Mesothelioma

His case was included in the test litigation to show that there were sufferers from pleural plaques who had high risks of future disease, and consequently relatively high general damages and future financial loss claims.First hearingThe test cases first came before Mr Justice Holland at the High Court in December 2004.

In his judgment, handed down on 15 February 2005, he agreed that pleural plaques were an 'injury' to be compensated in English law (the actionability point).

He then took a broad-brush approach with regards to the quantum of damages.

He assessed the final award of general damages in Hindson's case at £7,000 - the same bracket as all other pleural plaques cases, despite his younger age, higher future risks and high potential loss of income if he did contract asbestos cancer.

He rejected any claim for prospective financial loss that might arise with the onset of malignant disease.

He held that the chance of that loss, or any part of it arising in the future, was "no more than speculative".Hindson appealed, arguing that a risk of mortality from asbestos injuries cancer at around 20 per cent was not too speculative with respect to causing future loss of income and that the judge had not taken account of his high future risks in assessing general damages at £7,000.The defendants in nine of the other cases appealed ...

According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), in 2007 there will be about 213,000 new cases of lung cancer, and approximately 160,000 deaths.

Average five-year survival rates for patients diagnosed with lung cancer are less than 15%.

Five year survival rates for patients with advanced stage IV lung cancer are only about 5%.

The population at highest risk for lung cancer includes approximately 5 million men and women between the ages of 50 and 69 who are current or former smokers.

About microRNAs MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a recently discovered, naturally occurring form of RNAi.

These small RNAs act as protein regulators and have the potential to form the basis for a new class of diagnostics and therapeutics.

Since many diseases are caused by the abnormal activity of proteins, the ability to selectively regulate protein activity through microRNAs could provide the means to treat a wide range of human diseases.

In addition, microRNAs have been shown to have different expression levels in certain diseased versus normal tissues.

As a result, these differences potentially provide for a novel diagnostic strategy for many diseases.

MicroRNAs are thought to play a key role in the differentiation of cells into specific cell types performing various functions in the body.

About N...