What Is Malignant Mesothelioma?
Malignant mesothelioma is an aggressive cancer that causes tumors to form in the protective membranes lining the thoracic, peritoneal and pericardial cavities and, in rare instances, the internal reproductive tracts of both women and men. In all but a handful of the 2,000 to 3,000 cases of malignant mesothelioma diagnosed in the United States every year, asbestos exposure is the cause of the disease.
Information provided on behalf of the Mesothelioma lawyer firm Goldberg & Osborne and is intended for educational purposes only.
Malignant mesothelioma is characterized by an exceptionally prolonged latency interval. Twenty to 50 years may occur between the initial asbestos exposure and the time malignant mesothelioma is diagnosed. Because this interval is so very long, the disease is rarely detected early enough for curative treatments to be an option. The average survival time for a patient who is diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma is between four and 18 months.
Asbestos and Malignant Mesothelioma
Asbestos is a mineral that has been extensively used for centuries in a huge number of industrial applications. Asbestos has properties that make it seem like an ideal insulator. Asbestos is lightweight, extremely strong and impervious to flame, heat, sound, electrical conductivity and most types of chemical corrosion.
Unfortunately, under heavy use or when they degrade over time, asbestos-containing materials release asbestos back into the air in the fibrous form in which the mineral occurs in nature. These asbestos microfilaments are razor sharp; when workers in the vicinity of asbestos-containing materials inhale them, they lodge in workers lungs, occasionally migrating to other parts of their bodies, where over time they precipitate inflammatory changes that become the precursors to asbestos-related diseases including malignant mesothelioma.
Types of Malignant Mesothelioma
There are three main types of malignant mesothelioma.
Malignant Pleural mesothelioma: Pleural mesothelioma affects the lining of the lungs, or pleura. Its the most common type of mesothelioma, found in 70 percent of all malignant mesothelioma patients.
Tumor growth causes a characteristic thickening of the pleural membranes that show up on imaging studies. Tumors also cause the cells that produce the lubricating fluids that prevent friction among the components of the respiratory system when they rub up against one another to overproduce, leading to pleural effusion, a buildup of fluid in the chest. The median life expectancy for a patient diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma is between two and four years.
Malignant Peritoneal mesothelioma: Peritoneal mesothelioma develops in the abdomen and accounts for 10 to 20 percent of all mesothelioma diagnoses. Medical scientists are not quite sure how asbestos fibers travel from the lungs to the peritoneum. Some believe that asbestos fibers may be ingested on contaminated food or in secretions that are coughed up and reswallowed, while others believe that asbestos fibers travel through the lymphatic system to colonize parts of the body outside the lungs. The median life expectancy for a patient who has been diagnosed with peritoneal mesothelioma is seven months.
Malignant Pericardial Mesothelioma: Pericardial mesothelioma is very rare: Only 200 cases of pericardial mesothelioma have ever been diagnosed. Because the cancer is so rare, treatment regimens have not been standardized and its characteristic tumors are so close to the heart, surgery is seldom an option. Scientists do not understand the mechanism whereby asbestos microfibers are inhaled and then travel to the heart. The median life expectancy for a patient diagnosed with pericardial mesothelioma is under six months.
Goldberg & Osborne, a personal injury law firm, has provided this article for informational purposes only, written by an independent author, and has not reviewed or edited this article and is not responsible for its content or accuracy.
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