Mesothelioma is one of the hardest cancers to treat—and one of the most challenging for researchers to investigate. Now a virtual bank is providing researchers with an invaluable tool for studying this disease, according to a report published in the August 13 issue of BMC Cancer.

Researchers are constantly searching for new ways to diagnose mesothelioma earlier, and to find better therapies than the limited options that currently exist. However, because malignant mesothelioma is relatively rare (2,000 to 3,000 cases are diagnosed in the United States each year), it’s often difficult for investigators who are at facilities scattered throughout the country to get the resources they need for their research.

To help, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in collaboration with the National Institutes of Occupational Health and Safety (NIOSH), created the National Mesothelioma Virtual Bank (NMVB).

This bank collects, stores, and distributes mesothelioma tissue samples from various research facilities, along with blood and DNA samples and data on demographics, cancer incidence, symptoms, treatment, and recurrence. It then makes all of this information available via a web-based interface that researchers can access from wherever they are located.

Currently, the database holds more than 650 mesothelioma cases, 775 specimens, and numerous blood and DNA samples. The samples come from patients who underwent surgery, and who were recruited to participate at hospitals and physician offices around the country. Any patient who sees one of the doctors collaborating in the database is eligible to take part, provided they are 18 years old and can give informed consent. In order to protect the patients’ privacy, numbers, rather than names, have been assigned to the tissue samples and data.

The database is open to the public; however, patients and their families can only access a brief overview of each case due to HIPAA privacy regulations. NMVB’s real value is to mesothelioma researchers.

To learn more about the NMVB, visit: http://mesotissue.org

Residents living around a factory in Japan that produced asbestos products for decades have a death rate from lung cancer that is about three times higher than the national average, a new survey reveals.

The survey was the first full-scale Japanese epidemiological investigation conducted on residents living around an asbestos factory. The results indicate that lung cancer may be increasing due to pollution from asbestos particulates, and the finding is likely to bear an influence on assistance and compensation for lung cancer patients, whose relief measures in the past have been viewed as insufficient.

The survey was conducted with the cooperation of a local residents association. It analyzed responses from 1,907 people from 502 families about their health between 1992 and June 2007, while estimating the concentration of asbestos in the air by applying wind and sunlight data to air pollution dispersion models.

An elliptical area southeast of the factory was found to have the highest level of concentration. There were 234 men living in the area. The national average of deaths from lung cancer in a group this size stands at 2.72, but in actual fact 8 people — excluding those who could have inhaled asbestos at work — died, making the death rate 2.9 times higher than the national average.

The Hashima factory produced asbestos products between 1943 and 2003. Up until 1991 it had handled highly toxic amosite. In health tests, about 50 residents had a condition indicating they had inhaled asbestos. Furthermore, at least four people in the area died from mesothelioma, a type of cancer caused by asbestos exposure.

The largest environmental criminal trial in U.S. history is set to begin. Finally.

Jury selection will begin Feb. 19 in the trial against W.R. Grace and six former or current executives on charges they knowingly endangered the lives of thousands of people with asbestos-tainted ore from its vermiculite mine near the tiny northwest Montana town of Libby. The trial could take as long as four months.

It’s been a long, tortuous road — one that included a side trip  to the U.S. Supreme Court — and two years since the last hearing.

Environmental lawyers say that Grace most likely will produce testimony from industry-paid scientists saying the Libby asbestos really isn’t dangerous. In response, the government can point to hundreds of deaths from asbestos-related disease in the tiny town.

The asbestos-tainted ore from Zonolite Mountain has killed hundreds and sickened thousands in Libby and across North America, where it was shipped for use in insulation, fireproofing and garden products. Some was used to fireproof the steel frame of the World Trade Center.

If they are found guilty, maximum prison sentences for the executives could range from 55 to 70 years. Grace, the U.S. attorney said, could be fined $280 million — twice the amount of after-tax profits the government says the worldwide corporation made from the mine, which closed in the early 1990s.

Lawyers for the Environmental Protection Agency have called this one of the most significant criminal indictments for environmental crime in our history.