Mesotheileoma Overview
Mesotheileoma (pronounced mee so thee lee oh ma) is a particularly virulent type of cancer. According to the American Cancer Society, the average survival rate for someone diagnosed with mesotheileoma is one year. A person diagnosed with mesotheileoma has only a 10% chance of reaching the five year survival rate. For most people diagnosed with mesotheileoma, death is painful and cruel.
Incidence of Mesotheileoma – How common is mesotheileoma?
The American Cancer Society classes mesotheileoma as a “rare” cancer, with 2,000 to 3,000 new cases diagnosed each year. The incidence of mesotheileoma has been climbing worldwide since it was first recognized, with the increase in numbers roughly following the increased use of asbestos in construction and manufacturing. Since 1990, the climbing rate of diagnoses seems to have slowed somewhat, most likely in response to the ban of asbestos for many manufacturing uses in the United States. In other countries, where the use of asbestos was not banned until later or where the use of asbestos is still widespread, the numbers of mesotheileoma cases continue to climb.
Causes of Mesotheileoma – How do you get mesotheileoma?
There is only one known cause of mesotheileoma – exposure to asbestos fibers in the air. Asbestos is a mineral that was widely used in both construction and manufacturing from the early 1900s through about 1980. In most cases, asbestos is harmless. However, when asbestos is broken up, it separates into very fine fibers that can float in the air for hours or even days after it is disturbed. When asbestos fibers are airborne, they can be swallowed or inhaled by people in the area.
Once inside the body, the tiny asbestos fibers can “hook” themselves into soft tissues like lungs and other organ linings and remain there for years. Scar tissue builds up around the asbestos fibers, taking over the healthy tissue that helps the body breathe and rid itself of toxins and byproducts. Eventually, the damage caused by the asbestos fibers can completely immobilize the lungs and keep the lining tissues from doing their job.
Types of Mesotheileoma
There are three distinct types of mesotheileoma, each named for the part of the body where it occurs. Pleural mesotheileoma, the most common, affects the pleural lining of the lungs. The second most common type of mesotheileoma, peritoneal mesotheileoma, affects the lining of the abdominal cavity. The rarest type of mesotheileoma is pericardial mesotheileoma, affecting the lining around the heart.
Diagnosing Mesotheileoma
Mesotheileoma has always been very difficult to diagnose. The changes that asbestos causes in the body can take decades to be noticeable. At first, the symptoms of mesotheileoma are mild and are often mistaken for other illnesses. Often, by the time a doctor even suspects that a patient may have mesotheileoma, the cancer has reached such an advanced stage that there are very few options for treatment.
Symptoms of Mesotheileoma
The earliest symptoms of mesotheileoma include shortness of breath, a dry, non-productive cough, tightness and chest pain and chronic chest pain. The symptoms of peritoneal mesotheileoma include tenderness and swelling in the abdominal region, stomach pain, unexplained weight loss and loss of appetite. Because all of these symptoms are common to many other illnesses and because mesotheileoma is so rare, many doctors don’t even think to test for mesotheileoma unless the patient states a history of exposure to asbestos.
Treatments for Mesotheileoma
As recently as five years ago, there were very few treatment options for patients with mesotheileoma. Because the cancer was usually discovered so late, most surgical options were not useful and even the chemotherapy options were limited. Since then, the growing awareness of mesotheileoma with the public and new methods that help diagnose mesotheileoma at earlier stages have opened up new avenues of treatment for patients diagnosed with mesotheileoma. There are surgical treatments that can help relieve the symptoms of mesotheileoma, as well as promising research in drugs and alternative treatments that appear to slow or halt the progress of this deadly cancer.
The Cost of Mesotheileoma
The cost of treating mesotheileoma can easily mount into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. It can easily wipe out a family’s life savings and leave them in debt for years. Few health insurance policies cover the most current treatments for mesotheileoma, and even palliative care can be prohibitively expensive. Because of this, and because any case of mesotheileoma is an unnecessary tragedy, many patients diagnosed with mesotheileoma choose to bring a lawsuit against employers or manufacturers who exposed them to asbestos. Many big companies are fighting hard to change the laws regarding mesotheileoma lawsuits, but there are lawyers working just as hard to ensure that those people who are dying of mesotheileoma receive the compensation and care to which they are entitled.
