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Advanced Malignant Mesothelioma

Mesothelioma is a cancer caused almost entirely by exposure to certain types of asbestos (especially blue or amphibole, but sometimes white or chrysotile), and can occur in the peritoneum (gut lining), pleura (lung lining), or pericardium (sac around the heart). Exposure can be direct, as someone who works on car brakes or worked with loose asbestos before it was outlawed, or it can be indirect, as the wife of an exposed worker who washes his dusty clothes. Though mesothelioma can be exacerbated by smoking, the two are not linked.

Advanced malignant mesothelioma is, unfortunately, the likely end result of this disease. Mesothelioma is involved in scarring the linings it affects, and the scar tissue, over many years, develops into tumors and then cancers. Most symptoms don’t appear until 20-50 years after exposure, and can include shortness of breath, cough, and chest pain (for pleural or pericardial mesothelioma), or weight loss, anemia, fever, and abdominal pain and bowel obstructions in the case of peritoneal mesothelioma.

Because of the very slow onset and then rapid progression of this disease, a high percentage of cases are not caught until they have become advanced malignant mesothelioma. In this case, the patient is almost always on oxygen already. In some situations, a lung can be removed to prolong life. The prognosis is very poor. Advanced malignant mesothelioma has usually metastasized, and will result in death within an average 6-12 months. The best defense for a patient is to always have noted in a medical chart whether he or she may have been exposed to asbestos.

Tragically, extremely high numbers of people were heavily exposed to asbestos on 9/11 in New York City, as the World Trade Center towers contained high levels of the substance.

Web Resources On Advanced Malignant Mesothelioma

Stages of malignant mesothelioma
Mesothelioma Treatment Paths

Book Resources On Advanced Malignant Mesothelioma

Malignant Mesothelioma: Advances in Pathogenesis, Diagnosis, and Translational Therapies by Harvey I. Pass (Ed.)
Malignant Mesothelioma by Douglas W. Henderson

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