By Robert Dale Submitted On May 04, 2009
The connection between lung cancer and asbestos is well recognized these days. But, this wasn't always so. For a lot of years, asbestos was believed to be a mineral phenomenon. It's a first-rate insulator, and this used to be one of its main applications. Asbestos was additionally integrated into a broad variety of manufactured products.
As long ago as the last part of the nineteenth century, suspicions existed that asbestos exposure could cause serious health problems. It's believed that the parties involved in encouraging asbestos use acted to bring into disrepute this information.
Not later than 1931, the British government had decided that asbestos was probably dangerous to the body and took action to guarantee the safety of people who handled asbestos. Then the US government carried out comparable measures in the 1970s.
Regrettably, by then, thousands of individuals had their lives gravely distressed by asbestos linked lung cancer along with additional health problems. Asbestos was extensively utilized in homes, factories, and other places.
Asbestos creates problems such as lung cancer, scarring in the lungs, pleural plaques and asbestosis. Additionally, it produces an aggressive, deadly form of cancer called mesothelioma.
Not like normal lung cancer that has an effect on the tissues of the lung itself, mesothelioma involves the lining surrounding the lungs termed the pleura. This form of cancer occurs nearly only because of asbestos contact.
Even brief contact with asbestos may produce mesothelioma. Moreover, this cancer can become evident a number of decades following the asbestos exposure.
Like with the majority of lung-related cancers, smoking significantly raises the likelihood of getting mesothelioma. A number of studies point out that a smoker who has been in contact with asbestos has fifty to ninety times the odds of getting mesothelioma and additional lung cancers forms, as contrasted with a non-smoker with comparable asbestos contact. Non-smokers who have been in contact with asbestos have around five times higher probability of getting mesothelioma in contrast to individuals who weren't ever in contact with asbestos.
You ought to have frequent screenings to discover any irregularities in the lung if you were exposed to asbestos either in your place of work or somewhere else. This must be repeated since lung cancer can become evident as late as fifty years following the asbestos exposure. The best chance for survival of lung cancer is early diagnosis.
Diagnostic techniques for discovering asbestos linked lung cancers consist of examining a patient's medical history in addition to doing MRI scans, chest x-rays, tissue sampling and biopsy, and CAT scans. The expectations for folks diagnosed with mesothelioma (as well as other forms of lung cancers) is normally not hopeful. In a number of cases, the life expectancy for somebody diagnosed with mesothelioma might be as small as two to three months. Multi treatment techniques utilized in a number of clinical trials have significantly raised life expectancy. Therapy for mesothelioma frequently blends radiation, chemotherapy and surgery. Surgery could be ruled out since the cancer has been diagnosed at a late stage in many cases. There are some newer chemotherapy therapies existing that seem hopeful.
Alimta was the first drug designed specially to treat mesothelioma. It was approved by the FDA in 2004. While Alimta is given together with Cisplatin, (also a drug used to treat cancers), the findings indicated it could raise a patients' life expectancy. Intensive research is still going on to come up with a cure for these destructive asbestos associated cancers ,and the hard work could in time create a dependable cure.
To learn more about asbestos and lung cancer, try visiting http://web-health-md.com, a health topics website where you can find all kinds of health related information including cancer mesothelioma treatment, heart disease, menopause and more.
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