Quoted from http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-business/hardie-asbestos-claims-may-have-peaked-20111117-1nkq6.html

 

Hardie asbestos claims may have peaked

 

Kim Christian

November 17, 2011 – 5:04PM

 

Asbestos claims against James Hardie may have peaked but it could take about a decade until compensation costs begin to wane.

 

The building products manufacturer, which set up a fund in 2001 to compensate people exposed to deadly asbestos dust, said the number of claims being made was now running below “actuarial forecasts”.

 

“This year was projected to be our peak but the way it’s going it looks like we might have actually peaked in 2008,” James Hardie chief executive Louis Gries told AAP.

 

However, he said the value of claims would not peak for at least eight to nine years due to inflationary effects.

 

Following the experience of similar claims in the United States, Mr Gries was confident that cash compensation payouts would begin to decline within a decade.

 

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Quoted from http://www.creweguardian.co.uk/news/9354145.Payout_for_former_railway_worker/

Payout for former Crewe railway worker

9th November 2011

A FORMER Crewe railway worker has received a ‘substantial payout’ after he developed fatal cancer mesothelioma while employed at the town’s locomotive works.

Former union official Dennis Jones, 82, has been compensated for the asbestos disease he developed while at Crewe Railway Works.

He is one of many railway workers from Crewe to be exposed to asbestos and the town has a high numbers of mesothelioma sufferers.

Mr Jones was first exposed to asbestos when he was just 16 years old and has now received an undisclosed sum after developing mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs.

Mr Jones was exposed to asbestos while working as an apprentice for Crewe Locomotive Works from 1945.

He went on to become a full-time union official for Amicus, now part of Unite the Union.

He was diagnosed with mesothelioma in July this year after attending his GP complaining of breathlessness.

There is no cure for mesothelioma, which can take decades to develop and is only caused by exposure to asbestos.

[Article continues at original source]

Quoted from http://annonc.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2011/11/03/annonc.mdr477.abstract

Importance of gender in diffuse malignant peritoneal mesothelioma

*Correspondence to: Dr T. D. Yan, Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Tel: +61-2-95158181; Fax: +61-2-95158184; E-mail: tristan.yan@hotmail.com

• Received July 7, 2011.
• Accepted September 20, 2011.

Abstract

Background: Combined therapy involving cytoreductive surgery (CRS) and perioperative intraperitoneal chemotherapy has been shown to improve survival outcomes for patients with diffuse malignant peritoneal mesothelioma (DMPM). The present study aims to investigate gender as a potential prognostic factor on overall survival.

Patients and methods: Over a period of two decades, 294 patients who underwent CRS and perioperative intraperitoneal chemotherapy were selected from a large multi-institutional registry to assess the prognostic significance of gender on overall survival.

Results: Female patients were shown to have a significantly improved survival outcome than male patients (P < 0.001). Staging according to a recently proposed tumor–node–metastasis categorization system was significant in both genders. Older female patients had significantly worse survival than younger female patients (P = 0.019), a finding that was absent in male patients. Female patients with low-stage disease were found to have a very favorable long-term outcome after combined treatment.

Conclusions: Gender has demonstrated a significant impact on overall survival for patients with DMPM after CRS and perioperative intraperitoneal chemotherapy. An improved understanding of the role of estrogen in the pathogenesis of DMPM may improve the prognostication of patients and determine the role of adjuvant hormonal treatment in the future.

Quoted from http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2011/11/02/3354364.htm

Therapy hope for asbestos disease

2 November, 2011 2:19PM AEDT

By Celine Foenander

An interest in cancer research set Manfred Beilharz on the pathway to explore a treatment for asbestos disease sufferers.

The Associate Professor at the University of Western Australia is researching a way to boost an individual’s immune system to tackle the fatal asbestos disease, mesothelioma.

“This is an old dream of immunologists that’s been around for perhaps 20-30 years, that you should be able to hype up your body’s own defences and use them as part of the armament against cancer,” Assoc Prof Beilharz told ABC Gippsland’s Mornings Program.

The ‘triple therapy’ method has been tested on mice and is showing positive results.

It involves manipulating the immune system in three different ways, after research found single and double treatment methods had not completely eradicated cancerous tumours.

It’s a case of third time lucky for researchers.

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