How common is Mesothelioma?
Mesothelioma is a rare malignant cancer that attacks areas around the lung, heart and abdomen. The Mesothelioma cancer cells grow in the tissues that surround those organs, the tissues that allow smooth contraction and expansion.
To understand how common or uncommon it is to the general population, we could compare it to statistics on regular lung cancer. Populations with a high level of smoking have a lung cancer incidence of around 1,000 out of 1,000,000 people.
The percentage of the number of people diagnosed with malignant Mesothelioma range around 7-40 of 1,000,000 who were at risk, or exposed to the asbestos in their past work history. This is a study of workers in the western nations with asbestos exposure during the past several decades.
As you can see from the above statistics, it is not very common, but it is a deadly form of cancer and is devastating to those who must suffer from it.
Reported incidents have increased, because of the latent period it takes for the actual cancer to manifest years after the initial exposure. Approximately one fifth to one third of all Mesothelioma is peritoneal. This means they are attacking the heart and lungs, not the abdominal area.
Some studies report that during the years between the early 1980’s and the late 1990’s diagnosis of Mesothelioma increased from 2000 a year to 3000 per year in the United States. The diagnosis peaked in the year 2004, although it is expected to peak in European countries in the year 2020. This peak is because of the new laws and legislation that now protect people working around asbestos.
Sometimes Mesothelioma can be wrongly diagnosed as adenocarcinoma of the lung, a similar cancer, but difficult to differentiate from Mesothelioma. If a doctor or patient is unaware of the patient’s history of exposure to asbestos, you could easily see how this misdiagnosis could occur.
As the numbers show, it is an extremely rare form of cancer. Symptoms can include, but not limited to shortness of breath, hoarseness, coughing up blood, difficulty breathing and chest pain.