Cancer News, Treatment and Research

For five long years, United Kingdom families battled against insurance agencies for compensation for loved ones exposed to asbestos who later developed asbestos-related cancers including mesothelioma . In a Supreme Court ruling, insurance agencies are liable to pay thousands of families affected by asbestos exposure upwards of £5 billion. What makes the high court’s ruling landmark is that the justices found the insurance agencies responsible from the moment the individuals were exposed to the deadly carcinogen rather than when the later diseases developed. Many insurance claims taken up by courts in the United Kingdom, United States and others have battled heartily against what the insurance policy should cover. Indeed, it has been common that many rulings in these courts have been when diseases like mesothelioma, lung cancer and asbestosis have begun to show symptoms rather than when the first exposure to the airborne asbestos fibers occurred. What the high court’s five justices ruled may, in fact, set a precedent. As reported in The Guardian , some cases of initial asbestos exposure date back as far as the 1940s, as covered by the existing insurance policy. “The negligent exposure of an employee to asbestos during the [insurance] policy period has a sufficient causal link with subsequently arising mesothelioma to trigger the insurer’s obligation,” said Lord Clarke of the ruling, one of the high court’s justices. Mesothelioma is the most common disease associated with asbestos exposure. Affecting the linings of the lung, abdominal cavity or heart, mesothelioma is an incredibly rare disease that has a rather dismal life expectancy, though many recent medical breakthroughs in treatment have bolstered hope. Asbestosis, another disease linked to asbestos exposure, results in scar tissue developing in the lung from inhalation of the carcinogen. In the United Kingdom, the expected “peak” of mesothelioma diagnosis is to occur in 2015. Though the peak year of mesothelioma may differ from country to country, what the data underscores is how prolonged the incubation period for the disease is. For many, the time between the asbestos exposure to when symptoms finally emerge may take upwards of decades.