Weitz & Luxenberg, P.C. today said it agrees with Vice President Joe Biden that the lives of more cancer victims could be saved if cancer researchers were able to more freely access published studies and, most importantly, their underlying data.
The nationally known personal injury and mass tort law firm said it believes publishers of medical journals should make cancer research data available at no cost to any cancer researcher who wishes to view them.
Currently, cancer researchers are generally only able to read the published studies if they pay for them, and have virtually no access to the data supporting the studies, Weitz & Luxenberg, P.C. said.
Weitz & Luxenberg, P.C. said its views mirror Vice President Biden’s recent calls, including, most recently at an April 20 cancer research conference in New Orleans, for such free access.
Shared Data Benefits Mesothelioma Patients
Weitz & Luxenberg, P.C. said this desire to see cancer research improved is particularly timely because May is National Cancer Research Month in the U.S.
”We believe cancer research is incredibly important,” the law firm said. ”It is important to the lives of the 1.6 million people who the American Cancer Society estimates will be diagnosed in 2016 with one of more than 200 different types of cancer.
”Improved cancer research is also important to the approximately 14.5 million individuals who the American Association for Cancer Research classifies as cancer survivors.”
”Better cancer research is particularly important to many of our clients. They are battling mesothelioma, one of the most aggressive of all cancers.”
Weitz & Luxenberg, P.C. said the plight of individuals with mesothelioma is distressing because the cancer strikes only as a result of exposure to the toxic mineral asbestos.
”Mesothelioma is something that need never have happened to our clients,” the law firm said. ”While mesothelioma is incurable, it is totally preventable by avoiding exposure to asbestos. Such exposure occurred only because companies that manufactured and sold products containing asbestos were reckless in failing to warn workers of the hazard.”
Cancer Research Critically Important to Veterans
Weitz & Luxenberg noted that many stricken by mesothelioma became exposed to asbestos during their service in the U.S. Navy and other branches of the armed forces.
”We lament that, on this upcoming Memorial Day, while we honor the fallen veterans that sacrificed their lives to protect our country, so many who served have fallen victim to this fatal cancer that need never have attacked them,” the law firm said.
Weitz & Luxenberg, P.C. explained that many warships built before the 1970s were laden with asbestos to provide fireproofing and insulation in crew quarters, galleys, engine rooms, boiler rooms, gun turrets, magazines and other vital areas.
Weitz & Luxenberg, P.C. said it is on behalf of veterans and all other mesothelioma patients that it is throwing its full support behind National Cancer Research Month and behind President Barack Obama’s plans for a ”cancer moonshot” effort.
The White House announced in February that it wants nearly $1 billion spent over the next two years on cancer research as part of this moonshot initiative, Weitz & Luxenberg said.
”We join the president and vice president in their expressed desire to make America the country that cures cancer once and for all,” the law firm announced.
