Asbestos Mesothelioma Blog

Compensation must be provided to victims suffering from mesothelioma since the illness causes not only physical hardships but emotional as well. Trauma is experienced from inadequate and uncertain therapies. Furthermore, medical expenses arising from tests and treatment of this illness is very costly resulting to the victim’s financial hardship as well.

There are two types of legal assistance one can seek. One is a personal injury case where the victim (plaintiff) is still living or a wrongful death case where the person with mesothelioma has already died and any member of his family would act as a representative. Only if asbestos exposure is linked to a particular job-site can a worker’s compensation claim be filed against an employer. The victim must be able to prove without a doubt that his illness was caused by exposure to asbestos.

It is important that the plaintiff discloses all information, such as work history, time frame of exposure, types and brands of asbestos, name of employer, name of co-workers, diagnosis, prognosis, and all other information related to his/her mesothelioma cancer. If the victim is incapable of providing the information to the lawyer himself, some lawyers with experience in investigating asbestos exposure has numerous proven methods for finding and documenting a person’s exposure. Providing the lawyer with the correct and complete information will aid in quickly determining the appropriate course of legal action, help him form a solid foundation of the victim’s case and may speed up the process of litigation.

Awarding compensation is based on the premise that the victim is totally unaware of the dangers or hazards brought about by his exposure to asbestos. And that this exposure has lead to injury, mesothelioma and other asbestos related diseases or ultimately death.

One must remember that time is of the essence when filing compensation claims due to mesothelioma illness. Statute of limitation states that a claim must be filed within a short period of time (ranging from one to three years depending on what state the victim resides in) from the date of initial diagnosis. Waiting too long in the filing of claims can result to making it impossible for you to recover any form of compensation.

There are a number of lawyers, paralegal investigators, doctors and academics that specialize in Asbestos litigation. Generally, seeking legal advice and pursuing a claim can be very costly. But mesothelioma lawyers do not require payment upfront and will only ask for litigation fees when the verdict is favorable.

Men with high cholesterol levels, particularly if they were detected before the age of 50, may have an increased risk of developing prostate cancer, Italian scientists say.

They discovered an association between prostate cancer and raised cholesterol in a study of more than 2,750 men, published online by the journal Annals of Oncology.

“We have found a possible relation between high cholesterol and prostate cancer. It was self-reported by patients,” Dr Francesca Bravi, of the Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri in Milan, said in an interview.

After considering other potential confounding factors, Bravi and her team said men with prostate cancer in the study were around 50 per cent more likely to have had high cholesterol levels than men without the disease.

Prostate is one of the most common cancers in men. Each year 543,000 new cases are reported worldwide and the disease kills 200,000 mostly older men in developed countries.

High cholesterol levels had been thought before to be linked to the disease but most of the evidence was in animal studies. The new research shows a statistically significant relationship, according to Bravi and her team.

The scientists said the association was stronger for men whose high cholesterol levels had been diagnosed before they were 50 and for men over 65, where there was an 80 per cent greater likelihood of high cholesterol levels.

They also found that prostate cancer patients in the study were 26 per cent more likely to have suffered from gallstones, which are often related to high cholesterol levels.

Dr Cristina Bosetti, a co-author of the study, said hormones called androgens that play a role in prostate tissue and cancer are synthesised from cholesterol. Gallstones are also often composed of cholesterol.

“So, the direct relationship we found between gallstones and prostate cancer, while it was not statistically significant, suggests a similar biological mechanism may explain the link,” Bosetti said.

The scientists added that cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins may help to lower a man’s prostate cancer risk. Statins have also been shown to help prevent diabetics and people at high risk of heart disease from suffering a heart attack or stroke.

But Bravi said further studies are needed to determine whether statins could reduce the risk of prostate cancer because current research is limited and inconclusive.