Mesothelioma Circle’s sponsor, Kazan, McClain, Satterley & Greenwood, has been a pioneering force in asbestos litigation since 1974. The firm’s charitable foundation, the Kazan McClain Partners’ Foundation, formed in 1994, has pledged their serious and substantial commitment to giving back by donating more than $20 million in grant monies to community, health, and civic organizations. A sizable portion of this commitment has gone to funding mesothelioma research in the hopes of accelerating the process of finding new breakthroughs in the fight against this life-threatening disease. Keeping with our tradition and history of supporting mesothelioma research, in 2014 our foundation helped fund a Stanford University School of Medicine study that was published in the journal CHEST, Official Publication of the American College of Chest Physicians.
Stanford Mesothelioma Research Identifies New Cancer Cell Process
The Stanford mesothelioma research team was led by Yue Xu, PhD, a senior research scientist with the Division of Thoracic Surgery at Stanford University School of Medicine. The study centered on certain types of Ribonucleic Acid (RNA), a vital nucleic acid present in all living cells. Most interesting to researchers is the fact that RNA acts as a messenger carrying instructions from DNA for controlling the synthesis of proteins. The key is that RNA can trigger problems once it is inside a cell. For that reason, it may be a possible target for new therapeutic approaches to mesothelioma.
The motivation for the research can be summed up in the beginning of the Stanford team’s research paper: “There is no effective cure for malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM), which results in 3,000 deaths per year in the United States.” Despite aggressive research and continued treatment regimens, the median survival after diagnosis remains between 4 and 18 months. On a global scale, developing nations are increasing their asbestos imports and consumption. As a result, the incidence of MPM continues to rise and is likely to peak within the next 12 years in the Western hemisphere. Alarmingly, MPM cases worldwide are predicted to rise for another 40 years. And it is this data that highlights the desperate need for more comprehensive research of the molecular mechanisms contributing to mesothelioma and development of innovative new treatments and therapies.
Stanford Mesothelioma Research Results
With the kind help of mesothelioma volunteers, the research team utilized cells obtained from these mesothelioma patients and then compared those cells with cells from people without mesothelioma. Researchers were able to discover that only the mesothelioma cells were low in a certain kind of precursor to RNA called miR-1. The answer: Adding miR-1 to the mesothelioma cells seemed to put the brakes on the rogue RNA and stop the tumor process. Although the research team’s conclusions were very positive, more research was needed to confirm their exploratory work.
Kazan Law Funded Vital Equipment for Mesothelioma Research
Our historical commitment to mesothelioma research remains strong today and will continue into the future. We are proud to report that our foundation’s monies were used to purchase important equipment needed for the research.
Our efforts were kindly acknowledged in the published report in CHEST, Official Publication of the American College of Chest Physicians.