Earlier this year, the U.S. FDA (Food and Drug Administration) approved the only drug cocktail that has been proven to help patients with asbestos-related cancer to live longer.

A combination of Alimta (a new drug recently introduced by Eli Lilly & Company), Cisplatin (a standard chemotherapy agent) and daily doses of folic acid and vitamin B12 has been shown to prolong the life of patients suffering of malignant pleural mesothelioma (a cancer of the lining of the lungs, often attributed to asbestos exposure).

The early results from trials were positive: in a trial of 448 patients from 19 countries, results showed that the overall survival increased by 30 percent.  The global Phase III clinical trial was conducted by Dr. Nicholas Vogelzang, while he was a director of the University of Chicago Cancer Research Center.  In January of this year, Dr. Vogelzang became the director of the Nevada Cancer Institute in Las Vegas.