Of all the body's internal organs, the most common site that mesothelioma seems to target is the pleura, which is the outer lining of the lungs and internal chest wall. However, mesothelioma has also been found to infect the peritoneum, which lines the abdominal cavity, and the pericardium—which is the sac, which surrounds the heart. Mesothelioma can also affect the heart itself.
However, it is most commonly the lungs which are adversely affected, and symptoms usually commence with shortness of breath due to a build-up of fluid between the lung and the chest wall. However, other symptoms can include unexplained weight loss, chest wall pain, fatigue, and wheezing or sudden hoarseness. Blood contained in cough sputum is also a symptom.In severe cases, mesothelioma can result in tumor growth, and some mesothelioma patients have experienced a collapsed lung. Symptoms of severe mesothelioma can include, but are not limited to severe bleeding in many of the body's organs, the formation of blood clots in veins (leading to thrombophlebitis), jaundice (yellowing of the eyes, or skin), and low blood sugar.
Treatment options are limited at best. Surgery is often used in association with post-operative radiation in the event of a localized mesothelioma. The most common surgery performed—when surgery is an option—is the pleurectomy/decortication, in which the lining of the chest is completely removed. A more radical surgery is the extrapleural pneumonectomy, in which the lining of the chest, hemi-diaphragm, pericardium and lung are all removed in an effort to beat back the cancer.
Still, most consider a mesothelioma diagnosis as a death sentence, and patients have a median survival window of six, to 12 months following presentation and diagnosis.
One of the primary factors complicating both the diagnosis, and treatment options is the extended latency period between initial exposure to asbestos, and actual diagnosis. The lag time can be anywhere from 20, to as long as 50 years before symptoms even begin to present. By that time, the disease has often taken a stranglehold and there is little the medical community can do.
Asbestos universally viewed as the primary cause
While mesothelioma has never been conclusively linked to asbestos, the presentation of mesothelioma has almost always appeared in persons with prior exposure to asbestos. Thus, asbestos is universally viewed as the primary cause of mesothelioma.
Asbestos is a known carcinogen, and has been identified as a risk since the early 1900s. In fact, the crux of a number of lawsuits by workers, and former workers alleging negligence on the part of their employers to provide a safe work environment, is the exposure to asbestos fibers.
The challenge, is that exposure usually occurred over a period of years dating back decades. Thus, the elongated latency of asbestos (and asbestos mesothelioma) finds that many workers and mesothelioma patients, who are litigating their former employers, are sometimes litigating against an employer that is no longer around.
That said, some are—and it has been alleged that many employers knew about the dangers of asbestos for decades, but did little about it. A lawsuit currently being argued in Newport News alleges that Exxon knew about the dangers of asbestos as far back as 1937.
Stanley Morton was a laborer in the shipyards for 33 years. He was diagnosed with asbestos-related cancer in April 2006 and died in December 2007 at the age of 72. However, he launched his $10 million lawsuit before he died.
Stanley's widow Nancy, who brought the suit to trial in her late husband's absence, alleges that Exxon—who owned many of the ships her husband worked on over the course of his career—knew about asbestos risks since the middle 1930s, but took no action because they understood, even then, that mesothelioma and other asbestos-related disease could lay dormant in the body for decades before emerging as a problem. Given the latency, and lack of immediacy, the allegation is that Exxon chose to do nothing to protect its workers on site.
An exposed worker's family also at risk
A similar allegation has, and continues to be made against a diverse number of employers. And the issue is not limited to the workers themselves, but also their families. Asbestos fibers have been known to migrate home on worker's clothing, piggybacking on car seats and furniture, creating a mesothelioma hazard for other members of the family. The individual charged with the responsibility of laundering asbestos-laden work clothes is at particular risk, in kind with the actual worker.
There is one documented case where the wife of an asbestos worker developed mesothelioma and died from years of dealing with her husband's asbestos-laden work clothes.
The bar on asbestos has been raised in recent years in the US, and its use has been restricted to certain industrial settings, such as the manufacture of brake shoes and pads for the automotive industry. It is no longer used in many areas in which it was, at one time, common as an inexpensive insulation for water and furnace pipes, or for use in wallboard.
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It should be noted that many countries have banned asbestos outright, but so far the US has resisted the trend. And while current asbestos use, and remediation is light years ahead than even a few decades ago, there has been sufficient exposure to asbestos by workers toiling in various industries, over several decades, to ensure it will be an issue for some time to come.
Especially given the latency of asbestos mesothelioma. It is believed that there will continue to be a parade of mesothelioma patients, or their widows, bringing forward mesothelioma lawsuits for years to come.