Mesothelioma Lung Cancer Is Dangerous, But Curable If Detected In Time

Lung cancer and mesothelioma are as different from one another as chalk and cheese. Lung cancer is caused by a multitude of reasons and smoking is one of them. But mesothelioma lung cancer is caused exclusively by exposure to asbestos particles. The disease covers the protective layer of the pleural cavity, the mesothelium. Unfortunately, the cancer has a long gestation period and symptoms come up only after the infection spreads all over. This results in many deaths that could have been avoided.

Most cancer hospitals and physicians are not equipped to treat this rare form of cancer. Only less than several thousands of mesothelioma cases are diagnosed yearly the world over and the number is less than even 3000 in the United States. The cancer is classified as an occupational hazard because it is people who work either in asbestos mining or factories where it is extensively used are the usual prey.

The particles of asbestos settles down in the mesothelium and destroy its cells. The cancerous cells spreads and the situation become very acute for the patient in a few years. The total inexistence of any notable symptoms till the final stages of infection further compounds the matter and causes many avoidable deaths.

Mesothelioma lung cancer is curable, provided it is detected at the initial stages itself. But a huge chunk of such cases are detected after many decades of asbestos infection when severe symptoms start showing up. The infection is categorized into four levels according to how advanced the case it. Level one patients can be cured through surgery and those in level two require more aggressive treatments like surgery combined with medicines and radiation. Chemotherapy, which is the use of chemical medicines to fight spreading and recurrence of tumor, is fraught with severe side effects and pain. Radiation therapy kills the harmful cells through high energy or particle beams.

The next two levels, the third and fourth stages are highly dangerous and entail very little hope of survival. Medical practitioners generally use only palliative treatment, that is, the treatment of the symptoms, to provide the patient a comfortable life as long as he lives. Mesothelioma lung cancer patients are legally entitled to file litigations for monetary compensation also. If the outcome is positive, the money awarded can be of immense help to meet all treatment and household expenses of the patient.