Essential Facts About Mesothelioma

It Takes Years For It To Appear

Photo Credit: TheMesotheliomaOrganization

Not everyone who is exposed to asbestos develops mesothelioma or even any other related disease. However, even a short period of asbestos exposure can cause mesothelioma in individuals who are especially prone to it. Even one month of consistently being in an asbestos-contaminated environment has been documented to cause this cancer. The terrifying aspect of this form of cancer is that it does not appear for many years after the initial exposure to asbestos. It virtually never appears earlier than fifteen years after the exposure and can take fifty years or more on average to finally appear and be properly diagnosed.

Keep reading to reveal the shocking truth about the survival rate of this rare disease.

Mesothelioma Survival Rates

Photo Credit: Body And Health Canada

Mesothelioma, fortunately, is a rare disease, with approximately 2,500 diagnoses in the United States each year, constituting less than 0.2% of all cancer cases, and affecting an estimated one in every 130,000 people or less. However, survival rates are poor, despite a variety of treatments including chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and surgery. Only about eight percent of those diagnosed with mesothelioma live five years or more after starting treatment. Women are about three times more likely to survive mesothelioma than men, perhaps because men statistically have higher asbestos exposure than women. The low survival rate is at least partly due to the fact that it is usually diagnosed at later stages. Symptoms often do not appear until the later stages of the cancer, and even then, the symptoms may be mistaken for a different illness.

Next, uncover the signs and symptoms of this rare form of cancer.

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