Who can handle this?

When being diagnosed with mesothelioma, during the stage of treatment, you will come across several type of doctors that specialized in certain field. Each member works with you on treatments and overcoming mesothelioma.

The following members that you may come across…

General Practioner – Generally this is your physician. Your physician typically are not an expert in mesothelioma but the practioner serves your medical history to specialists and consultant that will be working with you.

Respiratory Therapist – A member of the team who works with patient with breathing problems.

Pathologist – A member who is an expert in discovering presence of diseases through examinations of fluids and excretions.

Medical Oncologist – A chemotherapy specialist.

Radiation Oncologist – Specialize in radiation therapy.

Thoracic Surgeon – A member that is skilled in performing surgery on hearts, chest, and esophagus.

Radiologist – A specialist in using x-rays, and ultrasound.

Diverse professionals are there to provide care for you and help you overcome mesothelioma.

Treatment by Radiation Therapy

Radiation treatment or radiotherapy is simply the use of high-energy x-rays that destroy the cancer cells and its surrounding area while doing as little harm as possible to the normal cells.

When treating mesothelioma, radiotherapy may be aggressively used against the cancer cell in cooperation along with surgery or chemotherapy for an effective battle against mesothelioma. If the patient are not well enough for a surgery, then radiation therapy can be used alone as a sole treatment.

Radiotherapy is also used to control the symptoms. This form of treatment can reduce the size of the cancer and reduce pain, discomfort, and or breathlessness.

Treatment by Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is a treatment that involves using chemical substances. The chemical substance used in chemotherapy is “anticancer drugs” that works against and destroy cancer cells in the body.

Often, chemotherapy will be administered through the use of injections. The anticancer drug will be injected into the vein. Physicians may administer it directly in the affected area in hope to target the mesothelioma tumor more effectively. If not injections then it would be given in the form of pills.

Please keep in mind that chemotherapy is not considered as a solution or as a cure. It is often used in combination with other forms of treatment to better battle against the cancer cells. The goals of chemotherapy are to control the cancer by slowing down its growth, to relieve symptoms, to shrink tumors, and to destroy microscopic disease that may remain after surgery.

The downside to chemotherapy is the side effects. While chemotherapy seeks out cancer cells and destroys them, it also temporarily reduces the number of the normal cells. It is the damages done to the normal cells that are causing the side effect. Depending on the type, dosage, and how your body reacts to chemotherapy, the side effects may include the following…

1. Nausea
2. Vomiting
3. Hair loss
4. Weight Loss
5. Fatigue
6. Diarrhea

Treatment by Surgery

Before you consider surgery, please consider your overall health. Make sure your health is evaluated carefully by a doctor. Make sure your doctor have you tested to make sure that you don’t have metastatic disease. Metastatic disease is cancer that spreads to distant area of your body.

There may be an occasion where cancer is only in one area of the pleura, where surgery can be used to cure mesothelioma. Using surgery, it can remove part, or all, of the pleura and tissues closes to the cancer. Sometime, the affected side which involves the pleura, whole lung, and diagram are removed along with the tumor.

Even though you may do the surgery, beware that even surgery may not cure mesothelioma. It is important that you discuss this with your doctor before hand so that you have the full understanding of what is happening/going on with the surgery. Only you can consent the surgery, so please make sure you have a full understanding of what is involved.

Sometime, in order to achieve the full effect of surgery, radiotherapy or chemotherapy may be involved in order to ensure that mesothelioma is, at best cured.

After operation, sometime it can take many weeks to recover from the surgery. In order to speed up recovery, it is best to be active as possible. If you are required to stay in bed, keep regular leg movements to stay active. To help out with the breathing exercise, a physiotherapist will work with you on this.

Intravenous infusion and drainage tubes will be on you in order to maintain and monitor your overall health. Tubes usually go away when you begin to eat and drink normally and when the overall health improves.

You may feel some pain or discomfort after the surgery. This is quite normal and by making a request to the nurse or doctor, you can control it with painkillers. Be aware that pain or discomfort may persist for few weeks. Be sure to ask your doctor on what to do about the pain.

Mesothelioma patients usually go home 5 to 10 days after the operation. When you go home, be sure to exercise often but gently to build your strength. Be sure to ask your doctor on type of exercises that are appropriate for you. Typically walking and swimming exercise will suffice for those with surgery in the approximation of lungs.

Treatment

Treatments for mesothelioma depend on several factors such as the location of the cancer, the type of mesothelioma, the stage of the disease, patient's age, the medical history and the general health of the patient.

Each person diagnosed with mesothelioma requires different type of treatment, such as the frequency, the aggressiveness, and the method used to treat mesothelioma.

There are many kind of treatments for mesothelioma, each intending to attack cancer cells while attempting to address symptoms. Often, patients wants to pursue the most aggressive treatment possible at the beginning when diagnosed with mesothelioma. If diagnosed early in the stages, then this may be the best option to take.

The most important thing is have everybody involved to understand the options available and make a personal decision on treatment that is appropriate for the patient.

Treatments commonly used are surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy. These may be used in combination to combat the cancer cell.

Prevention

The best way to prevent contracting mesothelioma is avoid contact with asbestos. If there is a chance of exposure, for example fixing up an old houses, then please take special measures to protect yourself. Hire an expert to check for asbestos and remove it if there are any. Do not attempt to do it yourself.

Ask your Doctor

When you have been diagnosed with mesothelioma, most certainly you will be going back for another visit. When you are there with your doctor, here are the following questions to ask your doctor to help you prepare for life with mesothelioma, and help you move forward with your life.

What type of mesothelioma do I have? (Write it down if necessary)

Has the cancer spread?

What is my options for treatment? What should I do to be ready for treatments?

What does it mean to me when the stages of the cancer changes?

What treatment option would you recommend and why? What are the risks?

What is my prognosis?

What are my chance of survival?

(Add more questions here)

You should feel free to ask any questions no matter how insignificant it may seem. Have an open discussion with your doctor and learn as much as you can about mesothelioma.

Research

Mesothelioma is a difficult disease to diagnose because of its symptoms that are similar to many other illnesses. With more cases showing up nowadays, it is important that future research can make mesothelioma tolerable for mesothelioma patients. The National Cancer Institute support studies with mesothlioma patients with the intention of discovering new treatments or improve current treatments.

Today, there are several organizations being involved with research in mesothelioma. Of those organizations, some are companies who are responsible for the use of asbestos. Mesothelioma patients can claim compensation from companies who have exposed asbestos to their employees. Companies that exposed asbestos to their employees, they are also responsible for helping out with research. Because of rising number of patients diagnosed with metholioma, it is vital that lawyers also understand it as well to ensure a successful lawsuit.

In the meanwhile, medical researchers coming up with new experimental drugs which is being tested in trials, and researchers are learning on ways that best treat people with mesothelioma.

Legal Issues

This is the only type of cancer described on this site where you are going to see a page dedicated to the legal issues of the disease. This is because mesothelioma is so intimately linked with use of and exposure to asbestos.

Asbestos use and Abuse

Unfortunately, the effects of asbestos on the human body were known to be deadly for years by the companies who employed the generation of workers with greatest exposure. These companies made hundreds of millions, if not billions, from the work of exposed employees. However, instead of taking simple steps to alleviate the problem and save the lives of thousands of their workers, they choose to do nothing and continue to make a 'healthy' profit with a 'deadly' product. Many even went so far as to hide the truth from their workers and their families. And because the normal latency period for Mesothelioma (The time from exposure until the patient falls ill) is 15 to 20 years, many got away with this for years. We are only now beginning to see the full effects of the disease, and feel the terrible outcry of the people against those who put profits before human lives to a degree that is simply unfathomable.

History:

The first article linking mesothelioma with exposure to asbestos was published by Wagner et al in the British Journal of Industrial Medicine in 1960, based on a study of 30 workers in South Africa. This was followed in 1962 by a paper by McNulty who reported the first diagnosed case of malignant mesothelioma in an Australian asbestos worker who had worked at the asbestos mine in Witternoom from 1948 to 1950. Wittenoom has become something of a cause celebre in terms of Mesothelioma and asbestos exposure. Despite proof that the dust associated with asbestos mining and milling causes asbestos related disease, mining began at Wittenoom in 1943 and continued until 1966. It is difficult to understand why the mine and mill was allowed to initially open and operate without adequate risk control measures; and why nothing was done to force the owner (CSR) to clean them up, adopt safer work practices or close down their operations. In the town of Witternoom itself, asbestos-containing mine waste was used to cover schoolyards and playgrounds and in 1965 a further article in the British Journal of Industrial Medicine established that people who lived in the neighbourhoods of asbestos factories and mines, but did not work in them, had contracted mesothelioma.

In 1974 came the first public warnings of the dangers of blue asbestos and in 1978 the Western Australian Government decided to phase out the town of Wittenoom, following the publication of a Health Dept. booklet, "The Health Hazard at Wittenoom", containing the results of air sampling and an appraisal of worldwide medical information. By 1979 the first writs for negligence related to Wittenoom were issued against CSR and its subsidiary ABA and the floodgates of asbestos-related litigation were opened.

Legal Issues in the USA

In the United States according to a study by the RAND corporation the average mesothelioma-related settlement was $1 million; for cases that go to trial awards averaged $6 million; however only a fraction of the thousands of asbestos-related lawsuits in the United States every year are related to mesothelioma. A few attempts have been made to pass asbestos litigation reform bills in the US senate, but they have failed thus far. However, a separate bill introduced on March 17, 2005, the Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act of 2005 (FAIR act of 2005), seeks to ensure a set amount of compensation dependent on the symptoms of the victim. The range is from Medical Monitoring for victims with Asbestosis or Pleural Disease to $35,000 for victims with Mixed Disease With Impairment all the way to over $1,000,000 for Mesothelioma victims and nonsmoking Lung Cancer victims. In the USA, key asbestos lawsuits have included; Bell v. Dresser Industries Inc., Borel v. Fibreboard Corporation, and Waters v. W. R. Grace.

The RAND Institute for Civil Justice has recognized that asbestos litigation is the longest running mass tort in U.S. history. Recent sharp increases have been confirmed in the rate of filing asbestos claims in the United States, as have concomitant increases in the number and types of firms named as defendants, and also an escalation in the costs of the litigation to these defendants. (Analysts have estimated that the total costs of asbestos litigation in the USA alone will eventually reach $200 billion.)

Two types of Mesothelioma

• Pleural mesothelioma 
• Peritoneal mesothelioma

The pleural type grows in the tissues covering the lungs. The peritoneal type grows in the tissue lining the inside of the abdomen (tummy). Pleural mesothelioma is much more common than peritoneal mesothelioma.

Between 70% - 80% of cases are pleural mesothelioma. Peritoneal mesothelioma is much less common, making up between 10% - 20%.

Cell types
Mesothelioma is also grouped according to how the cells look under a microscope. When mesothelioma is grouped this way, there are 3 types
• Epitheloid 
• Sarcomatoid or fibrous 
• Mixed type (also called Biphasic type)
Between 50%-70% of mesothelioma diagnosed are the epitheloid type.

Between 7% – 20% of mesothelioma diagnosed are sarcomatoid type.

Between 20% – 35% of mesothelioma diagnosed are mixed and have both epitheloid and sarcomatoid cells.

These types of mesothelioma cells can further divide into other types of cancerous cells called
• Clear cell 
• Small cell 
• Acinar cell 
• Tubopapillary cell

With so many different types of cells capable of developing into mesothelioma, it makes it very difficult to diagnose this disease.

Testing

At the time of writing, there is no screening programme for mesothelioma in the UK. Before screening for any type of cancer can be carried out, doctors must have an accurate test to use. The test must be reliable in picking up cancers that are there. And it must not give a positive result in people who do not have cancer.

If screening were to be introduced for mesothelioma, the test would have to be simple, quick and not too expensive. Diagnosing mesothelioma can be difficult. The usual tests for lung diseases often appear to be negative with mesothelioma.

As only about 2,000 cases are diagnosed each year, it is not sensible to screen everyone in the country for such a rare disease.

It would be more cost effective to screen people who are thought to be at a higher risk of mesothelioma. But to do that, we have to be able to identify all those who are at higher risk.

Symptoms

Mesothelioma does not have many symptoms in the earlier stages. The symptoms can caused by the cancer growing and pressing on a nerve or other body organ when they do develop.

The symptoms of the 2 main types of mesothelioma are different.

The symptoms of pleural mesothelioma are
• Pain in the lower back or the side of the chest 
• A persistent cough 
• Shortness of breath 
• A hoarse or husky voice 
• Losing more than 10% of your weight when not dieting 
• Sweating and fevers 
• Difficulty swallowing

The symptoms of peritoneal mesothelioma are
• Pain in the abdomen (tummy) 
• Swelling in the abdomen 
• Feeling or being sick 
• Poor appetite 
• Losing more than 10% of your weight when not dieting 
• Diarrhoea or constipation

These symptoms are all more likely to be caused by some other illness, rather than by mesothelioma. But if you have these symptoms, see your doctor. This is particularly important if you have been exposed to asbestos in the past.

Causes

Mesothelioma is a rare cancer but it is insreasingly becoming more common. Over 2,000 people are told that they have mesothelioma every year in the United Kingdom. Men are 4 times more likely to be diagnosed than women as it is thought that many cases have been caused by exposure to asbestos at work. Pleural mesothelioma is more common than peritoneal mesothelioma.

It’s unknown as to what causes the majority of cases of mesothelioma but it’s most often linked to exposure to asbestos. A link has been identified since the beginning of the 18th century between asbestos and lung disease. But the link with mesothelioma has only been known since the 1960's. The number of cases of mesothelioma is expected to increase over the next two decades due to the heavy use of asbestos in industry in the years following the second world war.

70% - 80% of people diagnosed with mesothelioma say they have been in contact with asbestos, which means that your risk is greater if you were exposed to large amounts asbestos from an early age and/or very long period of time. This is not always the case as there are some people that say they have no history of any heavy exposure to asbestos.

Asbestos is an insulating material that is heat and fire resistant. In the past, asbestos was used widely in the building industry, ship building industry, manufacture of household appliances and the motor industry
A large number of mesothelioma cases occur in men who have worked in manufacturing using asbestos or used asbestos products, particularly in construction or engineering. The use of asbestos was very heavy in the years after 1945. The symptoms of Mesothelioma may not be detected until 15 - 40 years after your exposure to asbestos and the number of cases is expected to peak around 2018 and then start to decline.

Out of the three types of asbestos (blue, brown and white), blue and brown asbestos are the ones linked with mesothelioma and have been banned since the late 1980's in the UK and the use of all asbestos was banned in 1999 in the UK.

You can breathe asbestos fibres in when you come into contact with asbestos because asbestos is made up of tiny fibres. The fibres work their way into the pleura, lining the lung and irritate the pleura and damage the cells that the pleura are made of. Some of the fibres that have been breathed in can be coughed up and swallowed. This is probably the cause of peritoneal mesothelioma.

Mesothelioma

Mesothelioma is a cancer of mesothelial cells which cover the outside of most of our internal body organs. It forms a lining which is sometimes known as the mesothelium.

Mesothelioma cancer can develop in the tissues covering the lungs or abdomen.

The tissues covering the lungs are known as the pleura, of which there are two. Sometimes called pleural membranes, the gap between them is called the pleural space. The pleura are fibrous sheets and they help to protect the lungs, producing a lubricating fluid that fills the gap between the two pleura. This helps the lungs to move smoothly in the chest when we breathe.

Mesothelioma is most commonly diagnosed in the pleura and is known as pleural mesothelioma. As it is so close, pleural mesothelioma can also affect the sheet of tissue covering the heart - the pericardium. Doctors refer to the pericardium as the lining, even though it is on the outside of the heart. It helps to protect and allow the heart to move smoothly within the sac that surrounds it. Basically, it does much the same job for the heart as the pleura do for the lungs.

The tissue lining the abdomen is known as the peritoneum, and helps to protect the abdomen. It also produces a lubricating fluid to help the organs to move smoothly inside the abdomen as we move around.

Mesothelioma of the tissues lining the abdominal cavity os referred to as peritoneal mesothelioma, and is much less common than pleural mesothelioma.

It is not usual for mesothelioma to spread to other parts of the body. It does not usually cause troublesome symptoms if it does.

There is also a form of non cancerous (benign) mesothelioma which can develop within the lining of the lungs, or in the lining of the reproductive organs. This can occur in either men or women but these non cancerous tumours are very rare.