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Bergman Draper & Frockt attorneys Matthew Bergman, Brian Weinstein, and Benjamin Couture served recently as guest lecturers at the University of Idaho College of Law in Moscow, Idaho. They spoke at an upper-level Remedies class on the subject of developing and eliciting damages testimony in personal injury cases. (more…)
Dr EgilmanDr. David Egilman is a Professor of Medicine at Brown University in Rhode in Rhode Island and the Editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health. He has very recently authored an article to appear in the next edition of his journal critiquing the in- court testimony of expert witnesses hired by asbestos companies to defeat lawsuits brought by mesothelioma victims.
Dr. Egilman makes it very clear that if the same rigorous standards that are applied to medical articles before they are published were applied to these expert’s testimony, their opinions would not hold water.
When people find out that I represent asbestos victims, they often ask me if it’s right to sue companies when “they didn’t know back then that asbestos caused cancer.” This is a myth fostered by big business—the truth is that many companies knew asbestos was harmful but went right on selling asbestos products. I’ll save the facts about asbestos manufacturers’ first confidential testing of the health effects of asbestos in the 1930s for another blog entry, but at the bottom of this post you can see a very disturbing example of one company’s lack of interest in the health risks posed by its asbestos-containing products.
Researchers from the UK have reported on a combination treatment that could prove to be an effective treatment for sufferers of pleural mesothelioma, which is a form of cancer that is contracted through exposure to airborne asbestos dust and fibers.
Following testing and research the researchers have reported that a combination of Alimta® (pemetrexed) and Paraplatin® (carboplatin) could prove to be an effective treatment to help control the effects of this form of cancer in patients.
A study was carried out where this combination treatment was used on forty nine patients in the UK who were suffering from pleural mesothelioma. The drug treatment helped to improve disease control in nearly seventy percent of the patients.
Researchers also described the treatment as having been tolerated well and without having treatment related mortality. The average survival time for treatment patients was fourteen months, and the results of the study have been published in the specialist journal ‘Lung Cancer’.
Michael Harbut, M.D., MPH, co-director of the National Center for Vermiculite and Asbestos-Related Cancers at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit, MI, and chief of the Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine Wayne State University, announced the use of a new technology to aid in the diagnosis of asbestos-related lung disease.
Harbut explained, “The benefits of this new approach include the possibility of earlier detection; better differentiation between patients with scarring on the lungs and other diseases; assistance in determining why some people who have thickening on the covering of the lungs have uncontrolled, unrelenting pain; and potentially increased success in the overall diagnosis and treatment of asbestos-related disease.”
Read the full article here: http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/new-tool-radiography-approach-assist-earlier-detection-asbestos-related/
According to recent reports, participants are now being enrolled by Columbia University in a Phase II clinical trial into a treatment program that could help to treat people that have pleural, peritoneal, or pericardial mesothelioma, which are types of cancer that are caused by exposure to asbestos.
Read the full article here: http://www.bloggernews.net/120210
The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO), the leading organization serving as the voice of asbestos victims, today applauded the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)’s reconfirmation this week that all commercial asbestos fibers – including chrysotile, the most commercially used form of asbestos – cause lung cancer and mesothelioma.
In addition, the IARC newly confirmed that there is sufficient evidence that asbestos causes ovarian cancer and reconfirmed asbestos causes laryngeal cancer. IARC, part of the World Health Organization (WHO), makes up the leading international cancer research agency, with some of the world’s foremost cancer experts participating in a number of specialized research groups.
Read the full article here: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/adao-applauds-international-agency-for,763930.shtml
I have been blessed to work with Sam and Susan, both never tiring of answering questions regarding my case. On behalf of my family and myself, please extend our heart-felt appreciation to your staff.– Grace C.
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