In the childhood of our parents, asbestos was present almost everywhere because back then nobody knew how dangerous can be to be exposed to asbestos fibers.
In the past, asbestos was present in buildings and small constructions such as sheds, chicken coops and barns, so by growing up there or only visiting its grandparents, every child could be exposed to asbestos fibers contained in counstruction materials.
The exposure to asbestos fibers can lead over a long period of time to a deadly disease called mesothelioma.
The malignant tumor can appear several decades after the initial exposure because the body is already weakened due to age.
Mesothelioma is a cancer of the mesothelium, which is a cell layer that lines the chest cavity, the abdomen and the sac around the heart, and is a rare cancer that starts in that lining of the chest, so it's not actually a lung cancer, is more like a cancer of the chest cavity and is located around the lungs rather than in the lungs.
The vast majority of mesothelioma is produced due to an exposure to asbestos, and the latency of the disease is between 10 and 60 years.
Symptoms
The most common symptoms of mesothelioma is the shortness of breath and this is caused by the fact that fluid builds up in the chest cavity. Usually, a couple cups of fluid come out of the lungs every day and this fluid is absorbed by the chest cavity at any given time. However, the tumor does something to stop that balance, it actually plugs up the holes where the fluid is absorbed, and this way fluid starts accumulating in the lung.
The lung has the consistency of a sponge, the fluid is not compressible, so when the fuild builds up the lung is squashed and patients will tipically present with shortness of breath.
Another problem caused by this deadly disease, is the fact that symptoms don't appear during the long period from inhaling asbestos to the onset of the disease, so most of the patients become aware of it only when it is too late.
Treatment
These cancers in the lining of the chest are very difficult to treat, however, the standard procedure is a combination of chemotherapy, and beyond of that everything is essentially considered investigational.
There is also immunotherapy where the body's immune system is used to attack the cancer, and the most aggressive approach is to use surgery to remove the tumor.
However, the entire procedure can ve very challenging because the tumor can coat all the surfaces in the chest cavity, the sac around the heart, the diaphragm (your breathing muscle), the chest wall with the ribs, the lung, etc.
If you had an exposure to asbestos doesn't automatically mean that you will develop mesothelioma in three to four decades from now on.
Only 10% of the asbestos workers get mesothelioma, so even if you've been exposed to asbestos is still unlikely you're going to get the cancer.
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Author : Dany Ovy |
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