Mesothelioma lung cancer and ordinary lung cancer should not be confused with each other since both are totally different entities. Lung cancer affects the inside of the lungs and the reasons can be wide ranging including smoking habits. But mesothelioma occurs in the mesothelium, a protective covering of the lungs and is exclusively caused due to inhalation of asbestos fibers. The disease manifests itself only many years after asbestos exposure and this result in the disease becoming incurable.
The cancer is comparatively rare and as such, most of our cancer hospitals and doctors lack the requisite means and knowledge for treatment. In the United States, less than 3000 mesothelioma cases are diagnosed yearly. This cancer is considered as an occupational danger because it is the workers of factories or asbestos mines who usually get affected.
The asbestos particles settled in the mesothelium take several years to annihilate the pleural lining to life-threatening stages. There are virtually no discernable symptoms at the preliminary phases and this ends up in the absence of any checkups and detection till it is very late and this factor is responsible for most deaths.
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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