The Multitopic Blog

The first instance of legal action having been brought against asbestos manufacturers was in 1929. The lawsuit was settled between the parties and as part of the agreement the attorneys of the aggrieved agreed not to pursue cases any further. But it was not until 1960 that an article published by Wagner et al established mesothelioma as a diseases caused by exposure to crocidolite asbestos. The article reported ...

The first time legal action was taken against asbestos manufacturers was in 1929 & since then there have been many lawsuits filed against the manufacturers & employers for having failed to implement safety measures and having ignored the obvious connection between asbestos, asbestosis & mesothelioma which became known as early as 1898. The liability that has arisen from these lawsuits has equaled billions of dollars & disputes regarding ...

The usage of conventional therapy for the treatment of MM has not been very successful and patients have a median survival period of 6-12 months after presentation. The malignancy is affected by many factors including the continuous invasion of mesothelial surface of the pleural cavity which favors local metastasis through exfoliated cells and other organs within the pleural cavity which and the extremely long period before contact with ...

The epithelial lining of the serous cavities of the body which is formed by a layer of flattened cuboidal cells and includes the peritoneal, pericardial and pleural cavities constitutes the mesothelium. When asbestos fibres are deposited in the parenchyma of the lung, they may penetrate the visceral pleura from where the fibres are carried to the pleural surface, thus leading to malignanat mesothelial plaques being formed. How peritoneal ...

In spite of being a rare disease, mesothelioma has claimed a number of victims, quite a few of them being notable. In 2005 Bob Bellar, an Australian anti-racism activist lost his life to mesothelioma and in the same year noted British science fiction writer Michael G. Coney also passed away. American actor Paul Gleason died in 2006 and earlier in 2003 mesothelioma claimed Paul Rudolph an American architect ...

Mesothelioma remains a relatively rare cancer, in spite of the fact that the incidence of reported cases has increased in the past twenty years. One is every 1,000,000 persons is affected by mesothelioma while with high smoking the incidence rate of lung cancer is 1,000 for every 1,000,000. In industrialized Western countries the incidence of malignant mesothelioma ranges from 7 to 40 for every 1,000,000 depending on the ...

The Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration have imposed regulations on the asbestos industry in the U.S. since the 1970s. Earlier asbestos was used as a fire retardant and insulator and many other things. Chrysotile and amphibole are the two major types of asbestos and it is believed that exposure to the amphibole has a higher risk of developing mesothelioma. But since chrysotile has ...

It is only if the cancer is found on the membrane surface of its origin that it is described as localized. In case it has spread beyond the original membrane surfaces to the rest of the body such as lymph nodes, the lungs & chest wall or the abdominal organs. Subsequent to the diagnosis a patient is placed in the Stage his symptoms are akin to among the following: ...

There is no universally agreed protocol for screening people who have been exposed to asbestos. However some research indicates that the serum osteopontin level might be useful in screening asbestos-exposed people for mesothelioma. The level of soluble mesothelin-related protein is elevated in the serum of about 75% of patients at diagnosis and it has been suggested that it may be useful for screening.

Since the symptoms of mesothelioma are akin to those of numerous other conditions, diagnosing mesotheolima becomes quite a problem. A person’s diagnosis begins with a review of his medical history and any record of exposure to asbestos may increase the suspicion of the doctors towards mesothelioma. A physical examination is followed by chest X-ray and quite often by lung function tests. An X-ray may show pleural thickening which ...