic Development about new biomarkers she discovered for mesothelioma that would impact early diagnosis and provide insight into new therapies for the disease.

Just last month, NIH-funded research discovered a genetic link to mesothelioma.

History of Mesothelioma and Asbestos Exposure

As far back as the early 1900’s, cases of mesothelioma and lung cancer have been linked to asbestos exposure. It wasn’t until 1970 with the United States Clean Air Act that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was permitted to start regulating asbestos as a hazardous pollutant. With asbestos being more and more regulated in the United States over the past forty years, the rate of new mesothelioma diagnoses in the U.S. each year has risen steadily in men and sporadically in woman.

Currently in the United States, there are an estimated 2000 to 3000 new cases of mesothelioma diagnosed each year. The increase in incidence may be the result of lag time between asbestos exposure and diagnosis, which can be up to 50 years. For this reason, the number of new mesothelioma diagnoses is expected to continue to rise through the year 2020.

New Science – Mesothelioma Vaccine

The continued increase in the rate of mesothelioma diagnosis and the current lack of treatment options is what inspired researchers at the Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands to study new therapies. Immunotherapy, which stimulates the immune system to target and destroy cancer cells, had previously shown promise. Based on this previous research, Dr. Joachim G Aerts, a pulmonary physician at Erasmus Medical Center, set out to create a vaccine for mesothelioma. The vaccine, which uses a patient’s own dendritic cells (DC) with antigen from the patient’s tumor, was able to induce a T-cell response against mesothelioma tumors.

In other words, three out of ten patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma of the epithelial subtype showed signs of tumor regression and four others showed evidence of cytotoxicity against their own tumors after vaccination. There is much more work to be done before results can be irrefutably attributed to the vaccine and side effects can be minimized, but the study showed real promise.

Dr. Aerts says of the study: “We hope that by further development of our method it will be possible to increase survival in patients with mesothelioma and eventually vaccinate persons who have been in contact with asbestos to prevent them from getting asbestos related diseases.”

In the next post of this series, we’ll look at mesothelioma biomarkers and the implications they have for possible future treatments.

Mesothelioma Treatment

In an unusually grisly birth injury case, a Louisville-area mother was awarded $1.4 million in damages by a jury following the accidental decapitation and death of her premature baby during delivery.

According to the Louisville Courier-Journal,  Micheatria Donelson was approximately 21-24 weeks pregnant on February 23, 2006, when she was admitted to Norton Suburban Hospital complaining of bleeding. A coughing fit the next day sent her into early labor. Despite her calls for help, Donelson claimed doctors and nurses did not come to her aid for five minutes.

Donelson’s lawsuit alleged that when the emergency delivery got underway, Dr. Joseph Bilotta failed to remove a cerclage – a string that is similar to a shoelace – that had been inserted to keep the cervix closed so the child would remain in the womb. As a result, the cerclage acted as “a noose” and helped decapitate the child when Bilotta pulled during the delivery.

Bilotta alleged that while he initially attempted to deliver the baby with the cerclage still in, he eventually removed it because delivery was “physically impossible” otherwise, according to the Courier-Journal.

Donelson’s view was not restricted during delivery, and doctors sutured the child’s head back onto the body following the incident so she could hold him throughout the night and next day. Donelson alleged that the situation left her depressed and led to her abandoning a career working with children.

The jury found Bilotta to be 43 responsible for this tragic case and his medical partner Dr. William Koonts, 57 percent responsible. The lawsuit had initially asked for $18 million in damages.

If you or a loved one have been affected by medical negligence during the birth of a child, you may want to speak to a birth injury attorney about filing a birth injury lawsuit.

Birth Injury

Finally, someone with significant power and visibility addresses the importance of removing asbestos from schools. Exposing children to carcinogens for years is now, thanks to the president, officially a bad idea. And, removing it can apparently create jobs. It’s a win, win.

The American Jobs Act, which is intended to provoke jobs creation in the U.S., includes a proposal for widespread asbestos abatement in public schools across the nation. Asbestos abatement is the safe and effective removal of asbestos materials from buildings. Proper asbestos abatement is conducted by specially trained workers who safely contain the carcinogenic asbestos fibers during the removal process, preventing them from contaminating the air.

The jobs bill has yet to pass the senate, but should it succeed, it will fund asbestos abatement for approximately 35,000 public school buildings. A couple of weeks ago, the National Education Association reported that vice president, Joe Biden had been on the phone with more than 2000 educators imploring them to actively support the bill by calling their local representatives in the senate. Biden told the educators that the $447 billion jobs bill will help save jobs in education as well as modernize buildings across the country.

The bill has money allocated that will prevent the layoffs of up to 280,000 teachers and rehire tens of thousands more, upgrade community college buildings, and renovate about 35,000 school buildings, part of which includes asbestos abatement. In a public address in September, President Obama spoke to educators, police officers, firefighters, veterans and small business owners to talk about his jobs bill.

“All across America, teachers are being laid off in droves, which is unfair to our kids. It undermines our future and it is exactly what we shouldn’t be doing if we want our kids to be college-ready and then prepared for the jobs of the 21st century,” Obama said.

The bill will give $25 billion to school building renovation, including asbestos abatement. It will give $30 billion to stop the layoffs of up to 280,000 educators. The building renovation funds can be used for additional projects, other than asbestos abatement including energy efficiency upgrades and technological modernization in schools, such as new computer labs and equipment.

Sokolove Law is the leading asbestos and mesothelioma law firm with more than 30 years of experience getting asbestos settlements for mesothelioma patients and their families. If you or someone you know have been exposed to asbestos, whether in school or at a place of work, call an asbestos attorney at Sokolove Law today.

Asbestos Settlements