The role of smoking in cancers is an increasingly litigated issue for cancers that are not lung cancer. For example, a current trial in a Takeda- Actos bladder cancer case is reported by LAW360 to include a defense expert assigning causation to “tobacco abuse,” diabetes and excess weight. According to the article:
“Mark Schoenberg, a urologic oncologist at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University, testified that his review of medical records and scientific literature had led him to conclude that there was no significant link between Actos and instances of bladder cancer, and that plaintiff Frances Wisniewski had a number of other factors putting her at greater risk.
“In reviewing Mrs. Wisniewski’s record, what I came to learn was that she has a number of risk factors which would completely explain the experience she’s had clinically,” Schoenberg said. “She’s a smoker with a long history of tobacco abuse, she’s older, and she has the additional features of excess weight and a history of diabetes. There a number of factors that exist independently of any presence of Actos that completely explain her situation.”
The key question, of course, is: what will the jury conclude?