Event Helps Advance Cancer Research

Dana Point News: Orange County Register weekly (CA)
September 8, 2005

A fundraiser in Capistrano Beach brought in about $100,000 toward the fight against mesothelioma

Byline: MAGDA LISZEWSKA

It's a rare, ruthless killer, that can go unnoticed for years before symptoms show.

Mesothelioma is an aggressive cancer caused by exposure to asbestos, which takes up to 40 years to develop, mesothelioma specialist Dr. Robert Cameron said. There is no cure, and treatments are limited.

Roger Worthington has been representing mesothelioma patients for years and has seen how the disease can affect people, even drastically shortening their lives.

"In my view, to truly live up to your status as an advocate, you have to take your client's cause as your own and to do that means that we have to find ways to give them more life, give them more hope," the Dana Point lawyer said. "If I get $10 million for a client who dies, that's a good day legally, but my client's still dead."

So in 1999, Worthington decided to take on his clients' cause and founded The Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation (MARF) to advance funding and research toward finding a cure.

Last Friday, Worthington teamed up with a childhood friend, trumpet player Chris Botti, and invited about 150 guests familiar with the foundation for an jazz concert and a fundraiser for the cause. The event brought in $83,100, and more checks are in the mail, which could increase the total to about $100,000, Worthington said this week.

Among the guests was Worthington's client Terry McCann who was diagnosed with cancer in April.

The Dana Point resident is an Olympic wrestler and avid surfer who said he never smoked, drank alcohol or coffee. He worked out several times a day and maintained a healthy diet throughout his life. These days, the 71-year-old barely leaves his house.

"Everything now is looking for a good day," he said. "A good day for me is when I don't have to take Vicadin."

Most mesothelioma patients have only months to live following diagnosis, said Cameron, a MARF board member. However, advances in research over the last few years have extended some patients' lives by three, four, even five years, he said.

The life-expectancy prognosis is something McCann has come to terms with. A self-described realist, he said he has accomplished everything he wanted to in life - student, family man, Olympic athlete and businessman.

"The only thing that bothers me is that I can't surf," he said. "I miss it."

McCann is going through chemotherapy, which leaves him with little energy and a weakened immune system.

Sometimes, he also experiences "chemo brain" and temporarily loses his memory.

"What's really frustrating is that companies know what asbestos does and they keep putting it on the market," McCann's wife Lucille said.

There are 3,000 to 4,000 mesothelioma cases diagnosed each year out of the 12 million cancer cases, Cameron said.

"It's not a very common cancer and physicians don't know much about it," he said.

Chris Botti

Although the cancer doesn't discriminate, and could develop through indirect exposure, Cameron said many Navy men could be affected because of their work in shipyards.

McCann worked at a refinery in Oklahoma from 1957 to 1958, where he was exposed to asbestos.

That's one of the reasons Cameron and other MARF members and supporters want to add to the limited government resources.

"They (patients) oftentimes got this because of service to this country," Cameron said.

There is some hope. Within the last year and a half, the FDA approved a chemotherapy drug, Alimta, that can help extend patients' lives by up to three years, Cameron said.

MARF hopes to help fund additional studies to find a cure. In its first year, the foundation contributed $200,000 in grants to research, Executive Director Chris Hahn said. Last year, it contributed $1 million. The money comes from lawyers, patients and their families and even some of the companies sued for using asbestos, Hahn said.

"The upbeat note is that MARF made a difference," Worthington said. "We're just a very small group of doctors that are making a difference. We need to make the research a priority, not an afterthought."

(949) 454-7377 or mliszewska@ocregister.com