Mesothelioma Death

Mesothelioma death rates, treatment and survival information

Mesothelioma death rates still are on the increase today and might even reach record levels by 2016, according to numerous sources.

Mesothelioma is an unusual tumor, frequently attributable to exposure to asbestos. While medicine is able to prolong the lifespan of patients, prognosis is usually bad for this condition.

Recovery from mesothelioma is unusual, with average survival rates generally close to nine months from presentation, with five-year survival rates typically about 10%. Encouragingly, though, small numbers of patients can and do survive for more than two decades after having the disease. Many patients have survived more than five years following major surgery together with radiation and chemo treatment, however, it has been shown that radiation therapy on its own is not that effective.

Mesothelioma death is usual within a year and a half of knowing that one has the disease. This is not because the disease progresses rapidly, but because it's so challenging to diagnose accurately until later stages, and some of the visible indications are often attributable to similar but less harmful disorders.

More than 18,000 people in the US died from the disease during the years between 1999 and 2005. The majority of those who died were aged between fifty and seventy-five and were almost entirely men, despite the fact that the incidence of the disease in females is rising more rapidly than in men.

There are certain methods of screening for the disease, but as yet no readily decided screening standards. Those testing methods utilized, however, can and do enhance the prospect of survival.

Mesothelioma death is usually attributable to exposure to asbestos at work. Since asbestos is used in numerous maunfacturing processes, people in various occupations still suffer from exposure to the substance even today. Factory workers from skilled and non-skilled professions often find themselves in contact with asbestos at some stage during their working lives -- sometimes even those in the most obscure industries. Notably, asbestos is used in many applications and processes, including; shipyards, petrochemical plants, paper mills, factories, steel mills, building construction, and the telephone industry. Asbestos is used to such an extent that virtually anyone concerned with construction or design of any kind, has exposure to asbestos in one form or another, thereby increasing their risk to mesothelioma death.