Mesothelioma, A Lung Cancer.

Lung cancer is one of the most dangerous forms of cancer. It is the leading cause of deaths in both men and women throughout the world. About 85% of people die from lung cancer each year. Their survival rate depends on the type and stage of lung cancer. A person may have lung cancer for quite some time before it is discovered.

Hence, its survival rates are lower than the survival rates for other types of cancer. By the time it is discovered, it reaches the advanced stage and has spread to other parts of the body. About 90% of lung cancers occur because of the use of tobacco. Research has shown that cigarette smoking is the most important reason of lung cancer.

Cigarette contains a lot of chemicals which lead to this disease. People who smoke one pack or more of cigarettes daily get into the danger of developing lung disease around 18-28 times greater than somebody who has never puffed on a cigarette. However, once he gives up smoking, his danger of getting lung cancer goes on decreasing constantly. Other factors that can cause lung cancer are being exposed to toxic chemicals like asbestos and radon as well as second- hand cigarette smoke.

The symptoms of lung cancer in the early stages are cough, coughing up blood, chest congestion and shortness of breath. Repeated respiratory infections, such as bronchitis or pneumonia, can also be signs of lung cancer. The best way to prevent lung cancer is to quit smoking, take a healthy diet and do regular exercise.

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Mesothelioma has been covered well throughout the world by most respected media as it has made for some very heartbreaking stories but this coverage will not make it go away and does not change the fact that mesothelioma is a form of one of the many cancers, but different in that it is almost always only caused when the recipient unfortunately comes into contact with, plus the recipient is exposed to, asbestos fibers.

Asbestos fibers seem to cause malignant cells to develop and expand in the protective lining of the mesothelium which actually covers many of the bodies organs. It is the bodies protective lining  that becomes the ideal habitat for the malignant cancer to take hold with it’s most targeted and attacked site being the pleura. The pleura known as the thin serous membrane surrounding the lungs and inner walls of the chest.

Mesothelioma does not stop there though. It is also known to occur in the lining of the abdominal cavity (known also as the peritoneum), as well as the heart in a sac that surrounds the heart correctly known as the pericardium, (or tunica vaginalis).

Since asbestos was quite easily produced back when ignorance of long term effects of some materials used in buildings or the building industry was rampant it was understandable that many people developed mesothelioma because they had worked on sites doing jobs where the workers inhaled tiny asbestos particles that fly off asbestos that is handled and unbeknown to them at the time they were inhaling a death sentence. Others may have been exposed only to the tiny asbestos dust and fiber particles in many other and not so obvious ways.

Washing the workman’s clothing of someone who worked with asbestos also put many people at risk for becoming a mesothelioma victim. Experiencing any of the following symptoms like shortness of breath caused by fluid between the lungs themselves and the chest walls or pleural effusion or chest wall pain, and some general symptoms like weight loss.

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