About Mesothelioma Lawyers

History

• Step 1:
  The first mesothelioma lawsuit happened in 1929. At this time there were no lawyers that made mesothelioma their top priority, but that would soon change. Once mesothelioma was properly diagnosed and related to asbestos, the number of cases against asbestos companies and companies that forced workers to be around asbestos grew rapidly. There came a point when some law practices thought to handle mesothelioma cases singularly, and that birthed the mesothelioma lawyer. Today, billions of dollars in settlements have been achieved by mesothelioma lawyers, who are found in every state and worldwide.

Features

• Step 1:
  Mesothelioma lawyers come in all shapes and sizes, but they must be knowledgeable and versatile on a number of different topics. A mesothelioma lawyer will, of course, have to know about the laws related to the disease as well as know about general business and health law. A good working knowledge of mesothelioma and how it affects a person biologically is also necessary. Mesothelioma lawyers need to be trained to work for families of mesothelioma victims who may not be living, and be able to deal with people in times of grief while still acting effectively in court.

Benefits

• Step 1:
  Mesothelioma lawyers are able to help families and individuals with the cancer find the necessary settlement for their loss. It's important for many families to get these settlements not only because they lost a loved one, but because most of them are burdened with hospital bills. Mesothelioma is a slow-acting cancer, which means there are many trips to the doctor for the patient and money shelled out for medicines and treatments.

Warning

• Step 1:
  If you are looking to hire a mesothelioma lawyer, do your research first. There are many people who are not well-qualified to handle your case out there. Many mesothelioma lawyers are not kept up to date with the latest laws, which are always changing. Being a mesothelioma lawyer also requires honed investigative skills as many companies keep their asbestos and clientele records very private. Some mesothelioma scams are out there, but as long as you do your research, the right mesothelioma lawyer will show up.

best mesothelioma treatment available

Mesothelioma Diagnosis

It is often difficult to diagnose mesothelioma because the symptoms of the disease are similar to those of several other conditions. To reach the diagnosis of mesothelioma, a physician must carefully assess several clinical and radiological findings as well as a confirming tissue biopsy.

It will usually take several days or longer to receive the results of diagnostic tests and biopsies to make a pleural mesothelioma diagnosis, peritoneal mesothelioma diagnosis or pericardial mesothelioma diagnosis. Though it is of course difficult to wait, patients should know that their doctors are using the best tools available to reach an accurate diagnosis and that their physicians will explain the diagnosis as soon as possible. A proper diagnosis is essential for determining the best mesothelioma treatment available.

Physical Examination and History

The first step in the diagnostic process is for the doctor to get a history from the patient and to conduct a thorough physical examination. Based on the examination and the patient’s symptoms, the doctor will choose the next appropriate step.
Radiological Tests

Radiological tests like chest x-rays, CT scans or PET scans play a major role in the diagnosis of mesothelioma. These tests are also valuable in determining how far the disease has spread. However, a confirmed diagnosis of mesothelioma will also require a biopsy.

Biopsy

Although preliminary tests can provide helpful information in narrowing down a diagnosis, a final accurate diagnosis of mesothelioma requires a biopsy. A biopsy is a procedure to remove tissue from the body to allow a pathologist to examine the suspected cancer under a microscope. Even though a biopsy is the most effective way to achieve an accurate diagnosis of mesothelioma, malignant mesothelioma cells may appear to be some other type of cancer. To prevent any mistake, a pathologist will conduct special laboratory tests on the body-tissue obtained during the biopsy and may even use an electron microscope to confirm a diagnosis of mesothelioma.

Blood Test (Mesomark)

A new blood test called Mesomark may offer the possibility of earlier diagnosis and perhaps more successful treatment for mesothelioma patients. Development of this test has been an exciting recent development in the diagnosis of mesothelioma.

Mesothelioma Diagnosis?



Mesothelioma is a relatively rare cancer caused by asbestos exposure. It attacks the membranes that surround the lungs, heart or abdomen. Each year, approximately 3,000 Americans are diagnosed with mesothelioma. Learn about the way mesothelioma is diagnosed, its signs and symptoms and how doctors are learning to treat this disease.

Choosing a mesothelioma lawyer to represent you in your lawsuit is a very personal decision. You should feel good about the people at the law firm that you deal with and be satisfied with their answers to your questions before you hire a lawyer.

When deciding to hire an attorney for any kind of legal service, you should feel confident that they have the experience and knowledge to represent you well. You might ask the following questions of potential mesothelioma lawyers who would represent you in an asbestos case:

* How long has your firm been handling this type of case?
* How many mesothelioma cases do you handle currently?
* How many mesothelioma cases have you handled?
* Will your law firm actually work on my case or will you refer my case to another law firm? If you are likely to refer my case elsewhere, what is the name of the law firm(s) that you might send my case to?
* How many cases like mine has your law firm actually taken to trial? What kind of verdicts have you obtained in such cases? Are these verdicts your law firm personally obtained? If another law firm obtained these results, what is the name of that firm?
* If you take a case to trial, will an attorney from your law firm actually be responsible for representing me at trial, or will you hire an attorney from outside your firm to handle the trial?
* In the event an appeal is necessary in my case, do you have lawyers at your firm who dedicate much of their time to appellate and legal issues work? What is your law firm’s track record for successfully handling appeals?

With these issues in mind, we invite you to consider Baron & Budd, P.C. We believe that you will be impressed by our experience, track record, reputation in the legal community and the caring, friendly attention you will receive from our mesothelioma lawyers and staff.

As one of the oldest and largest law firms of its kind in the country, Baron & Budd, P.C. has a lot of experience representing victims of diseases caused by asbestos and other toxic substances. We have the experience and resources to handle your case from start to finish. With attorneys who focus on trial skills and presentation of a case to the jury, as well as attorneys who focus on legal briefing and arguing legal issues to trial and appellate judges, we are ready to be your advocates at every stage.

Conventional Treatments & Survival

Conventional treatments for mesothelioma typically consist of surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Surgery can include any surgical procedure. Chemotherapy includes various drugs that are considered toxic because they work by killing both healthy and cancerous cells. And radiation therapy can be delivered through different methods. For example, radiation such as x-rays or gamma rays may be delivered externally via external beam radiation. Radiation can also be delivered internally by placing radioactive substances such as cesium, iridium, and iodine near or into cancerous cells within the body or administering radionuclides systemically (directly into the bloodstream).



Results of Conventional Treatments Administered to Mesothelioma Patients




Important Note : These are summaries of results of clinical trials that have been made available by Cancer Monthly: The Source for Cancer Treatment Results. The source data are the clinical results reported in the medical literature. To learn more about these treatments click on the icon under "More Information." This will open a new window that will contain the study's abstract. Print out the abstract and share it with your doctor. Your doctor can help you determine if a particular treatment is right for you.

Mesothelioma Can Strike Younger Patients Without Known Risks

Mesothelioma is a cancer that typically affects middle-aged or older men who were exposed to asbestos on the job. But even younger patients with no known history of asbestos exposure may develop mesothelioma, and should be evaluated if they have signs of the disease, according to a recent review in the West Virginia Medical Journal. Even when mesothelioma is properly diagnosed, treatment options remain limited and the prognosis is usually grim, the authors say.

The review presented the case of a 38-year-old, otherwise healthy woman who developed shortness of breath and chest pain, which worsened over time. Pathology tests revealed cancerous cells that are typical of mesothelioma, even though the woman had no apparent risks for the disease. “The family denied any known history of asbestos exposure, either in her or other family members,” says lead study author Carol Montjoy, MD, Fellow in the West Virginia University Section of Pulmonary/CCM.

Dr. Montjoy and her colleagues say this case illustrates the need to consider a diagnosis of mesothelioma in patients who have a growth in the pleura (the lining of the chest and lungs), even if they don’t fit the typical profile of a mesothelioma patient.

Even with the best techniques available today, mesothelioma remains an elusive cancer—difficult to detect, and challenging to treat. X-ray and computed tomography (CT) scans can identify growths in the pleura, but when tissue samples are examined, mesothelioma is difficult to distinguish from adenocarcinoma (a type of cancer that begins in glandular tissue). The use of immunohistochemical stains—a technique that stains cancer cells to identify biological markers for cancer—has helped doctors more accurately diagnose mesothelioma, but once this cancer has been identified, there is often little doctors can do to attack it.

“Mesothelioma, unfortunately, is an aggressive tumor with a poor response to multiple common modalities, including surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation treatment,” Dr. Montjoy says. These treatments can only improve survival time by a few months (an untreated mesothelioma patient may live 4-13 months, while a treated patient lives 6-18 months).

Researchers are currently investigating new treatment strategies, which they hope will improve the prognosis for mesothelioma patients. One relatively new treatment option attempts to improve survival by combining therapies. Patients first have radical surgery called extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP), which removes part of the lung, its lining, the lining of the heart, and the diaphragm. Surgery is followed by a combination of chemotherapy and radiation.

Yet even this aggressive approach does not appear to offer patients much of a benefit. Although one study reported that patients who had this therapy survived an average of 23 months, other research has not produced the same results. “Currently, data is still being collected to determine if outcomes with this approach are any better; so far, most studies indicate that this approach does not offer any substantial benefit,” Dr. Montjoy says. For now, mesothelioma “remains an aggressive tumor with a dismal prognosis,” the authors conclude.

By Michael Horwin, MA, JD*

Deciding to pursue legal recourse and selecting an attorney to represent you in a mesothelioma or asbestos lawsuit are important decisions that should be made carefully. I have seen some families receive $500,000 and others be awarded nearly $30 million. I have seen some lawyers reject a case only to have another firm accept it and make a big success of it. And I have seen some families wait nearly three years to receive their first check while others received large checks within three months of filing a claim. The main reasons for these differences are the facts of the patient's situation and the law firm chosen.

The Facts of Your Situation

Some mesothelioma patients know they worked around asbestos, but many do not know how they were exposed or how often. In fact, many people are not sure if they were ever near this carcinogen. Unfortunately, there have been thousands of products that contained asbestos - cigarette filters, hair dryers, brakes, basement and roof materials, pipes, boilers, insulation, and many other products found throughout the home and at work. If you were diagnosed with mesothelioma it is more than likely that you were exposed to asbestos multiple times in your life and that this happened decades before your diagnosis.

In general, the value of your case depends on how many asbestos containing products you were exposed to, the number of identifiable defendants that still exist (many have declared bankruptcy), your age and earning capacity. And the speed of your case can depend on a number of variables including the state where you worked and lived when you were exposed to asbestos.

The Law Firm You Choose

When you have been given the news about this terrible disease, you may not feel that you have the time to deal with the legal questions - Should I talk to a lawyer? Should I file a claim? However, you should not wait too long to learn about your legal rights for at least three reasons:

1. Statutes of Limitations - There are statute of limitations which means you only have a limited time to file your case after diagnosis. The statute of limitations time period is set by individual states and varies. The clock usually starts ticking on the day of diagnosis.

2. Financial Pressure - A mesothelioma diagnosis can bring financial stress, less income, more expenses, and treatments that are not covered by insurance. Knowing that money may be on the way from filing a claim can bring financial relief.

3. Lawyers Can be Excellent Resources - The more experienced mesothelioma lawyers and law firms can often be excellent sources of information about various doctors and treatment options available for this disease.

But, picking a lawyer is serious business and you should not use TV ads as the reason to hire an attorney. Actual credentials are what counts. For example, what type of accomplishments has the law firm achieved? How committed are they to mesothelioma/asbestos cases? Are these cases a substantial part of their practice or just a small piece? How many other cases like yours have they handled?

Also, make sure you understand the fees being charges. Contingency is the term that means that the lawyer gets paid only after they collect money for you. The amount of the contingency fee that your lawyer can charge varies and is usually between 33% and 40%. It is important to discuss fees openly, ask what services they cover, how they are calculated, and whether there will be any extra charges.

Finally, for something as important as a mesothelioma lawsuit, your attorney should not only be experienced, skilled, and dedicated, but also a trusted partner who understands that your health needs always take precedence. The best lawyers are those that are not only expert at what they do, but are also caring, supportive, thoughtful and compassionate.

xposure




Asbestos was known in the old days but it wasn't mined and widely used commercially until the late 1800s. Its use greatly increased during World War II and since the early 1940s, millions of American workers have been exposed to asbestos dust. An increased risk of developing mesothelioma was found amoung shipyard workers, people who worked in asbestos mines and mills, producers of asbestos products, workers in the heating and construction industries, and other tradespeople. At first the risks that were associated with asbestos exsposure was not publicly known.





Today however, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) sets limits on acceptable levels of asbestos exposure in the workplace. They have also created guidelines for engineering controls and respirtors, protective clothing, exposure monitoring, hygiene facilities and practices, warning signs, labeling, recordkeeping, and medical exams.




Family members and others who live with asbestos workers also have and increased risk of developing mesothelioma, and possible other asbestos related diseases. This risk is believed to be the result of exposure to asbestos dust brought home on the clothing and hair of asbestos workers. With that being said, to reduce the chance of exposing others to asbestos fibers, asbestos workers are usually required to shower and change their clothes before leaving the workplace.





Many public and domestic buildings that were built prior to the banning of asbestos containing materials may still contain asbestos within them. Those performing renovation works or do-it-yourself projects may expose themselves to asbestos dust.

Mesothelioma Treatment

The course of treatment for mesothelioma is primarily determined by the staging or development of the disease. The treatment of malignant mesothelioma using conventional therapies in combination with radiation or chemotherapy on stage I or II mesothelioma has proved on average to be 74.6% successful in extending the patients life span by five years or more. That percentage may increase or decrease though depending on the stage of malignant development and date of discovery.





Traditional treatments such as surgery by itself has proved to only be 16.3% likely to extend the patients life span by five years or more. Even though surgery by itself has proved to have disappointing effects, research has indicated varied success when used in combination with radiation and chemotherapy. The most common surgery for mesothelioma is a pleurectomy which is where the lining of the chest cavity is removed. A less common surgery is an extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP), which is where the lung, lining of the chest cavity, hemi-diaphragm, and the pericardium are all removed.




For patients who have localized mesothelioma and can handle a radical surgery, radiation is often given after the operation as a second treatment. Delivering radiation and chemotherapy after a radical surgery has been known to extend the life expectancy more than 5 years in some patients. Radiation therapy used byitself for a treatment has never been shown to improve the survival of patients from mesothelioma, because the dose needed to efficiently treat the disease
would be very toxic.





Chemotherapy on the other hand is the only treatment for mesothelioma that has been proven to improve the survival rate in both randomized and controlled trials. Some side effects of chemotherapy may include nausea and vomiting, stomatitis (inflammation of the mucous lining of any of the structures in the mouth), and diarrhea. In February 2004 the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved pemetrexed chemotherapy for the treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma. Also just recently in January 2009 the FDA approved the use of conventional therapies such as surgery in combination with radiation and/or chemotherapy on stage I and II mesothelioma. Research conducted by a nationwide study by Duke University concluded that there was an almost 50 point increase in remission rates when these methods were used.

Risk Factors



The major risk fact for mesothelioma is anyone who has worked with asbestos. A history of some amount of asbestos exsposure exists in almost all cases of this disease. However, it is possible and cases have been reported in some individuals who had no known exposure to asbestos. Also in some rare cases mesothelioma has been associated with irradiation, Thorotrast (intrapleural thorium dioxide), and the inhalation of other fibrous silicates such as erionite.





Asbestos is a group of minerals that occur naturally as strong, flexible fibers that can be separated into thin threads and woven together. Asbestos has been widely used in many different industrial products including: cement, brake linings, roof shingles, flooring products, textiles, and insulation. When tiny particles of asbestos float around in the air, especially during the manufacturing process, they can be inhaled or swallowed, which can cause serious health problems. Not only does exsposure to asbestos put you at risk for developing mesothelioma, but it also increases the risk for lung cancer, a noncancerous chronic lung ailment called asbestosis, and cancers such as those of the larynx and kidney.






There is no link between smoking and mesothelioma, but it should be known that the combination of smoking and asbestos exsposure significantly increases a person's risk of developing cancer of the airways including lung cancer and bronchial carcinoma. In the 1950's the Kent brand of cigarettes used asbestos in their filters for the first few years of production which caused some cases of mesothelioma, however smoking modern cigarettes does not appear to increase the risk of mesothelioma.

Mesothelioma Incedences

Even though the rate of reported incidences has increased in the past 20 years, mesothelioma is still a relatively rare type of cancer. The incidence rate for this disease is only one out of 1,000,000 people. With that being said it was estimated that the incidence rate may have peaked at 15 in 1,000,000 people in the United States in 2004. This disease can appear in both men and woman at any age, but numbers show that mesothelioma occurs more often in men than women and that risk increases with age.




Between 1940 and 1979 approximately 27.5 million people were exposed to asbestos in the United States. Also between 1973 and 1984 the increase in the diagnoses of pleural mesothelioma tripled in caucasian males. From 1980 to the late 1990s the death rate in the United States from mesothelioma increased from 2,000 people a year to 3,000, with men being four times more likely to develop it than women. These rates may not be totally accurate though because it is possible that many cases of mesothelioma is misdiagnosed as adenocarcinoma of the lung, which is difficult to tell apart from mesothelioma.

Diagnosis of Mesothelioma

To diagnose someone with mesothelioma can often be difficult because its symptoms are similar to a number of other conditions. The first step in the diagnosis usually begins with a careful review of the patients's medical history. A history of having exposure to asbestos is often the main concern and increases clinical suspicion for mesothelioma. The next step in the process is usually a physical examination and lung function tests. This is followed by chest X-rays, CT scans, or an MRI. These may reveal pleural thickening which is commonly seen after asbestos exsposure.

If there is a large amount of fluid is present, it is aspirated (removed) with a syringe and examined for abnormal cells. If there is an abscence of malignant cells after the examination of the fluid it does not completely exclude mesothelioma, but it does make it considerably much more unlikely as there are alternative diagnoses that can be made. If the examination of the fluid is positive for abnormal cells or a plaque is regarded suspicious then a biopsy, which is where the doctor removes a tissue sample and examines it under a microscope, is then needed to confirm the diagnosis of mesothelioma.

Symptoms of Mesothelioma

There can be many symptoms of mesothelioma, but they may not appear for 20-50 years after exposure to asbestos. General symptoms of mesothelioma that affects the outer lining of the lungs are:




* chest wall pain
* pleural effusion (accumulation of fluid surrounding the lungs)
* shortness of breath
* fatigue or anemia
* coughing, wheezing, or hoarseness
* blood in the mucus or phlegm that is coughed up




In severe cases some people may develop tumor masses, pneumothorax (collapse of the lung), or it may metastasize (spread) to other parts of the body. Mesothelioma does not typically spead to the bones, brain, or adrenal glands and tumors are usually found only on one side of the lungs. In these cases the symptoms might include:




* blood clots in the veins
* severe bleeding in organs
* jaundice (yellowing of the eyes and skin)
* low blood sugar
* blood clots in the arteries of the lungs
* abdominal pain
* ascites (excess buildup of fluid in the abdomen)
* a mass in the abdomen
* problems with bowel function
* weight loss