Mesothelioma Cancer: A Brief Introduction

inhalation of asbestos causes lung cancer and pleural, as demonstrated in animal experiments and epidemiological studies.

Malignant mesothelioma is a cancer of mesothelial cells, and affects the pleura and peritoneum in 80% and 20% of cases respectively. It usually occurs in people who have been exposed to asbestos in their workplace at least 15 years before diagnosis, although sometimes the disease is developed in people with very little to no exposure. In fact, the relationship between malignant mesothelioma and asbestos exposure was first described in 1960 Wagner and his colleagues in South African crocidolite miners.

the incidence of mesothelioma is known in countries where no national registry of this disease. Thus, this figure varies between 14.2 and 2.5 cases per million men and women, and in the United States, by 66 and 7 million in Australia. In Spain, for example, there is no record of such diseases. In a study conducted in Catalonia between 1983 and 1990, there have been attributable mortality rate of malignant mesothelioma cases per 100 000 0.83 and 0.47 in men and women respectively. In patients who live in Barcelona and Cadiz, and malignant mesothelioma, 62% of cases, it could be related to occupational exposure to asbestos, while the remaining 38% may be due to exposure to domestic or okoliša.Činjenica that mesothelioma may result from environmental exposure to asbestos is known , as described in populations living near asbestos mines in areas where the houses are painted in containing tremolite or in areas with a high amount of silicates in the soil.

fiber appears to be associated with this tumor are amphiboles, whereas chrysotile, even though most inhaled fibers, seems to be in danger. In Spain, published a series of malignant mesothelioma are concentrated in large cities, because, logically, where there is greater industrial exposure to asbestos. Patients usually present with persistent pleural effusion and computed tomography is used to detect pleural lesions that can lead to a correct diagnosis of mesothelioma. This, however, requires pleural biopsy using thoracoscopy, which has a yield above 90 percent.

Malignant mesothelioma is still progressing to death in patients with a median survival of 7 months. On current evidence, neither radiotherapy nor chemotherapy nor surgery have shown any improvement in the prognosis of these patients. Today, new treatments are being tested, such as the introduction of intrapleural cytokines and photosensitization mesothelioma cell or gene therapy, with convincing results to sada.Uključivanje patients diagnosed in Spain in the investigation of new therapies requires collaboration centers for the study of a sufficient number of patients.