What is Mesothelioma?

What is Mesothelioma?

The National Cancer Institute
defines mesothelioma as follows:
"Malignant mesothelioma, a rare
form of cancer, is a disease in
which cancer (malignant) cells
are found in the sac lining the chest (the pleura), the lining of
the abdominal cavity (the
peritoneum), or the lining around
the heart (the pericardium).” Mesothelioma is a rare form of
cancer that attacks cells (the
mesothelial cells) which make up
membrane lining in the chest and
abdominal cavity. It has nothing
to do with Asbestosis, what is a non-cancerous form of asbestos
disease.

Mesothelioma is directly
connected with asbestos,
directly related to asbestos
exposure. People working with
asbestos or are involved in jobs
handling with asbestos or exposed anyway, e.g.living in a
house with asbestos roof, are or
were endangered. Often in a
household envireonment people
are exposed without knowing it.
Cases of mesothelioma have been documented with very
minimal exposure, but workers
with prolonged heavy exposure
have greatest risk. Because of
the long latency period of
asbestos disease, today mesothelioma is diagnosed on
people being exposed in the
1950s, 1960s, 1970s or later.
Years passed by and people,
generally (80%) male, did not
know about the risks, they could not see the fibres and so were
not aware of the health-risk.

50% of the people with
mesothelioma will survive about 2
- 3 years, 20% five years or
more, the average survival time
is near by one year.
Mesothelioma oncce been treated can come back, it can
recur to the same area of the
body and it can metastasize to
other organs.