Facts about Mesothelioma and its diagnosis
Exposure to asbestos has been proven to be the main cause for Mesothelioma. The name comes from the word “Mesothelium”, which is a very thin lining that surrounds most of our organs, and this is the site where the disease starts to form.
If you have been working with asbestos on your job, you are at a significantly higher risk in developing the disease. Microscopically small particles are blown up and intermingle with the air as the material gets worked on. Not only is the air being breathed in, but the asbestos dust will also cling on to the skin, clothes and the shoes. This is why family members of people who work in an asbestos job are at a higher risk, too.
For a long time, there was a debate as to whether or not Mesothelioma could also be linked to smoking, like lung cancer, for instance. And even though there doesn’t seem to be a direct link, smoking definitely increased the risk of developing any asbestos induced cancer and a myriad of other diseases.
You probably already heard about the huge amounts of money involved in cases that were brought to court regarding Mesothelioma class actions. If you want to read more about that topic, please feel free to visit my Mesothelioma website – the link is in the author’s box below.
Most cancers grow slowly and therefore, by the time someone gets diagnosed he or she carried the disease around for many years. And the exact same is true for patients who got diagnosed with Mesothelioma.
This article is not about me. But just to give you an example of someone who had cancer for a long time without even knowing it, I’d like to share with you what happened to me. I was diagnosed with Kidney Cancer in 2009. My left kidney was taken out two months after the initial diagnosis had been confirmed.
Given the size of the tumor and its characteristics, the doctors assume that it probably started to form 20 years ago, which would take me back prior to my 20th birthday. You see, some cancers are not easy to diagnose, because it can take many years until the first signs start to surface.
And for Mesothelioma it’s exactly the same story. Common symptoms of this disease include, but are not limited to, rapid change in someone’s weight, pain in the chest and being short on breath. Typically, a CT scan will be ordered for a patient who is suspected to have gotten the cancer. But in order to confirm a diagnosis, a biopsy is necessary.
In recent years the Pharmaceutical industry was able to make several chemotherapy drugs available in order to treat Mesothelioma, which are supposed to provide the patient with a better quality of life. However, unfortunately a diagnosis of this type of cancer typically carries a rather poor prognosis.
As for all other cancers, the early is will be detected, the better are the treatment options.
The author Leslie West was diagnosed with kidney cancer, only 7 months after his wife got diagnosed with breast cancer. On his Mesothelioma info webpage he talks in detail about the disease and provides information about asbestos risks, since this material stands in direct correlation with various forms of other cancers, too.
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