Mesothelioma is a rare type of cancer caused by asbestos exposure, which usually affects the lining of the chest or abdomen. An important feature of mesothelioma is a cancer that occurs many years after asbestos exposure has occurred (30 to 40 years of latency), this is unlike what happens with asbestosis or other diseases that eventually may increase incidence due to the presence of asbestos, such as stomach, intestine, esophagus, pancreas and kidney cancer.
Even before 1960, mesothelioma was considered a rare disease, since then its incidence has been steadily increasing, it started with the workers in the asbestos mines in South Africa, having confirmed this fact steadily in all parts of the world thorugh epidemiological studies linking mesothelioma with the presence of asbestos as a building material or from multiple industrial sectors, like in iron and steel industry, electrical, chemical, automotive, marine, aviation and textile. Therefore, in most developed countries they have established legislation to ban asbestos, or at least severe restrictions on its use.
The disease directly affects the mesothelium, a protective capsule that covers and protects most organs of our body, acquiring different names depending on the specific organ.
In a cancer of mesothelial cells increase with no limit, not been able to stop the production of the fluid when there is enough already. As a result of this, the end organs form a mass layer of tumor content and accumulation of fluid. In addition, this cells can get more massive and eventually attack more organs, or move along to other parts of the human body (
called metastasis).
Currently the incidence of this cancer is increasing because workers have a longer life expectancy, situation that did happened because they died before asbestosis. It is estimated that in Western Europe will be about 250,000 new cases diagnosed in the period from 2000 to 2030, and the United States the incidence is in two cases each with 100,000 habitants.
When the diagnosis is made, especially in advanced stages of the disease, its course is rapid and invariably fatal, usually within the next two years. Thus, early diagnosis and treatment, as well as all types of cancer or other asbestos-related diseases like asbestosis, can enhance the quality of life and survival of the individual.
