Cancer mesothelioma is the most serious of all asbestos-related diseases. Exposure to asbestos is the primary cause and risk factor for mesothelioma.
Making a correct mesothelioma diagnosis is particularly difficult for doctors because the disease often presents with symptoms that mimic other common ailments. There is currently no known cure for mesothelioma, but treatments such as surgery and chemotherapy can help to improve the typical mesothelioma prognosis and even increase one's life expectancy.
Three major types of mesothelioma exist and they are differentiated by the organs primarily affected. Pleural mesothelioma (affecting the lung’s protective lining in the chest cavity) represents about three-quarters of all mesothelioma incidence. Peritoneal mesothelioma, which affects the abdominal cavity, and pericardial mesothelioma, which affects the cardiac cavity, comprise the remainder.
Mesothelioma is an aggressive cancer that affects the lining of the lungs, heart, or abdomen.
Mesothelioma, a deadly cancer caused primarily by the inhalation of asbestos fibers, attacks the mesothelium, a protective, two-layered membrane that covers the internal organs of the body including the lungs, heart, and abdominal organs.
Mesothelioma takes anywhere from 20 to 50 years to develop, which is why it’s more commonly diagnosed in older individuals. This deadly disease most often affects men between the ages of 50 and 70 who were employed in an asbestos-laden environment before asbesto regulations were imposed in the late 1970s. Occupations most associated with mesothelioma are shipyard workers, electricians, plumbers, construction industry workers, pipefitters, boilermakers, and anyone subject to heavy exposure to dangerous airborne asbestos fibers.
Though still significantly rarer than other cancers, an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 new cases of mesothelioma are diagnosed each year in the United States. Some other countries, such as the United Kingdom and Australia, report a much higher incidence of the disease.