Mesothelioma

Hospitals in Europe have been working on creating a new treatment for the deadly mesothelioma disease and are happy to see that it was a success. The new anticancer drug – which has been called “Vinflunine” – has already proven positive results and higher survival rates on diagnosed patients.

Of the promise Vinflunine could hold, Ben Darche, an attorney with the Asbestos Litigation Unit at Weitz & Luxenberg, P.C., said, “We commend the medical advances being made by Dr. Denis C. Talbot and his colleagues. Through my work I have witnessed the emotional and financial suffering mesothelioma places on patients and their families. Any medical advance is no small miracle.”

Weitz & Luxenberg, P.C., commends this recent medical advance and the doctors that achieved it. During many years of representing clients suffering from mesothelioma, Weitz & Luxenberg has seen first-hand the pain and suffering the disease has on victims and their loved ones. Most mesothelioma patients, for example, die within one year of being diagnosed. There is no known cure for mesothelioma.

Vinflunine was recently tested in Phase II clinical trials at hospital research centers in England and France. Dr. Talbot, from the Churchill Hospital in Oxford, and medical colleagues at seven European hospital centers, assessed the response rates of 67 patients who had not received prior chemotherapy or radiotherapy to determine the effectiveness of first-line Vinflunine treatment.

Doctors concluded that Vinflunine, when administered approximately every 21 days in high doses, improved patients’ response rates by 13.8 percent, and demonstrated such positive results that the drug therapy warrants further evaluation. In 2004, the Food and Drug Administration approved the first drug for this condition, “Alimta,” which, when used in combination with cisplatin, has helped patients extend their lives by several months, according to the FDA.

Weitz & Luxenberg specializes in the prosecution of asbestos-related work cases and has won many multi-million-dollar verdicts and settlements for victims’ families to help them offset medical expenses and compensate for suffering. In 2006, the firm secured a $25 million jury verdict in a trial against DaimlerChrysler AG for a New York City brake reliner who lost his right lung to mesothelioma. Weitz & Luxenberg’s successes date back to 1991 with a historic consolidated trial involving men who worked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard during and after World War II. Weitz & Luxenberg represented 36 clients in that case, securing a verdict of $75 million.