Mesothelioma Doctors, Lawyers Join Hunt for Valuable Asbestos Cases

On the asbestos law firm website of Roger G. Worthington is a photo of him and Dr. Robert Cameron in an operating room, both in scrubs, hovering above the splayed chest of a gravely ill person who is the legal client of one and patient of the other.

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"The hardest working man in America. Easily," Mr. Worthington, a plaintiffs' attorney, says of Dr. Cameron on his legal blog. "An American hero."
Dr. Cameron says of Mr. Worthington's devotion to clients: "He's more than their lawyer; he's almost their friend."
Together the men have helped start two nonprofits dedicated to assisting patients of mesothelioma, an asbestos-related cancer. Dr. Cameron relied on funding from Mr. Worthington to build two research laboratories. When mesothelioma patients ask Dr. Cameron to recommend an attorney, he tells them to pick one who has donated toward finding a cure for the disease, and that includes Mr. Worthington.
The two have forged what has become an increasingly common relationship between a subset of cancer doctors and plaintiffs' attorneys, sharing what for each is an increasingly scarce but valuable resource: victims of mesothelioma.

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The Law Office of Roger G. Worthington P.C.

Dr. Robert Cameron, left, performs surgery on a legal client of Roger Worthington, facing camera, in a photo on the attorney's website.

It is an unusual alliance in the world of medicine that some ethics experts say blurs ethical lines. This is particularly true when doctors refer patients to attorneys who provide financial support for their medical research.
It "has the taste of a kickback," said Dr. Jerome Kassirer, author of a book about financial conflicts of interest in medicine and a former editor in chief of the New England Journal of Medicine. "This is a disgrace to both professions," he said.
Mr. Worthington rejected any notion he was seeking to profit from his donations or that there is any quid pro quo. He sees himself filling a void to support research that should be paid for by the asbestos industry.
"I've given back. If that's a crime, I'm guilty as hell," Mr. Worthington said. "The fact that I've found a doctor who cares, that is just serendipity."
Dr. Cameron likewise said donations to his research are made with the explicit understanding that there are no strings attached. "I don't get kickbacks; I get money for research," he said. "If you see someone at the end of a freeway exit, that is me asking for money for research."
Mesothelioma is a cancer of the lining on the lungs and chest cavity believed to be caused exclusively by asbestos fibers. Depending on their course of treatment, victims essentially suffocate to death, typically within months of diagnosis. There is no cure.

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Only a handful of doctors in the U.S. specialize in treating mesothelioma patients and studying the disease. Nearly all have benefited from money from plaintiffs' attorneys or plaintiffs' attorney-backed organizations that goes toward their research or the institution where they practice, according to a Wall Street Journal review of nonprofit tax filings and interviews with dozens of doctors, attorneys and patients.
Some doctors argue that there is little choice. Research dollars for mesothelioma, which afflicts fewer than 3,000 people a year, are scarce. In 2011, the National Cancer Institute spent $6.06 million directly on mesothelioma, just 0.1% of its overall budget for cancer research that year, though it says treatments could emerge from other grants targeting cancer more generally.
Drug companies aren't inclined to spend money on the disease because it affects so few people and because it likely will continue to decline along with the use of asbestos, medical experts say.
Merck & Co., one of the few drug companies to embark on a widespread study, of 662 patients, of a drug to treat the disease ended it in 2011 when it didn't show promise of helping patients survive.
"If you want to do mesothelioma research, you need the lawyers," Dr. Cameron says.
Mesothelioma patients are in high demand by plaintiffs' attorneys. A single successful mesothelioma case against companies that made asbestos products can be worth an average of $1.5 million to $2 million, according to legal consultants. The plaintiffs' lawyers get anywhere from 30% to 40% in fees.

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As competition mounts for clients, some asbestos lawyers send elaborate gift baskets to doctors at holidays, offer free tickets to professional sports events or offer paid work as expert witnesses.
Attorneys who donate to mesothelioma research can use doctor testimonials as a marketing tool. Dr. David Sugarbaker, chief of the division of thoracic surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, appears in a video on a legal website of a major asbestos firm, Texas-based Baron & Budd P.C.
Baron & Budd pledged $3 million to Dr. Sugarbaker's program in 2002, according to Russell Budd, the law firm's president. In the 2005 video interview with Mr. Budd, Dr. Sugarbaker exhorts other law firms to donate as well. "The cure for polio, the vaccine, was completely financed with private funds," he says in the video. "That answer was found with private money."
In 2007, Boston plaintiffs' firm Thornton & Naumes LLP spent $1 million to refurbish a house that offers low-cost lodging to financially needy families of Dr. Sugarbaker's patients in Boston. The firm's name is displayed prominently in materials distributed to patients. Michael Thornton, the firm's co-founder, said he was proud to support the institution.
Dr. Sugarbaker says he doesn't refer patients to any law firms and adds that donations for his program come from more than 2,000 individuals, corporations and foundations. A spokeswoman for Brigham and Women's said law firm donations make up about 30% of the hospital's mesothelioma research program's budget.
Harvey Pass, professor and director of the division of thoracic surgery at NYU Langone Medical Center, said he recommends three asbestos plaintiffs' firms to mesothelioma patients. The firms, Belluck & Fox LLP, Levy Phillips & Konigsberg LLP and Simmons Browder Gianaris Angelides & Barnerd LLC, through its foundation, have donated