New Jersey Court Upholds $30.3 Million Mesothelioma Verdict Won By Asbestos Law Firm Levy, Phillips & Konigsberg

New York, NY (PRWEB) April 8, 2010 -- The New York and New Jersey law firm, Levy Phillips & Konigsberg, a leader in asbestos litigation announced that a unanimous decision issued on April 5, 2010 by the New Jersey Appellate Division (docket no. A5263-07T1) upheld a $30.3 million jury award for their client. The New Jersey asbestos lawsuit was filed by Susan M. Buttitta, both individually and on behalf of the estate of her late-husband Mark Buttitta who died of mesothelioma, a rare and fatal cancer caused by asbestos exposure. The jury verdict is the largest mesothelioma award in the long-history of New Jersey Asbestos litigation.

The New Jersey asbestos attorney, Moshe Maimon of Levy, Phillips, & Konigsberg LLP served as lead trial lawyer on behalf of the Buttitta family. The mesothelioma case was tried in February of 2008 and resulted in a 30.3 million dollar verdict consisting of: $8,000,000 for Mark Buttitta’s pain and suffering relating to his mesothelioma; $2,000,000 for Mrs. Buttitta’s loss of consortium; $9,281,660 for Mr. Buttitta’s loss of earnings; $2,030,544 for loss of services; and $9,000,000 total for the loss of parental care and guidance to Mr. Buttitta’s 3 daughters resulting from Mr. Buttitta’s premature death from mesothelioma.

According to the published opinion, Mr. Buttitta was exposed to asbestos in the workplace during the 1970s when he was employed at warehouses that distributed asbestos-containing materials including brakes and clutches. He worked as a “parts picker” which required him to handle asbestos products and sweep up dust that contained asbestos. The landmark mesothelioma verdict was decided against a supplier of asbestos fiber, which was incorporated into automotive parts, and the manufacturer of automotive clutch products that contained asbestos.  

At trial, Mr. Maimon, one of Levy Phillips & Konigsberg’s leading asbestos litigation attorneys called numerous scientific and medical authorities in the area of asbestos exposure-related diseases such as mesothelioma, asbestosis and lung cancer. These experts included Drs. Jacqueline Moline and Ronald Gordon, both from Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York City.


Source

Asbestos-related disease may have its new hopeful drug

Residents of Latrobe Valley may be able to benefit from a potential treatment drug for the lethal, asbestos-related cancer, mesothelioma.

Trialed and developed by Adelaide company, Bionomics, the drug BNC105 controls the disease by cutting off the blood supply to cancerous tumours.

Vicky Hamilton, secretary of Gippsland Asbestos Related Diseases Support (GARDS) said the group supported anything that could provide good health for mesothelioma sufferers.

Ms Hamilton said, "If a company has come up with something they feel will advance the cause for mesothelioma sufferers or get rid of the tumour that would be wonderful.

Compared to the state average, the Latrobe Valley had seven times mesothelioma cases, informed Ms Hamilton.

The 2-year clinical trial announced last week will be done in 12 hospitals across the country and mesothelioma patients can apply to be involved.

Deborah Rathjen, chief executive of Bionomics said the new drug shut off blood supply to tumours along with directly killing cancer cells, the same way a chemotherapy treatment does.

After the first line chemotherapy, she said, mesothelioma had no effective treatment.

"The motivation was to come up with therapy that would be less susceptible to resistance in cancers," she explained, and added, "It is very exciting to launch this trial and giving some hope to patients who do suffer from substantial pain."

The trial involves the participation of up to 60 patients and Rathjen hopes to gather interim data for the first 28 patients by early next year.


Source

STUDY SHOWS OPANA PROVIDES CONSISTENT RELIEF FOR PERSISTENT NEUROPATHIC CANCER PAIN

A recent study concludes that Opana is a new reliable treatment option for pain management in those who suffer from neuropathic cancer pain. Ten of the 27 patients in the study who had neuropathic cancer-related pain completed the study. The others who entered the study but did not complete it left the study for a variety of reasons, such as loss of effectiveness, nonadherence and adverse reactions, although none of them included serious risk to the patient. Less than half of the patients in the study reported adverse affects, and those who did reported minor ones such as fatigue, dry mouth and constipation.


Source

Mesothelioma Treatment May Be Adversely Affected By Morphine

Researchers have found that the pain-relieving medication morphine, often used on mesothelioma patients for pain management, may accelerate cancer growth.

Several studies have begun to present evidence that opiate-based drugs like morphine encourage cancer cell growth and metastasis. Morphine is a commonly prescribed pain reliever for malignant mesothelioma patients. Since treatment for mesothelioma patients tends to be palliative in many cases, pain management with morphine is a common practice.

A study from 2002 found cancer patients who received morphine via the spine, instead of systemically throughout the body, tended to live longer.  Two Irish studies discovered that breast and prostate cancer patients who received regional rather than general anesthesia were less likely to report cancer recurrence.

Studies have shown that morphine boosts tumor growth and even inhibits immune system response. Opiates also support angiogenesis, the growth of new blood vessels, which plays a role in metastasis. The latest studies are examining the effects of blocking opiate receptors on cancer cells with a drug known as Relistor (methylnaltrexone), which is presently used to treat constipation caused by medications like morphine.

In laboratory test tubes methylnaltrexone prevented lung cancer cells from spreading. And when tested on genetically altered mice that lack the opiate receptor (simulating the blocking of the receptor), normal mice developed cancer while the genetically altered mice did not.

Methylnaltrexone was found to reduce the spread of cancer in mice by 90 percent, inhibiting both cancer growth and metastasis. The next step, say researchers, is testing the drug in humans for such effects. These findings could benefit mesothelioma patients by mediating the negative effects of morphine for pain management.

Additional information on mesothelioma may be found through the Mesothelioma Center.


Source

Mesothelioma Sufferer, Wife Bring Lawsuit Against Nearly 70 Companies

Charleston, WV—A couple is bringing suit against 66 companies, seeking damages in a mesothelioma case.

Richard H. Pullen, along with his wife Rebecca, claim that the companies failed to exercise reasonable care to warn him of the hazardous nature of the asbestos with which he worked.

All of the companies named in the lawsuit either manufactured, supplied or sold asbestos-containing materials.

Pullen has been diagnosed with two asbestos-related diseases, asbestosis and mesothelioma. Asbestosis is a chronic respiratory disease in which asbestos fibers cause scar tissue to form inside one or both lungs, leading to breathing difficulties. Mesothelioma is a rare form of cancer which is almost always caused by asbestos exposure. It affects fewer than 3,000 new patients in the United States each year, but is a fatal cancer that does not typically respond well to treatment.

Pullen is suing for damages related to medical treatment, great pain of the body and mind, embarrassment and inconvenience, loss of earning capacity, loss of enjoyment of life, and a shortened life expectancy.

Mesothelioma occurs when the asbestos fibers cause tumors to form on the mesothelium, which is a thin sheath surrounding and protecting the lungs. The mesothelium also produces a special fluid that helps the lungs, stomach and heart to move naturally and without friction. One of the symptoms of both asbestosis and mesothelioma is excess pleural fluid.

Although asbestos has been phased out of use, and is now only found in very small amounts in certain, highly regulated applications, the material can still be found in older buildings and commercial products. Additionally, the diseases that are associated with it may take up to 40 or even 50 years to fully develop within the body and become symptomatic, which means that many people could be living with these diseases without being aware of it. By the time mesothelioma and other asbestos diseases are diagnosed, it’s usually too late for curative surgery or other treatments to be effective, although palliative and pain-reducing measures can be undertaken.


Source

Former Pipefitting Apprentice, Exposed to Asbestos as a Teen, Dies of Mesothelioma

Cheshire, UK—An inquest has heard that a pensioner, who was exposed to the mineral material asbestos some three decades ago, has died from the asbestos cancer mesothelioma.

Eric Jones, 71, had worked at a Warrington cotton mill as an apprentice for the now-defunct Armitage and Rigby. He was learning to be a fitter, and as part of his work he repaired the steam pipes which were attached to boilers. Jones routinely used a hammer to dislodge the steam pipes which were coverd in asbestos insulation, causing clouds of asbestos dust to fill the surrounding air.

Although it’s generally accepted that asbestos is safe when it is undisturbed, the airborne dust contains microscopic fibers which can be inhaled. Once inside the body, they lodge themselves in a special lining of the lung called the mesothelium, eventually causing the cells there to become malignant and leading the to cancer mesothelioma. Once the asbestos fibers have entered the body, there is no way to remove them or otherwise cleanse the affected tissues.

Jones had not experienced exposure to asbestos after leaving the cotton mill. He had survived two heart attacks and a bypass operation before succumbing to the mesothelioma cancer in March 2009.

An inquest heard that Jones died from exposure to the carcinogenic asbestos, and Deputy Coroner for Cheshire Janet Napier recorded the cause of death as industrial disease. Jones was 71 at the time of his death.

Affecting approximately 3,000 new patients each year in the United Kingdom, mesothelioma is an aggressive cancer that is incurable. It generally claims its victims within two years of diagnosis, and can only rarely be treated with surgery. Other treatments, such as chemotherapy and radiation, may help alleviate the symptoms of the disease for some patients; in other cases, their side effects are deemed too debilitating and patients opt only for pain management methods.

Asbestos has been heavily regulated since the 1980s, but it remains in existing structures, and generally will not be removed unless public health officials deem it to be a hazard. Special precautions, such as using respirators, wearing protective clothing, and disposing of asbestos materials in a particular fashion, must be taken when undertaking an asbestos abatement or removal project, and such a project should only be undertaken by trained and licensed professionals.


Source

A Tragic Legacy: the Risk of Mesothelioma to Blue-Collar Workers

The United States was founded on principles of initiative, honesty and hard work. No one embodies those ideals more than the men and women who labor each day in the nation’s steel mills, factories, shipyards, power plants and oil refineries. These blue-collar workers leave the job site at the end of every shift with not only another day’s wages and the satisfaction of a job well done, but also—tragically—with an elevated risk for a peculiar cancer called mesothelioma.

The reason for this is asbestos, the insulating and building material which was nearly ubiquitous on many job sites throughout the 20th Century. Used to protect workers from high heat and fire, asbestos may actually have poisoned those who labored around it, which includes most blue-collar workers. Miners, millers, construction workers, electricians and plumbers all have a greater-than-average risk of asbestos exposure, which is the primary cause of mesothelioma cancer.

When asbestos’s microscopic fibers are inhaled, they penetrate the tissues surrounding the lungs called the mesothelium, and cause the mesothelial cells to behave erratically. Malignant pleural mesothelioma can result, but may not become symptomatic until decades after the exposure. In other words, the cancer can develop extensively without the worker’s knowledge. Too often, by the time the diagnosis is made, the mesothelioma has already advanced to a later stage. Surgery to remove the tumor is not feasible except in the early stages of the cancer, and other forms of treatment are not usually very effective. All of these factors—its occupational origin, its long latency period, and its aggressive nature—combine to make mesothelioma a particularly devastating disease.

Most of mesothelioma’s victims are male, due to the traditionally male milieu of the job sites that were contaminated with asbestos, and over the age of 50. Approximately 3,000 new cases are diagnosed each year in the United States, and the prognosis is grim—on average, a mesothelioma patient lives less than two years after learning that they have the disease.

The best odds for successfully treating mesothelioma, as with most cancers, occur with early detection. Therefore, it’s imperative that any blue-collar worker who may have worked with or around asbestos, particularly in the years between 1930 and 1980, make his or her doctor aware of the potential exposure and carefully monitor any symptoms that may point to mesothelioma, including persistent cough, fatigue, wheezing or hoarseness, chest or back pain, and breathing difficulties.

Source

Malignant Mesothelioma - Followup Surgery Relieves Pain

Italian researchers found that while a second surgery to treat a recurrence of malignant mesothelioma may not increase the survival rate for a patient, the surgery may relieve a patient's pain. The results were determined after reviewing 74 cases of mesothelioma patients who underwent surgery over 20 years to remove a diseased lung as well the membrane tissue covering the lung and heart, and diaphragm muscle.

Mesothelioma, a cancer caused by asbestos exposure, can affect the lining of the lungs known as pleural mesothelioma, or the lining of the abdomen resulting in peritoneal mesothelioma. In rare instances, the lining of the heart can be affected resulting in pericardial mesothelioma.

The researchers, Dr. Leonardo Politi of the University of Florence, and Dr. Giuseppe Borzelleno of the University of Verona, determined that extrapleural pneumonectomy, the surgical procedure, did not offer the expected curative benefits they had hoped to see when treating a recurrence of malignant mesothelioma. They did say that the procedure should be considered an option for certain malignant mesothelioma patients who cannot tolerate additional radiation treatment.


Source

Asbestos Caused Joiner’s Death from Mesothelioma

Alvaston, UK—A joiner who worked with asbestos sheets for years has died from mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer associated with this toxic building material.

Asbestos is comprised of thin, needle-like, and yet microscopic fibers that can be inhaled. They cannot, however, be exhaled or otherwise expelled from the body, because they embed themselves into the membrane that lines the inside of the thoracic and abdominal cavities, and surrounds the heart and lungs. This membrane, the mesothelium, can then develop tumors—malignant pleural or peritoneal mesothelioma—that are often non-localized and difficult to surgically resect.

David Hartley, who was only 57 when he died, had worked at the Reckitt and Coleman site during his employment with Byard and Green shop fitters. His employment as a joiner for this firm, which lasted from the late 1960s to the early 1970s, required him to cut, drill and fit asbestos sheets. Asbestos was often used as an insulating and strengthening component in a variety of construction materials and consumer products.

Joiners, engineers, plumbers, electricians, boilermakers, and mill workers are among the occupational demographics that are most at risk to develop mesothelioma and other asbestos-related conditions. Also at high risk are Navy veterans, as asbestos was widely used in the military until the late 20th Century.

Mesothelioma is a rare cancer, but a deadly one. Although it may remain latent and undiagnosed in the body for up to 50 years, by the time it is diagnosed it has typically reached one of the later, and untreatable, stages. Fewer than 10 percent of patients live past the two-year mark, and the majority die within months of learning that they have the cancer.

Treatment for mesothelioma consists of surgery, if the cancer is detected early enough; chemotherapy; and radiation. Many late-stage patient choose not to pursue these treatment options, however, as they feel that the side effects are too great, and instead opt for pain management.


Source

Mesothelioma Claims the Life of Army Veteran

Morris, IL—A veteran of the United States Army, who likely was exposed to asbestos while serving his country, has died from the asbestos cancer mesothelioma.

James R. Walton, 80, served in the Army and then went on to attend engineering school. He worked at Aurora Caterpillar Tractor Company and the Joliet Arsenal, as well as at the Morris Hospital. Walton may also have been exposed to asbestos at any point during his career, however, since the mineral material was so widely used throughout most of the 20th Century as an insulating and building material. Asbestos could be found in drywall, ceiling and floor tiles, pipe insulation, boilers, shingles, plumbing, and many other products. It was also used in automobile applications such as brakes and clutches, as well as in shipbuilding. Once prized for its lightweight nature, strength, durability and resistance to fire and high temperatures, asbestos later became notorious as a toxin and carcinogen.

Inhalation of airborne asbestos fibers can lead to the rare cancer mesothelioma, which occurs when those fibers penetrate the mesothelium—a sheath surrounding and protecting the lungs and other internal organs—and cause the cells thereof to become malignant. Striking only about 3,000 new patients each year in the United States, mesothelioma is an unusual cancer for several reasons. It may remain in the body, undetected, for anywhere from 10 to 50 years. When it is diagnosed, it has usually already reached an advanced stage, and is therefore not often treatable.

Traditional cancer treatments may be used in cases of mesothelioma that are caught earlier, before the disease has metastasized throughout the body. In some cases, surgery is possible, but that is not usually feasible. Chemotherapy and radiation are sometimes employed to attempt to shrink the tumor and stop its spread, but these are less effective for mesothelioma than they are for other cancers, and they also tend to cause painful or debilitating side effects. Many mesothelioma patients are too weak to undergo these treatments, therefore, and opt only to pursue pain management methods.

The average life expectancy for a person diagnosed with mesothelioma is only 4 to 18 months. Fewer than 10 percent live as long as two years after diagnosis.


Source

Forty-five Companies Named in Mesothelioma Lawsuit

Charleston, WV—A complaint filed in a West Virginia circuit court names 45 companies with several asbestos-related violations which allegedly resulted in a man’s diagnosis of mesothelioma.

Arnold Glenn Treadaway filed the complaint on November 23, after having been diagnosed with the rare form of cancer on October 16. In it, he alleges that the defendant companies, which are not named, wrongfully exposed him to asbestos while he worked at various job sites.

The defendant companies are being sued for negligence, contaminated buildings, breach of expressed/implied warranty, strict liability, intentional tort, conspiracy, misrepresentations and post-sale duty to warn.

Asbestos used to be a common product which had many applications, but was particularly useful as an insulating material because of its remarkable ability to withstand heat and flame. It was used in many workplaces, including mills and metalworking facilities, factories, shipyards and construction sites.

Unfortunately, asbestos is also a known carcinogen. When the material is used, it releases microscopic fibers into the air, which can then be inhaled by workers. These fibers burrow deep into the body’s soft tissues, including a membrane called the mesothelium, which surrounds and protects the internal organs. The asbestos fibers can lead to a rare form of cancer—mesothelioma.

With a grim prognosis and a life expectancy of only six to 18 months on average, mesothelioma is an extremely aggressive cancer. It can sometimes be treated with surgery, although often the cancer is not diagnosed early enough to make surgery a viable option. Chemotherapy and radiation are also alternatives, but often the patient does not feel that the benefits of these treatments will outweigh their debilitating side effects. Pain management, especially in the later stages of this cancer, is sometimes the best option for a patient.

Because of asbestos’s widespread use throughout much of the 20th Century, there have been numerous cases brought to court against defendant companies. In fact, asbestos litigation is the largest tort in the United States, and case are expected to rise as more and more workers are diagnosed with mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases.


Source