ASBESTOS CANCER (MESOTHELIOMA) & ASBESTOSIS

Information from Medic8® Family Health Guide here

Asbestosis

Asbestosis is a non-cancerous, chronic lung illness caused by exposure to asbestos.

Significant exposure to asbestos increases the risk of lung cancer, mesothelioma and non-malignant lung and pleural disorders.

Risk depends on duration, frequency, concentration, & type of asbestos fibres.

Diseases from asbestos exposure take a long time to develop. Most cases of asbestosis occur in asbestos workers 15 or more years after initial exposure to asbestos.

Smoking greatly increases the likelihood of lung cancer in workers exposed to asbestos (although smoking does not appear to increase the risk of mesothelioma).

Mesothelioma (asbestos cancer)

Mesothelioma is a rare cancer which may affect the lining of the lungs (pleura) and the abdominal cavity (peritoneum).

Most mesotheliomas are caused by exposure to asbestos.

Most cases of mesothelioma are diagnosed 30 years or more after the first exposure to asbestos.

Mesothelioma occurs more often in men than in women.

Risk increases with age.

Symptoms & Signs

Shortness of breath (this is the primary symptom)

A persistent and productive cough

Chest tightness

Chest pain

Loss of appetite/weight loss

A crackling sound in the lungs while inhaling.

Diagnosis

History of asbestos exposure.

Chest X-rays are the most common method of detecting asbestos-related disorders.

Other tests:

Physical Examination
Pulmonary Function Tests
Biiopsy/Bronchoscopy
CT scan

Treatment

Treatment for mesothelioma depends on the location of the cancer, the stage of the disease, and the patient's age and general health. Standard treatment options include surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy. Sometimes, these treatments are combined.

Getting Help

Only a doctor can make the diagnosis of mesothelioma. It is important to see a doctor if you have been exposed to asbestos and have any symptoms.

What is Mesothelioma?

Article from wikipedia here:

Mesothelioma is a form of cancer that is almost always caused by previous exposure to asbestos. In this disease, malignant cells develop in the mesothelium, a protective lining that covers most of the body's internal organs. Its most common site is the pleura (outer lining of the lungs and internal chest wall), but it may also occur in the peritoneum (the lining of the abdominal cavity), the pericardium (a sac that surrounds the heart) or tunica vaginalis.

Most people who develop mesothelioma have worked on jobs where they inhaled asbestos particles, or they have been exposed to asbestos dust and fiber in other ways. Washing the clothes of a family member who worked with asbestos can be all that it takes. Unlike lung cancer, there is no association between mesothelioma and smoking.^[1] Compensation via asbestos funds or lawsuits is an important issue in mesothelioma (see asbestos and the law).

The symptoms of mesothelioma include shortness of breath due to pleural effusion (fluid between the lung and the chest wall) or chest wall pain, and general symptoms such as weight loss. The diagnosis may be suspected with chest X-ray and CT scan, and is confirmed with a biopsy (tissue sample) and microscopic examination. A thoracoscopy (inserting a tube with a camera into the chest) can be used to take biopsies. It allows the introduction of substances such as talc to obliterate the pleural space (called pleurodesis), which prevents more fluid from accumulating and pressing on the lung. Despite treatment with chemotherapy, radiation therapy or sometimes surgery, the disease carries a poor prognosis. Research about screening tests for the early detection of mesothelioma is ongoing.

Cancer Donation Again

Please support Macmillan cancer support

You can donate here

About MacMillan (facts from wikipedia):

The charity was founded, as the Society for the Prevention and Relief of Cancer, in 1911 by Douglas Macmillan following the death of his father from the disease. In 1924 the name was changed to the National Society for Cancer Relief, which it retained until 1989 when it was changed to Cancer Relief Macmillan Fund, later changed again to Macmillan Cancer Relief. From 5 April 2006 Macmillan Cancer Relief became known as Macmillan Cancer Support as this more accurately reflects its role in supporting people living with cancer. It has adopted the principles of being a "source of support" and a "force for change".

Macmillan Cancer Support is one of the 50 largest UK charitable organizations ranked by annual expenditure. The Charity is based in London

Read more about Macmillan here

What causes cancer?

Information from Cancer Research UK here
Please donate to Cancer research UK here

The many causes of cancer

There are about 200 different types of cancer affecting all the different body tissues. What affects one body tissue may not affect another. For example, tobacco smoke that you breathe in may help to cause lung cancer. Over exposing your skin to the sun could give you a melanoma on your leg. But the sun won't give you lung cancer and smoking won't give you melanoma.

Apart from infectious diseases, most illnesses are 'multifactorial'. Cancer is no exception. Multifactorial means that there are many factors involved. In other words, there is no single cause for any one type of cancer.

Carcinogens

A 'carcinogen' is something that can help to cause cancer. Tobacco smoke is a powerful carcinogen. But not everyone who smokes gets lung cancer. So there must be other factors at work.

Age
Most types of cancer become more common as we get older. This is because the changes that cause a cell to become cancerous in the first place take a long time to develop. There have to be a number of changes to the genes within a cell before it turns into a cancer cell. The changes can happen by accident when the cell is dividing. Or they can happen because the cell has been damaged by carcinogens and the damage is then passed on to future 'daughter' cells when that cell divides. The longer we live, the more time there is for us to accumulate these genetic mistakes in our cells.

Genetic make up

There have to be a number of genetic mutations within a cell before it becomes cancerous. Sometimes we are born with one of these mutations already. This does not mean we will get cancer. But with one mutation from the outset, it makes it more likely statistically that we will. Doctors call this 'genetic predisposition'.

The BRCA1 and BRCA2 breast cancer genes are examples of genetic predisposition. Women who carry one of these faulty genes have a higher chance of developing breast cancer than women who do not.

The BRCA genes are good examples for another reason. Most women with breast cancer do not have a mutated BRCA1 or BRCA 2 gene. Less than 5% of all breast cancer is due to these genes. So although women with one of these genes are individually more likely to get breast cancer, most breast cancer is not caused by a high risk inherited gene fault.

This is true of other common cancers where some people have a genetic predisposition, for example colon (large bowel) cancer.

Researchers are looking at the genes of people with cancer in a study called SEARCH. They also hope to find out more about how other factors might interact with genes to increase the risk of cancer. Information about this study is on our clinical trials database. Please note that you cannot volunteer for this study.

The immune system

People who have problems with their immune systems are more likely to get some forms of cancer. This group includes people who

• Have had organ transplants and take drugs to suppress their immune systems to stop organ rejection
• Have AIDS
• Are born with rare medical syndromes which affect their immunity

The kinds of extra cancers that affect these groups of people fall into two, overlapping groups

• Cancers that are caused by viruses, such as cervical cancer or some lymphomas
• Lymphomas

Chronic infections or transplanted organs can continually stimulate cells to divide. This continual cell division means that immune cells are more likely to acquire mutations and develop into lymphomas.

Diet

Cancer experts estimate that changes to our diet could prevent about one in three cancer deaths in the UK. In the western world, many of us eat too many animal fats and not enough fresh fruit and vegetables. This type of diet is known to increase your risk of cancer. But how exactly we should alter our diets is not clear. There is more about this in the page on diet causing cancer.

Sometimes foods or food additives are blamed for directly causing cancer and described as 'carcinogenic'. This is often a distortion of the truth. Sometimes a food is found to contain a substance that can cause cancer but in such small amounts that we could never eat enough of it to do any harm. And some additives may actually protect us. There is more about food additives in the page on diet causing cancer.

Day to day environment
By this we mean what is around you each day that may help to cause cancer. This could include

• Tobacco smoke
• The sun
• Natural and man made radiation
• Work place hazards
• Asbestos

Some of these are avoidable and some aren't. Most are only contributing factors to causing cancers - part of the jigsaw puzzle that scientists are still trying to put together. There is more about this in the page on causes of cancer in the environment.

Viruses

Viruses can help to cause some cancers. But this does not mean that these cancers can be caught like an infection. What happens is that the virus can cause genetic changes in cells that make them more likely to become cancerous.

These cancers and viruses are linked

• Cervical cancer and the genital wart virus, HPV
• Primary liver cancer and the Hepatitis B virus
• T cell leukaemia in adults and the Human T cell leukaemia virus

There will be people with primary liver cancer and with T cell leukaemia who haven't had the related virus. But infection may increase their risk of getting that particular cancer. With cervical cancer, scientists now believe that everyone with an invasive cervical cancer will have had an HPV infection beforehand.

Many people can be infected with a cancer-causing virus, and never get cancer. The virus only causes cancer in certain situations. Many women get a high risk HPV infection, but never develop cervical cancer. Another example is Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). These are some facts about this common virus

• Most people are infected with EBV
• People who catch it late get glandular fever but this does not cause cancer
• In sub-Saharan Africa, EBV infection and repeated attacks of malaria together cause a cancer called Burkitt's lymphoma that affects children
• In China, EBV infection (together with other unknown factors) causes naso-pharyngeal cancer
• In AIDs patients and transplant patients EBV can cause lymphoma
• In the UK, about 4 out of 10 cases of Hodgkin's disease seem to be related to EBV infection

Donate to Cancer Research UK

Hey people, let's do our bit to help the society. Why don't you donate to cancer research uk?
Your help will mean alot to them.

Donate here.

What is cancer research uk?
Extract from wikipedia here :

"Cancer Research UK is a cancer research and awareness-promotion charity in the United Kingdom, formed on 4 February 2002 by the merger of the Cancer Research Campaign and the Imperial Cancer Research Fund. It is the foremost cancer charity (charity number 1089464) in the United Kingdom, and the biggest cancer research organisation outside the USA. It is accredited by the UK's National Health Service as a health information provider."

Main website can be found here.