Mesothelioma is a relatively rare type of cancer which affects approximately one in a million people. The usual direct cause is exposure to asbestos.
While smoking does not itself cause the disease, when combined with asbestos exposure it has been shown to increase the risk of this disease being contracted in the lung area. Mesothelioma is sometimes called "asbestos poisoning" because that is how it is caused. The exposure can be either direct exposure to asbestos dust, or indirect such as when washing clothes of a person who works with this chemical.
The symptoms of this disease are many and varied. They might include breathing difficulties due to build-up of fluid in the lungs, as well as fever, loss of weight and pain in the chest, abdomen or even head and neck. The symptoms might not appear for many decades after the exposure to asbestos. Diagnosis is sometimes supported by chest X-ray or CT scan, and can be confirmed by examination of a small piece of the affected tissue (called a biopsy).
Recovery from the disease is not common, and median survival times is about 9 months from presentation (with the 5-year survival rate being about 10%), although a few people do survive for more than 20 years after having the disease. Some patients have survived more than 5 years after having radical surgery plus chemo and radiation therapy, but radiation therapy alone has proved ineffective.
It is common for someone to die within one and a half years of knowing that they have this disease. This is because the diagnosis is so difficult until the late stages rather than because the disease progresses rapidly. Treatments can often be expensive. Sometimes the total cost for treatment is around a million dollars.
Litigation about this disease first initiated in 1929. More than five hundred thousand cases have gone to court so far. Those who build and repair ships have the greatest mortality rate from the disease. This is because asbestos is commonly used in ships. The amounts of money that claimants receive can be very large, which means that there are legal specialists who handle only mesothelioma claims.
Prognosis for the disease is usually poor, despite available treatments.
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