Mesothelioma
Mesothelioma is type of cancer which is relatively rare and affects about 1 in a million. It is usually caused by exposure to asbestos.
Although smoking does not directly cause Mesothelioma, a combination of smoking and asbestos exposure has been proven to increase the risk of Mesothelioma occurring in the lungs. Mesothelioma is usually caused by the asbestos poisoning effects when breathing in asbestos dust such as at work or even when washing the clothes of someone who has worked with asbestos.
The symptoms of this cancer sometimes include difficulty in breathing due to liquid which builds up in the lungs, pain in the chest as well as less specific symptoms including loss of weight, high temperature and pains in the abdomen, head and neck. The symptoms might not be present at all until up to 50 years after the asbestos exposure. Diagnosis of the disease can be helped by a CT scan or chest X-ray, and could be verified by a biopsy (tissue sample).
Most people don\’t recover when they know they have the disease. The median survival time is about nine months, with a 5-year survival rate at only about ten percent. A few patients sometimes live for more than twenty years with the disease. While radiation treatment alone is not very effective, in combination with radical surgery and chemo-therapy, some patients can live more than five years.
Most people who get the disease are dead within 18 months from knowing they have it. This is due to the challenges in having a clear diagnosis rather than the progression rate of the disease. Treatment for the disease can sometimes total 800,000 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.
Mesothelioma treatment options can include radiation and chemo treatment and less commonly surgery. However, despite treatment, mesothelioma prognosis is usually poor.
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