Mesothelioma is type of cancer which is relatively rare and affects about 1 in a million. It is usually caused by exposure to asbestos.

While smoking does not itself cause the disease, when combined with asbestos exposure it has been shown to increase the risk of this disease being contracted in the lung area. Mesothelioma is sometimes called “asbestos poisoning” because that is how it is caused. The exposure can be either direct exposure to asbestos dust, or indirect such as when washing clothes of a person who works with this chemical.

The symptoms of this cancer sometimes include difficulty in breathing due to liquid which builds up in the lungs, pain in the chest as well as less specific symptoms including loss of weight, high temperature and pains in the abdomen, head and neck. The symptoms might not be present at all until up to 50 years after the asbestos exposure. Diagnosis of the disease can be helped by a CT scan or chest X-ray, and could be verified by a biopsy (tissue sample).

Most people don’t recover when they know they have the disease. The median survival time is about nine months, with a 5-year survival rate at only about ten percent. A few patients sometimes live for more than twenty years with the disease. While radiation treatment alone is not very effective, in combination with radical surgery and chemo-therapy, some patients can live more than five years.

It is common for someone to die within one and a half years of knowing that they have this disease. This is because the diagnosis is so difficult until the late stages rather than because the disease progresses rapidly. Treatments can often be expensive. Sometimes the total cost for treatment is around a million dollars.

Mesothelioma litigation began in 1929. Over half a million asbestos claims have been filed. Workers in the ship building and repairing industries have the highest mortality rate from Mesothelioma, and as such are the most likely to seek an asbestos settlement. The amounts received from mesothelioma claims can be considerable so there are specialist asbestos lawyers and asbestos attorneys.

Mesothelioma treatment options can include radiation and chemo treatment and less commonly surgery. However, despite treatment, mesothelioma prognosis is usually poor.

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