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.
It takes many years for the asbestos particles settled in the mesothelium to destroy the lining to life-threatening levels. But the virtual inexistence of any symptoms at the initial stages results in lack of timely checkups and cancer detection. The ultimate result is death.
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 levels, the third and fourth stages, are life threatening and the prognosis of very bleak in such cases. But physicians try to assuage pain and help the dying patient to lead a more comfortable life by resorting to palliative cures. Mesothelioma lung cancer patients can claim for monetary compensation too from those responsible for it. The amounts, which may be substantial in some cases, help cover all treatment expenses and assist the patient and his family members to survive unpleasant fiscal state at home.
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