An Edmonton, Alberta, Canada local was honored yesterday for his countless hours of volunteering. Since 1993, Arnold (Willy) Willet has been tirelessly devoted to helping local families make funeral plans for military veterans. Unfortunately, Willet who is in the final stages of mesothelioma was too ill to attend the event held in his honor.

Willett joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1953 and served as a flight engineer. He was stationed in France, the Middle East and Ethiopia and later moved to Edmonton in 1971. After retiring from the forces in 1993, he volunteered with the military and the City of Edmonton, where he worked with cemeteries staff as the volunteer military liaison.

Over the years, he helped 480 families with funeral arrangements, plot selection and honors guard services for deceased veterans. Gisela, Willett’s wife, remembers her husband's first volunteer work in 1993. “It involved visiting sick veterans or driving them to various appointments. He would also arrange for buses to transport shut-in legion members to functions such as Remembrance Day and Victory in Europe Day.”

To pay tribute to Willett, the city unveiled a commemorative tree, granite pillar and bronze plaque near the military wall at the Northern Lights Cemetery in northwest Edmonton. He also received a special commendation from the Department of Veterans Affairs for his volunteer work on behalf of veterans, back in June. “Willy is one of those special people that touch your life in ways you never could have imagined," Terry Wright of City of Edmonton Cemeteries said. "To us, he is our angel, our role model and our friend."

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A beloved Southbury, CT man died last week due to mesothelioma. Lester "Les" Cable was a 51-year veteran of the Southbury Volunteer Firemen's Association. For the past six years, Cable had battled mesothelioma due to an exposure to asbestos from working in boiler rooms of destroyer-class warships in the U.S. Navy while stationed in Italy. After three years of military service, he left to become a draftsman for a local industry, retiring at the age of 72.

Despite his diagnosis, Cable kept busy. He served as the chairman of the association's 75th anniversary celebration last year, organizing the firemen's ball and gathering the association's history for a commemorative booklet. Association member Brian Jones said Cable was the "gentle gentleman." His daughter, Sandy remembers her dad as a tireless volunteer that wanted to make sure everything was ok. "Even if it was just an alarm going off at 3 a.m., he'd say, 'No, no, I have to go,'" Sandy said. "He loved to keep busy and you had to tell him when to relax. He wanted to see everything done right."

His wife, Lorraine will never forget his good spirit and the joy he brought to so many. "He had no enemies, that's for sure. I think it would be hard to find somebody who didn't like him," Lorraine said. "He found the good in everything and everyone and he never saw a downside to his life. Even in the depth of his pain, he was a very happy man."

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A new cancer treatment with promising results for patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma may also be the key to fighting other forms of cancer.

The treatment boosts the strength of the patient's immune system by interacting with T cells, which in turn fight the cancerous cells in the body.  The drug, Blinatumomab, was administered in small daily doses.  Giving a patient as little as 0.005mg of Blinatumomab per day eliminated some cancerous cells in the blood, and tumours shrank or disappeared completely with 0.015mg.

Four out of 38 trial participants were left disease-free after the study.  One of the patients has survived over a year without any signs of the cancer.

Because the drug worked by interacting with the immune system, there is belief that the treatment can work for other, and perhaps any, form of cancer.  Chief Clinician of Cancer Research UK Peter Johnson said, "These exciting preliminary results come from using them to harness the body's own immune responses in a new way. Although the side effects need to be monitored carefully we hope that this type of treatment will prove to be effective in larger trials in the future."

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The estate of Edgar Goodman, of Charlottesville, VA, is claiming that during his employment between 1947 and 1951 at CSX Transportation he was exposed to and inhaled asbestos fibers that originated from products he was using. The estate has filed a Federal Employers' Liability Act complaint (FELA). Passed by Congress in 1908, FELA allows railroad workers who are not covered by regular workers' compensation laws to sue companies over their injury claims.

FELA requires the injured worker prove that the railroad was "legally negligent," in causing an injury. After proving negligence, the injured worker can seek compensation for past and future wage losses, medical expenses and treatments, pain and suffering, and for partial or permanent disability. In the event of death, survivors are entitled to recover damages which they have suffered because of the death.

Goodman, who was diagnosed with mesothelioma on July, 1, 2005, worked with pipe and block insulation, sheet rock, joint compounds, gaskets, packing, cements and brake shoes, all of which contained asbestos. The estate claims that the exposure to asbestos was foreseeable and CSX failed to acknowledge the dangers it posed. Moreover, the estate claims that CSX failed to provide any or adequate instructions concerning the safe methods of working with asbestos.

Prior to his death, Goodman suffered great pain, extreme nervousness, mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of life and medical expenses. The estate is seeking at least $250,000 in damages including funeral and burial costs.

A recent study conducted by Italian researchers titled, “Assessment of Biomarkers in Asbestos-Exposed Workers as Indicators of Cancer Risk,” published in a June 2008 issue of Mutation Research, identifies a new method of monitoring the health of people exposed to asbestos, allowing for earlier diagnosis.

Researchers focused on looking at biological biomarkers and there relation to mesothelioma. Biomarkers are substances used as indicators of a biologic state and allow researchers to distinguish cancer cells from normal cells. Being able to identify mesothelioma biomarkers might allow researchers to develop a method of early diagnosis.

A total of 119 subjects with a history of occupational exposure to asbestos underwent clinical examination and were interviewed by trained personnel, responding to a detailed questionnaire related to duration of asbestos exposure, smoking, and occupational task. According to the occupational tasks, asbestos-exposed subjects were analyzed for their asbestos cumulative dose and the association with the biomarkers was evaluated. A significant increase in biomarkers was evident in subjects who had a higher exposure to asbestos showed. Also, among the occupational groups, maintenance workers, pipe fitters and electricians were exposed to a higher cumulative dose of asbestos fibers.

These results are very promising and every day researchers are getting closer to finding a method of early diagnosis. Hopefully more tests and research will be conducted in the coming months to further develop this specific method of diagnosing.