Although a rare cancer, malignant pleural mesothelioma is one of the most aggressive. It can lie dormant for decades but once pleural mesothelioma takes hold it moves quickly and aggressively. Although mesothelioma can be defined as both cancerous (malignant) or benign (non-cancerous), and can be further defined by its location…pleural, pericardial or peritoneal, for the purposes of this article we will be discussing only malignant pleural mesothelioma. Both pericardial mesothelioma and peritoneal mesothelioma will be discussed in additional articles.

Malignant pleural mesothelioma affects the mesothelium lining between the lungs and the ribs. This cancer is found in the cells of the pleura or lining surrounding the outside of the lungs and the inside of the ribs. Workers exposed to asbestos are most at risk for the development of malignant mesothelioma.

Asbestos exposure that occurred over twenty or thirty years ago is a primary factor in the development of malignant pleural mesothelioma. It is actually the exposure to the asbestos fibers that are either inhaled or swallowed that ultimately cause the problem. The asbestos fibers work their way into the smaller parts of the lungs where they lie dormant until they begin to cause problems.

Malignant Mesothelioma Symptoms

Signs and symptoms of malignant pleural mesothelioma might include shortness of breath, persistent cough, and even chest pain. Other symptoms such as weight loss, general fatigue and weakness may also be experienced. Diagnosing mesothelioma is a difficult task because it often mimics other diseases. Your primary physician will conduct a thorough physical exam, obtain blood work, a chest x-ray, and perhaps a CT scan or MRI scan in order to gather the most information to determine the true cause of your symptoms.

Once a definitive diagnosis has been made it is important to seek aggressive and immediate treatment. A physician that specializes in the treatment of mesothelioma is the best option. Treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma might include chemotherapy, radiation and surgery. A combination of treatment options is generally the most common plan of care for mesothelioma patients.

Bottom line, if you have been diagnosed with malignant pleural mesothelioma it is of utmost importance that you seek early and aggressive treatment by a physician with experience in treating this rare and complex cancer.

Mesothelioma Malignant Cancer

Peritoneal Mesothelioma is defined as the cancer that invades the lining of the abdomen. Many of the organs in the abdomen are covered by a thin membrane called the peritoneum. Malignant peritoneal mesothelioma is a cancer of this membrane. Caused by asbestos exposure this type of mesothelioma attacks the peritoneum, or the lining that protects the contents of the abdomen.

Because of the correlation between peritoneal mesothelioma and asbestos exposure, it is advisable to seek legal counsel from an experienced mesothelioma lawyer to determine your options for compensation should you have been exposed to asbestos at your place of employment. An experienced asbestos attorney can best advise you to your legal rights.

It is not quite clear how the fibers from asbestos exposure migrate into the peritoneal cavity. Mesothelioma can develop years after asbestos fibers are inhaled or swallowed. With malignant peritoneal mesothelioma it is thought that as these asbestos fibers enter the body, they make their way into the intestinal tract where they can eventually move through the walls of the intestine and into the peritoneal cavity. It is also thought that perhaps the asbestos fibers that initially lodge in the lungs are carried to the peritoneal cavity by the lymphatic system.

The symptoms of peritoneal mesothelioma include nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, weight loss, abdominal pain or swelling. If the peritoneal mesothelioma begins to press upward into the chest, you may also experience shortness of breath, chest pain. If the tumor begins to press on the intestines then you can develop a bowel obstruction. If the expanding tumor presses against abdominal areas with multiple nerve fibers, and the bowel expands, the amount of pain you experience can increase.

As with other types of mesothelioma, peritoneal mesothelioma is treated with surgery, radiation, chemotherapy or a combination of all three. Your physician may elect to perform surgery to remove the cancer from the abdomen. The extent of cancer will determine the extent of the surgery…the peritoneal lining, lung or other tissue may be removed in order to attempt to manage the disease. Your general health, age, other health conditions and the extent of the disease will also help to determine the course of treatment.

Regardless of the early symptoms, malignant peritoneal mesothelioma requires aggressive treatment to improve your outcome. Although there is currently no cure for peritoneal mesothelioma, treatment options have certainly improved and a strong multi-disciplinary team is the best choice for leading your care.

Mesothelioma Lung Cancer

Pericardial mesothelioma attacks the pericardium or the lining that surround the heart. Because of the rarity of malignant pericardial mesothelioma, there has been little research on this specific form of mesothelioma. Because of the lack of research, there has not been an absolutely definitive link between asbestos exposure and the development of this terribly rare lung cancer, although research has proven a strong link between asbestos and the development of pericardial mesothelioma.

Even without definitive proof, the development of this rare cancer does seem to be associated with long term asbestos exposure. It is for this reason that patients and their families should consider contacting a mesothelioma attorney in order to understand what legal rights and potential avenues of compensation might be available for you as a result of asbestos exposure in the workplace.

With pleural mesothelioma it is well understood that asbestos fibers are either inhaled or swallowed and then migrate into the small airways of the lungs where they settle into the lining of the lungs. There these asbestos fibers can live for decades, causing chronic inflammation, which can eventually develop into malignant pleural mesothelioma.

With pericardial mesothelioma it is less well known how the asbestos fibers actually invade the pericardium, or the lining of the heart. It is thought that perhaps through the circulatory system, the asbestos fibers are carried through the body where they eventually settle into the lining of the heart, causing chronic inflammation which can develop into mesothelioma.

The symptoms of pericardial mesothelioma take many years to develop. It is literally decades, sometimes even up to thirty or forty years after asbestos exposure before symptoms of mesothelioma develop. The earliest symptoms of pericardial mesothelioma are heart palpitations, chest pain or chest pressure even with the slightest exertion. This pain is generally caused by tissue expansion from the developing tumors or increasing fluid collecting in the area around the heart. Early symptoms might also include shortness of breath.

Of course with symptoms such as these you should seek immediate medical attention. Your physician will use a physical exam, a battery of tests such as lab work, a CT scan an MRI scan, or even a biopsy to determine an actual diagnosis. If the diagnosis is mesothelioma, then your physician will also use these tests to determine the extent of the disease. Your age, general health, other known medical conditions and the staging of mesothelioma will all be taken into account when determining a course of treatment.

Although pericardial mesothelioma can occasionally be treated with surgery, many patients are in advanced stages of pericardial mesothelioma at the time of diagnosis and often choose surgical treatment to deal with the pain and discomfort or the cancer instead of using surgery as a curative approach. Even if surgical treatment is an option, it is thought that the best treatment for pericardial mesothelioma is a combination approach, which might include surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy.

Pericardial mesothelioma is a rare and deadly form of mesothelioma. With less than 10% of all mesotheliomas being diagnosed as pericardial mesothelioma it demands an aggressive management approach best directed by a physician who specializes in mesothelioma.

People who have been exposed to asbestos such as constructions workers and manufacturing workers have a greater risk of developing lung cancer which is 3 to 4 times greater risk than the workers who have not been exposed to asbestos. There have also been reported incidents of family members of these workers developing mesothelioma lung cancer.

It is believed that the family members developed malignant mesothelioma as a result of the asbestos fibers sticking to the clothing of the workers and then that same clothing being handled by family members. Mesothelioma is a very rare form of lung cancer that arises in the mesothelium. The mesothelium is made up of two layers. The first layer, closest to the body organs, is known as the visceral layer.

The second layer, which is the sac around the body cavities, is known as the parietal layer. The mesothelium surrounds several internal organs and body cavities, such as the peritoneum (the abdomen), the pleura (thoracic cavity) and the pericardium (the sac surrounding the heart). The mesothelium produces a fluid which provides lubrication for movement and helps the organs move easily among the surrounding body structures. For example, in the case of the lungs, it helps reduce friction between the lungs and chest wall during normal breathing as the lungs expands.

Mesothelioma lung cancer is related to asbestos exposure. As with all cancers, abnormal malignant cells begin to divide and replicate without any control. These malignant cells begin to crowd out the healthy cells and can invade surrounding cells, tissue and organs.

Cancer cells can also break away from a malignant tumor and enter the bloodstream or lymphatic system (the tissues and organs that produce, store, and carry white blood cells that fight infection and other diseases). This process, called metastasis is how cancer spreads from the original (primary) tumor to form new (secondary) tumors in other parts of the body.

Mesothelioma lung cancer is a rare and deadly type of lung cancer. Immediate treatment is recommended to prolong the life span and to improve the quality of life for both the patient and their family.

A strong mesothelioma attorney is an important member of your multi-disciplinary team. You might wonder why it is important, at this point in your life, when you are trying to deal with the devastating diagnosis, to spend any time or energy seeking out a law firm that specializes in mesothelioma or even a mesothelioma lawyer. It is important because of the pain and suffering and the potential loss of life that you now have to deal with as a result of this diagnosis.

If you have developed malignant mesothelioma you may wish to pursue legal action against a current or former employer that could be responsible for your exposure to asbestos. History now tells us that there were many companies over the years that were well aware of the danger and impact of asbestos and yet allowed their employees to be exposed routinely to the dust and fibers of asbestos…without any thought for their health. These American workers worked hard for years to provide for their families and the real tragedy is that now that these workers are reaching retirement age their health is showing the effect of asbestos exposure decades earlier.

Selecting a law firm that deals exclusively with mesothelioma patients and their families is the best choice. These mesothelioma lawyers have the experience to provide you the strongest and most proven counsel. A mesothelioma lawsuit can provide the fair compensation you deserve for pain and suffering, especially in light of the fact that malignant mesothelioma could, in most cases, have been prevented had there been no asbestos exposure.

If you choose to seek legal counsel, then be certain that you choose an experienced mesothelioma lawyer and one that has a proven track record. Ask about the mesothelioma attorney’s experience, number of successful cases tried, and even how quickly previous cases were resolved. In the case of malignant mesothelioma, experience really counts. For you and your family, you deserve to work with a lawyer who has the experience in the field of malignant mesothelioma…someone who can do the research, quickly track down the companies and employers that may have been responsible for the exposure and make certain that you and your family receive the fair compensation you are entitled to receive. Not just any lawyer will do…a mesothelioma lawyer is the only “right” choice to handle patients diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma.

The lining of the chest, the abdominal cavity and the heart is called the mesothelium which is where the name “mesothelioma” comes from.

Malignant mesothelioma is also known as “asbestos cancer” because approximately 75% of all mesothelioma patients have a known exposure to asbestos. Because tumors of the mesothelium are rarely benign or non-cancerous, malignant or cancerous mesothelioma is usually referred to by the shorter name of “mesothelioma”.

Even with all of the recent history of mesothelioma and its proliferation throughout the news media and the spawning of numerous legal issues, mesothelioma is still a relatively rare cancer; even though new cases have certainly increased in the past 20 years.

Every year in the United States approximately 2,000 new cases of mesothelioma are diagnosed. Mesothelioma occurs more often in men than in women and the risk of occurrence increases with age, but this disease can certainly appear at any age and can appear in either men or women.

Because so many of the symptoms of mesothelioma are very similar to those of other conditions, including lung cancer, it can be quite challenging to diagnosis mesothelioma. Also, once malignant mesothelioma takes hold it can be a very aggressive disease and so early diagnosis and treatment of is critical.

Although a small number of people who of have contracted mesothelioma have never been found to have been exposed to asbestos, approximately 75% of mesothelioma cases have actually been linked to some level of asbestos exposure. Working with asbestos is the major risk factor for eventually being diagnosed with mesothelioma.

Most incidence of mesothelioma stems from people who have worked on jobs where they inhaled asbestos particles, or have been exposed to asbestos dust and fiber in other ways, such as by washing the clothes of a family member who worked with asbestos, or by home renovation using asbestos cement products.

One of the biggest challenges with this rare disease is that this cancer may not even begin to demonstrate symptoms until 20, 30, 40 or even 50 or years after the first exposure to asbestos.

Although malignant mesothelioma is rare, it is a serious, deadly disease. But with the ever emerging new treatments for cancer, there is hope for patients diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma.

According to The National Cancer Institute malignant mesothelioma is a rare form of cancer, in which cancer cells are found in the pleura, the sac lining the chest, in the peritoneum, the lining of the abdominal cavity, or in the pericardium, the lining around the heart.

In this section, we will discuss pleural mesothelioma. Both peritoneal mesothelioma and pericardial mesothelioma will be discussed in subsequent articles.

Pleural mesothelioma, like peritoneal mesothelioma and pericardial mesothelioma, can be quite difficult to diagnose. The symptoms of mesothelioma mimic other diseases, including lung cancer. So it is critical to let your physician know if you have had a historical exposure to asbestos so that your physician can review your case history and can correctly identify any mesothelioma symptoms.

Over two-thirds of all cases of mesothelioma cancer have been identified as malignant pleural mesothelioma, making it the most common of all types of mesothelioma. This cancer attacks the area called the pleura or simply put…the lining of the lungs and the chest cavity. Pleural mesothelioma invades those cells that make up the lining inside the rib cage and the lining outside of the lungs.

Pleural mesothelioma can either be diffuse or wide spread and cancerous or it could also be localized and benign. Usually not related to asbestos exposure, benign mesothelioma is generally not life-threatening and can often be removed surgically. However, malignant mesothelioma is quite serious and requires immediate and aggressive treatment.

With asbestos exposure being the primary culprit in the later development of particular types of mesothelioma, it is important to know your prior exposure history. Years ago, many factories and industrial plants exposed their workers to asbestos particles that the employees either inhaled or swallowed while working.

Because of the employers’ failure to provide their employees with a safe work environment, many of these employees are now seeking legal compensation and are working with mesothelioma lawyers to make certain they are financially provided for as they battle the diagnosis of mesothelioma.

Once the workers inhaled or swallowed the asbestos dust, small particles of asbestos worked their way into the passages of the lungs and ultimately into the lining of the lungs. Once in the small passages of the lungs, these particles eventually developed into cancerous cells.

With the presence of cancerous cells, the lining of the lung or the pleura begins to thicken and excess fluid begins to gather as the cancerous cells continue to proliferate. As the pleura continues to thicken it gradually contracts the lungs resulting in shortness of breath.

This can often be the first symptom of pleural mesothelioma. But as you are well aware, shortness of breath could also indicate many other types of diseases, such as pneumonia, bronchitis, asthma or even lung cancer. As the pleural thickening continues and as the excess fluid, pleural effusion, continues to build shortness of breath can continue to worsen.

Pleural mesothelioma is the most common of all types of mesothelioma. It is usually malignant and requires aggressive treatment. So know your history…if you have a known prior exposure to asbestos, please see your physician today and ask to be screened for mesothelioma.

According to The National Cancer Institute malignant mesothelioma is a rare form of cancer in which malignant cells are found in the sac lining the chest called the pleura, in the lining of the abdominal cavity called the peritoneum or in the lining around the heart, called the pericardium. The lining of the chest, the abdominal cavity and the heart is called the mesothelium which is where the name “mesothelioma” comes from.

What is asbestos cancer?

Malignant mesothelioma is also known as “asbestos cancer” because approximately 75% of all mesothelioma patients have a known exposure to asbestos. Because tumors of the mesothelium are rarely benign or non-cancerous, malignant or cancerous mesothelioma is usually referred to by the shorter name of “mesothelioma”.

What is the correlation between asbestos and malignant mesothelioma?

Working with asbestos is the major risk factor for eventually being diagnosed with mesothelioma. Most people who develop mesothelioma have worked on jobs where they inhaled asbestos particles, or have been exposed to asbestos dust and fiber in other ways, such as by washing the clothes of a family member who worked with asbestos, or by home renovation using asbestos cement products.

Can you develop mesothelioma if you’ve never worked around asbestos?

Yes. Mesothelioma has been reported in some individuals without any known exposure to asbestos. In areas where asbestos producing factories are located, people in the area may have been exposed by inhaling or swallowing particles of asbestos simply floating in the air.

Even families at home may have been exposed to asbestos particles by handling the clothes of a family member who was working with asbestos and came home with microscopic particles of it on their clothing. However, it is important to remember that mesothelioma has been reported in some individuals without any known exposure to asbestos.

What are some of the types of mesothelioma?

There are three main types of mesothelioma, pleural mesothelioma, the most common, peritoneal mesothelioma and pericardial mesothelioma.

What are some of the symptoms of malignant mesothelioma?

The early symptoms of mesothelioma can be varied and can mimic many other diseases. Some patients with pleural mesothelioma, the most common type of mesothelioma, may present to their personal physician with a persistent cough, chest pain, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, weight loss, difficulty swallowing, swelling of the neck or face, a change in the voice, such as the development of a raspy voice, fever, night sweats or perhaps something as simple as just not feeling well.

Peritoneal mesothelioma, one of the less common types of mesothelioma, may present with early symptoms such as loss of appetite, weight loss, nausea, vomiting, bloating or abdominal pain. The earliest symptoms of mesothelioma involving the pericardium include chest pain, palpitations or what is commonly described as feeling like the heart is racing, shortness of breath, and a persistent cough.

If I develop malignant mesothelioma, do I have any resources for compensation because of exposure to asbestos at my workplace?

Because of the direct link between the exposure to asbestos and the risk of developing malignant mesothelioma, a mesothelioma attorney may be a good place to start to learn about compensation options for those exposed to asbestos through their place of employment.

A mesothelioma attorney will be the best guide for determining the potential sources of financial assistance and compensation for patients diagnosed with mesothelioma.

Because of the potential of employer liability related to possible asbestos exposure in the work place, it is very important that mesothelioma patients contact an attorney who specifically specializes in mesothelioma cases.

A mesothelioma lawyer is the best one to advise a patient and their family about their legal rights associated with the diagnosis of mesothelioma cancer. It is not enough to simply contact a lawyer who may handle a case such as mesothelioma only once every so often, this is too important. It is important to seek an attorney who has a proven track record in asbestos litigation.

A family’s financial future can depend on compensation provided for asbestos exposure therefore hiring someone with little or no experience should not even be a consideration.

A mesothelioma lawyer with a history of success is the only choice when seeking a lawyer who will focus on the multiple legal issues involved in cases such as malignant mesothelioma.

The stress and pain of malignant mesothelioma can be very exhausting for patients and their families. It is especially difficult if the patient is the bread winner of the family and suddenly is unable to work.

The family must then deal with the loss of the primary income source as well as the cost of treatment, all of which may not be covered by insurance. Perhaps legal action is not the most popular path; however, with the knowledge that asbestos exposure is usually the culprit in the development of malignant mesothelioma, it should be a consideration for patients diagnosed with this rare cancer.

Legal issues are ones we are rarely comfortable discussing. But we are comfortable discussing our family’s future, our family’s financial well-being and our personal health. Take care of your whole body… seek out the best physician… and considering the many legal issues surrounding mesothelioma, consider contacting a mesothelioma lawyer.