Mesotheleomia Overview
What do actor Steve McQueen, Jimmy Carter Chief of Staff Hamilton Jordan, and architect Paul Rudolph have in common? These are just some of the thousands of people who have tragically passed away after battling a deadly disease called mesotheleomia.
If you don’t know much about mesotheleomia, you aren’t alone. This form of cancer is rare, but what sets it apart is its cause. Unlike most other kinds of cancer, which can be attributed (at least in part) to genetics, mesotheleomia is preventable. In addition, mesotheleomia develops extremely slowly, so you might have it for years before your symptoms are so bad that you see a doctor. Unfortunately, by that point, it may be too late.
What is Mesotheleomia?
In almost every single case of mesotheleomia, the patient developed the cancer after exposure to asbestos. Asbestos is a natural substance that was once used in many industries, including shipping, home building, and automotive manufacturing. This mineral was once considered a dream substance because it is fire resistant, flexible, strong, lightweight, and inexpensive. It was used for everything from insulation to cloth to cement.
Mesotheleomia occurs when you work or live around items made with asbestos. Because this mineral is so fibrous, small particles of asbestos can easily be breathed or swallowed. These microscopic fibers are jagged and tear the soft linings of your organs. There are three main times of mesotheleomia – pleural (lungs), peritoneal (abdominal), and pericardial (heart). Pleural mesotheleomia is the most common type of this cancer.
Once the asbestos fibers enter the body and tear the tissue surrounding your organs, your immune system attempts to repair the problems. Over time, however, scar tissue builds up. Worse yet, the cells in the scar tissue have a high rate of mutation, which is what causes the mesotheleomia. Before you have symptoms, it is likely that the mesotheleomia cells will travel through the blood stream to attack other parts of the body, making it extremely hard to treat.
Should You See Your Doctor?
The signs of mesotheleomia depend on where the tumors manifest. As noted, in the lining of the lungs is most common, and symptoms with this kind of mesotheleomia include chest pain, trouble breathing, fatigue, and coughing. Some of these same symptoms are found in mesotheleomia that attacks the heart. If the tumors build in the abdominal cavity, some additional symptoms include weight loss, abdominal swelling, pain, digestive problems, and fever.
The key to survival, however, it not to wait until you have noticeable symptoms to go to the doctor. Instead, if you’ve ever been exposed to asbestos at home or work, or if you lived with someone who had been exposed to asbestos, you should be screened for mesotheleomia.
Mesotheleomia Stats
Mesotheleomia is still considered rare, but among people who have been exposed to asbestos, the rate of contracting this disease is relatively high. Incidences of mesotheleomia have increased over the past two decades, and even though asbestos isn’t highly used anymore, people are still being diagnosed, as exposure that happened many years ago could lead to cancer today. World-wide, the incidence rate is about one in a million, and in industrialized nations, that rate is between 7 and 40 per million cases. The highest rates of mesotheleomia are found in the United Kingdom, Australia, and Belgium.
Rates of diagnosis and death are not stable in the United States, but experts think that we’ve seen the peak in 2004. Since asbestos hasn’t been heavily used since the 1970s, the number of cases is expected to subside. Among those at risk, however, it has been shown that smoking (which you can control) and exposure to a certain virus (which you can’t control, in most cases) could increase your chances of developing mesotheleomia.
Treatment and Learning More
Mesotheleomia may be hard to beat, but there are treatment options. If you catch the mesotheleomia early enough, surgery may be able to remove all of the cancer cells. Other treatments include radiation, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy. Some people have also used alternative medicine to treat the cancer.
Whatever you diagnosis and treatment plan, however, it is important to learn more about the condition so you can make the best choices possible for your health. Click around this site to learn more in-depth information about mesotheleomia and talk to your doctor about decreasing your risks. Remember too that you may have legal rights against companies that exposed you to asbestos, so contact a lawyer as soon as possible.
