Mesothelioma is a type of cancer. It is a cancer of mesothelial cells and it is almost always caused by previous exposure to asbestos. Asbestos is a group of minerals with long, thin fibrous crystals. In America asbestos industry officials knew of asbestos dangers and tried to conceal them until 1970.
Kent, the first
filtered cigarette on the market, used crocidolite asbestos in its "Micronite" filter from 1952 to 1956. These cells cover the outer surface of most of our internal body organs, forming a lining that is sometimes called the mesothelium. So this is where this type of cancer gets its name.
Most people who develop mesothelioma have worked on jobs where they inhaled asbestos particles. This is not the only way you can get mesothelioma. You can be exposed to asbestos dust and fibre even by washing the clothes of a family member who worked with asbestos, or by home renovation using asbestos cement products. Unlike lung cancer, there is no association between mesothelioma and smoking.
Mesothelioma cancer can develop in the tissues covering the lungs or abdomen.
Mesothelioma is fairly rare. There are an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 new cases of mesothelioma each year in the United States. This is a serious disease. The average
survival time is about 1 year. The 5-year relative survival rate is around 10%, but this rate has been slowly improving.
