Mesothelioma Cancer and Asbestos

Mesothelioma Cancer and Asbestos

It is a lot of people have never heard of because it is a rare cancer mesothelioma. According to the National Cancer Institute, has been about 2,000 new cases diagnosed annually in the United States. To 213,380 cases of cancer will be diagnosed in 2007, compared with the laboratory that can be expected.

Cancer of mesothelioma begin in the organization, called mesothelieum surround the lungs, stomach, heart and other organs. To protect these devices at two levels of tissues and body fluids can be moved and devices Mesothelieum. It can be found in the vicinity of either of these institutions, was found mainly in the chest and abdomen.

Exposure to asbestos is the major risk factor. You may have asbestos insulation in many buildings. In addition, asbestos dust tile, roof, of the rock, you can search.

Most of the use of asbestos in building materials are identified in 1989. Because it takes time to develop, but cancer has been diagnosed after 50 years after the exposure of only 20.

Therefore, the more people over the late 50s. According to the American Cancer Society, has been diagnosed for three-quarters of the patients over the age of 65


Other factors that are linked to are as follows.

* Protection against radiation. Have discovered a substance called thorium dioxide that is used in the X-ray to cause cancer. However, she was such material in use for many years.

* Tobacco. Smoking is associated with this type of cancer with a combination of direct, smoking and asbestos, according to the American Cancer Society, does not increase the risk of lung cancer.

* SV40. Found the virus in the polio vaccine in the 50s and early 60s in the middle. There are no symptoms so you may have developed from 20 to 50 years, this virus before it is known whether it is a risk factor, there may be some time.

Symptoms vary from person to person such an organization has been deleted. All symptoms are as follows.

Shortness of breath

* Chest pain

Pain in the abdomen *

* Swelling of the abdomen

* Fever

* Anemia

According to the patient and treatment. Many patients had surgery to remove the food and tissues that are affected. In severe cases, withdrawal of the surrounding tissue in some lung cancer, breast cancer or film.

Physicians high-energy rays to kill and tumor shrinkage, the infected cells, some patients, you may want to prescribe radiation therapy.

Joint is another treatment, but chemotherapy is recommended, it is possible to fail in the treatment of patients with mesothelioma. By vessels of the American Cancer Society for the drug by preventing the blood supply to them, had planned to kill these cells.

It is, from the time of diagnosis, because the progression of the disease and the prognosis is poor often. According to the American Cancer Society, about 10% survival rate five years. Most patients survive one year after diagnosis. Put a new treatment and clinical trials to improve survival of patients suffering from cancer and mesothelioma

Brief Overview of Mesothelioma disease

What is mesothelioma?

Notoriety associated with asbestos and mesothelioma. Mesothelioma is a type of cancer that people are exposed to asbestos damage. This is a rare form of cancer, which affects the people of asbestos exposure only, and there was no other history. The average amount of time that is in contact with people who have been exposed to asbestos in spite of it, people occurred in the past is present. The key to mesothelioma, as here, exposure to asbestos.

The main cause of mesothelioma is exposure to asbestos. Patient, after the inhalation factors such as fiber / asbestos dust, such as smoking worsens over time. There may be other reasons for mesothelioma. Patient, for example if you do not have a history of asbestos does not, he was diagnosed. Leaving the people that people can not come into contact with asbestos. Before proceeding, we can define a mesothelioma.
Definition mesothelioma: mesothelioma, usually, has been described as a rare cancer associated with exposure to asbestos before. Has developed a protective layer of skin to grow in most organs, the body (cancer) cells in this disease. Malignant mesothelioma cells to reproduce to the affected area, usually in order to eliminate completely is very difficult.

Mesothelioma, was too far from the case in the 1960s as well as the symptoms he has been known, began to show a case of mesothelioma diagnosis. Across the United States, for people who are companies that are linked to asbestos, it was a nightmare. At that time, asbestos, because of the many advantages, because it has been used in a variety of industries worldwide widely compared to other metals. It is waiting to be unleashed, it is a tragedy of epic proportions, when he is called, it was chaos in the lives of people across the United States. Still, we continue to fight this terrible disease and thousands, were killed in thousands of mesothelioma.

More than 3,000 people were diagnosed with mesothelioma in the U.S. already. Battle of the victims and their families of mesothelioma, to cope with the disease. For mesothelioma lawsuits against the industry that survived suffered from something like the exorcism of her pain, brought the disease they were suffering. Number of victims of mesothelioma cases, lawyers were able to solve.

The Basis of Mesothelioma Lawsuits

One type of lawsuit which is arising more frequently these days is that relating to mesothelioma. Mesothelioma is a type of cancer that is caused by asbestos exposure. When an individual is diagnosed with mesothelioma, the individual usually has malignant cells within the pleura and peritoneum areas of the body. This is a type of disease which proves fatal for approximately 3,000 individuals annually. Individuals who contract this disease will frequently pursue legal avenues in order to take action and request compensation for their current situation.

How Mesothelioma Lawsuits Arise


When individuals develop Mesothelioma as a result of asbestos exposure, these people often want to pursue legal recourse as they feel that they are entitled to compensation for their pain and suffering. Mesothelioma, and any type of cancer for that matter, is a horrible road to travel and if the cancer was due to the negligence of another person, the individual wronged has a right to pursue this in a court of law. Lawsuits of this type usually evolve after an individual has consulted with an attorney who practices asbestos litigation and if the attorney advises the client to do so, the individual may choose to litigate.

How Long Mesothelioma Lawsuits Take to Complete

As with any type of case, lawsuits can be particularly lengthy and arduous at times. However, in order to truly assert one's rights, access to pursue an action in a court of law is entirely necessary. Generally, due to the complex nature of these types of lawsuits, cases of this sort may take awhile to complete, years even. However, settlements and compliant parties make lawsuit time lengths drastically shorter than they could be. Regardless of how long it takes to resolve an action, it is important that individuals assert their rights should they desire to do so.

Mesothelioma is a deadly disease whereby individuals who have fallen victim to mesothelioma due to the wrongful actions of others should have a right to take legal action should they feel it is in their best interest to do so.


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Detecting Skin Cancer Made Easy

Skin cancer is one of the most common types of cancer existing in the world. It can strike at any age group. Most people do not consider skin cancer as a serious problem. However, it is important to know that the cancer can be really difficult to handle or even deadly if not treated directly.

It is important to keep on performing regular self examination so that you can come to know about the problem at an early stage.

Here are certain tips on examining your self for skin cancer so that the disease does not turn out to be serious or ugly in the future. While conducting a self examination, you should keep in mind that about 1 in 5 people can have some form of skin cancer in their entire lifetime.

Experts recommend that you need to check yourself for skin cancer on a monthly basis in order to spot the problem.

You would require some mirrors in order to see all parts of your body. Try to check the entire area of your body. You need to analyze your head, face and scalp in the mirror.

Gradually examine the other parts of your body. Make sure that you check the genital areas also check the portion between your toes well.

When doing a self examination for skin cancer, you must check for irregular moles. Usually, mal-formed moles are a result of malignant melanoma. It is the deadliest form of skin cancer. If you find an asymmetrical mole on your body, consult your doctor.

Remember that most moles complete their growth prior to the age of twenty. In case, the mole on your body starts growing after the age of twenty, consult your doctor immediately.

Another important thing to check for irregularities on the borders of the mole. The borders should be well defined and uniform in growth. Another symptom of skin cancer is a mole that changes color to a dark red, black or white. This is a direct indication of development of skin cancer on your body.

Remember that early diagnosis may be the only way to surviving skin cancer. In case, you spot anything you might feel a problem, consult an oncologist or dermatologist on an immediate basis. A little caution from your side may do wonders to your body.

Moles on the body can turn in to cancerous melanomas. Hence it is very important to check your moles on a regular basis and talk to your doctor whenever you feel that there is a sign of danger.

The best thing to do is to follow a 4 step, A-B-C-D guide when checking your moles. In case, any of the points mentioned below are true, talk to your doctor right away.

a) Asymmetry

In case, ½ of the mole does not match the other half, there is a problem. Any mole or birthmark with skin growth that increases in size should be reported to doctor.

b) Border

The border of the mole should not be ragged, notched or blurred.

c) Color

In case, the mole is a mixture of brown, black and tan contact a doctor.

d) Diameter

A mole larger than pencil eraser is an important sign of skin cancer

Article Source: ezinearticles

Who is at Risk From Mesothelioma Cancer?

Mesothelioma is a deadly cancer which is fairly rare although in the last few decades the number of people who have died from it have dramatically increased. Mesothelioma is caused by exposure to asbestos without sufficient protection. When a person is exposed to asbestos, he or she inhales tiny asbestos fibres which are suspended in the air. These fibres pass into the respiratory system and end up becoming lodged in the lungs. An accumulation of asbestos fibres in the lining of the lungs like this can cause nearby cells to deform and eventually leads to what is known as pleural mesothelioma. Accumulation of asbestos fibres in the peritoneum (lining of the abdomen) can lead to peritoneal mesothelioma and build up of fibres around the tissue of the heart can cause pericardial mesothelioma. Asbestos fibres reach these places over time or because they have been transported there by the lymphatic system.

Mesothelioma has a very large latency period (time between getting the cancer and feeling the symptoms of it). This period is usually between 30 - 50 years and so a person who bears mesothelioma is unlikely to know that they have got it. This is why mesothelioma is so hard to diagnose in its early stages because it shows no symptoms and the few symptoms that it does show such as wheezing and shortness of breath are typical of far more common diseases such as pneumonia. The likelihood of being cured depends largely on how early and how aggressively the cancer is treated. If it is treated when it has fully developed and matured then it is extremely difficult to cure.

In this way, those at risk are those who have worked amongst asbestos. Construction workers, asbestos manufacturers or those who have lived within a mile of an asbestos factory are the people who have the largest contact with asbestos. Those who are in contact with these people are also at risk because asbestos fibres can stick to clothes and hair. The majority of people who are discovering that they have mesothelioma are elderly men of about 60 - 70. This was the generation which worked with asbestos a lot without sufficient protection. Many of these men are now lodging multi million dollar lawsuits against the companies who exposed them to the dangers of asbestos.


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Chronotherapy Helps Lung Cancer Patient on the Road to Recovery

Margaret Olszowka was diagnosed with lung cancer on New Year's Eve, 2002. The prognosis was very grim: her disease had advanced to Stage 4 and was inoperable. Doctors at a very well known university hospital told her there was nothing they could do for her. They didn't even offer chemotherapy as an option; she was told she had months to live. However, instead of giving up, she decided she was going to fight the disease, and ultimately found her way to cancer specialist, Keith Block, MD, where she received chronotherapy as part of her treatment plan. Today, she is doing very well and enjoying her two children and six grandchildren. She wants the world to know about the role chronotherapy played in her survival in the hopes of helping other cancer patients.

What is chronotherapy?

Chronotherapy takes into account how our body's natural rhythms' impact our ability to process medications. Patterns like sleeping, menstrual cycles, even our physical response to the changing seasons, are different for everyone. In the old days we called these biorhythms. Today, doctors are finding that understanding a patient's biorhythms, and coordinating the timing of their medical treatments to these biorhythms, can profoundly affect the outcome of their treatments. This is called "chronotherapy."

"Every drug has an optimal time when it is least toxic and most effective." says Keith Block, MD, editor-in-chief of the peer-reviewed journal Integrative Cancer Therapies, and Clinical Professor, Department of Medical Education, at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago (UIC), and at the Department of Pharmacology. For cancer treatment, this is determined by several factors, including the biological uniqueness of the particular drug being given, the time when the specific type of cancer cells divide the most, when the normal healthy cells of the patient generally divide the least, the patient's circadian clock and individual rest-activity cycles, and even the time zone the person resides in."

According to Dr. Michael Smolensky, co-author of the book The Body Clock Guide to Better Health, "When cancer medications are given in a chronobiological manner, patients may be able to tolerate higher, more potent doses than would be possible otherwise."

"This method of administering chemotherapy is revolutionary and has demonstrated in large randomized trials its potential to improve survival," states Dr. Block. "We have found that often patients receiving chronotherapy reduce what would have been recurring side effects of nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and fatigue. This is important because the debilitation caused by chemo can cause patients to reduce or even stop treatments that could otherwise help them win their battle with cancer."

Chronotherapy is being widely researched around the world:

There are over 62,000 references in PubMed (the National Institute of Health's archive of biomedical and life sciences journal articles) about chronobiology (how biology is affected by timing) and over 500 scientific articles specifically about chronotherapy. The National Cancer Institute's Office of Cancer Complementary and Alternative Medicine (OCCAM) devoted an entire web cast for doctors on chronotherapy.

So why isn't chronotherapy used more widely?

One of the main problems has been logistics - figuring out how to deliver chemotherapy in exactly timed doses. "Portable infusion pumps may hold the answer," explains Gerald Sokol, MD, an oncologist with the division of oncology in FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.

Dr. Block has brought technology to the U.S. that administers chemotherapy via a pump designed to precisely time up to four channels of infusion simultaneously to the individual needs of a patient. Highly portable and small enough to fit in a fanny pack, patients are able to maintain full mobility, play sports, and enjoy a full night's sleep - while receiving their specifically timed cancer therapy.

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Mesothelioma - Catch It Early to Avoid Big Trouble

Mesothelioma is a relatively rare form of cancer where cancerous cells develop in the mesothelium -- a protective sac that covers most of the body's internal organs. Like most cancers, early detection of mesothelioma greatly increases the chances of beating the disease.
But early detection is more difficult with mesothelioma because it has a long dormancy period of 30 or 40 years in which the cancer remains fairly inactive and causes very few symptoms. When the disease passes into its active phase it rapidly spreads to the internal organs such as the lungs, heart and abdominal organs. In its active phase it is very difficult to treat successfully because it develops and spreads so quickly.
Causes of mesothelioma
Mesothelioma was barely in the public eye until a few years ago. It has a very specific cause -- exposure to asbestos. And the dangers of asbestos exposure were not widely acknowledged until the 1970s and 80s when its serious health implications could no longer be ignored.
As often happens in cases involving commercial products with harmful side effects, there was tremendous resistance to acknowledging its dangers. In the case of asbestos, it was a product that had some very important properties that made it ideal for insulation applications.
During the first half of the previous century, right up until the mid 1970s asbestos was the default material used to retard heat transfer in buildings, machines, heavy equipment, and a broad range of commercial applications. Because it was plentiful and inexpensive to mine, asbestos was widely used in building products such as home insulation, floor, ceiling and roof tiles. It was also used in commonly found commercial products such as brake linings and pipe insulation.
This meant that millions of people were coming in contact with asbestos on a daily basis. And since the effects of exposure to asbestos fibre often do not become apparent for 30 or 40 years after prolonged exposure, there often appeared to be no immediate health risk.
This was especially important in the case of workers who mined and processed asbestos. Although workers were regularly getting sick and often had premature, painful deaths, the long period of dormancy of mesothelioma made it difficult to make the connection to asbestos.
Even short term asbestos exposure will cause mesothelioma
Generally, the probability of developing this form of cancer is directly related to the length of time you are exposed to asbestos. The health risk also increases with the intensity of the exposure to asbestos.
However, an exposure of as little as one or two months can result in mesothelioma 30 or 40 years later. At the age of 48, Canadian Member of Parliament Chuck Strahl, was recently diagnosed with mesothelioma and traces the cause back to changing brake pads on logging equipment after he graduated from high school. Strahl's case is a good example of the fact that Mesothelioma has a latency period of anywhere from 20 to 50 years. Like thousands of others he developed the disease long after his exposure to asbestos.
Symptoms of mesothelioma
Because of its long dormancy period, mesothelioma is often not detected until it enters its active, aggressive stage. Pleural mesothelioma - cancer of the lung lining - causes shortness of breath or chronic coughing. Unfortunately these symptoms can easily be mistaken for allergies or a common cold.
In fact pleural mesothelioma is often discovered by accident when patients think they have one of these more common illnesses. Other symptoms of pleural mesothelioma may include chest pain, chronic coughing, shortness of breath, fatigue, wheezing, hoarseness, weight loss, or blood in the phlegm from the lungs when coughing.
Peritoneal mesothelioma affects the lining around the stomach and intestines and is usually just as dangerous. Symptoms of peritoneal mesothelioma include pain or swelling in the abdomen, weight loss, bowel obstruction, anemia, and fever.
Treatment of mesothelioma
Unfortunately, by the time most infected people become aware they have mesothelioma it has ceased being dormant and becomes extremely aggressive. Once it is no longer dormant, this type of cancer can travel quickly, and it becomes almost impossible to stop.
While there are treatments that are available in order to keep the patient comfortable, there is currently no cure for mesothelioma, and as many as 75% of those who develop the disease will lose their life within one year. The remainder may last for up to an additional six months.
Among the treatments that are used in order to reduce the effects of the disease are oxygen, postural drainage and pain killers. A wide range of treatment approaches are being tested, ranging from attempts to fortify the body's natural immune system to gene therapy which tries to attack the problem at the DNA level. Homeopathy, herbs and acupuncture are also used. But none have yet been shown to be very effective once the disease reaches the aggressive stage.
Given the generally poor prognosis for people who do not catch the disease in time, early detection is the best defence against mesothelioma. If you have worked in an industry such as construction or suspect that you may have been exposed to asbestos, be alert for symptoms and contact your doctor immediately. Like all forms of cancer, detecting mesothelioma at the earliest stage possible greatly increases your chances for survival.
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A Detailed Overview of Brain Cancer

Brain cancer tumors may originate in the brain (primary site) or they may metastasize to the brain from another site. Prostate cancer, for example, may metastasize to the liver, the lung, the hip, and then to the brain. Metastasized brain tumors have a poor prognosis because of the already advanced state of the cancer.
The human brain anatomy is complex system responsible for many body functions. Injury that causes damage, traumatic experiences, or brain tumors can greatly alter one's life.
Cancerous tumors that form in the brain (primary) tend to stay within the brain and not branch out to other organs. Their growth can take up the space needed by the healthy brain and cause many conditions, including hearing loss and stroke. The ratio is about 50/50 regarding the occurrence of metastasized and primary brain tumors. The leading cause cancer related death in people in people younger than 35.
The most dangerous chemical in terms of causing this type of cancer is Vinyl Chloride. This is used 'all over' in plumbing, furniture, and house wares. This is presumed to be safe to use unless it is heated as in a microwave oven, which evaporates and drives the substance into the food being heated.
For this reason, always use glass or other microwave safe containers in the microwave oven. Don't burn plastic such as plastic wrapping and containers in a bon fire or fireplace. The smoke can be 'hazardous to your health'.
Typical Symptoms: Any impairment in hearing, sight, judgment, speech, cognitive skills such as reasoning or remembering, or stroke symptoms such as paralysis of one side of the body, inability to walk properly, can be symptomatic of a tumor in the brain.
The treatments are generally the same for other kinds of cancer and tumors. One innovative treatment is the use of the GLIADEL WAFER. These are packed into the space formerly occupied by the tumor and slowly release chemotherapy agents in order to destroy any cancer cells that may have not been removed. This has increased life expectancy for some kinds of brain tumors by fifty percent.

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