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Mesothelioma
Thousands of clinical compensation claims are initiated every year in the United Kingdom by medical negligence solicitors on behalf of people from all walks of life. A multitude of operations and procedures are executed successfully however a small percentage do go wrong, laying the grounds for medical negligence solicitors to take legal action in order to claim compensation. Both legal aid and the no win no fee scheme are available to pursue medical negligence compensation claims.
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Mesothelioma is a rare cancer of the lining of the lung that is almost exclusively caused by exposure to asbestos. Most of those who suffer from asbestos get it from their work but there are some who are family members of those who suffer from mesothelioma that can get it from asbestos fibers brought home on clothing, hair and skin of those working with asbestos. About 2-3 thousand new cases of mesothelioma are diagnosed each year and about 80 percent are directly linked to a specific workplace. The disease doesn't occur until 20-50 years after exposure making the average age at onset about 65 years. The five year survival rate for mesothelioma sufferers is around ten percent.
Signs and symptoms of pleural mesothelioma include chest pain that occurs at the site of the rib cage, coughing that becomes painful to do, shortness of breath, lumps of tissue showing up on the chest wall and weight loss that cannot be explained.
The major cause of mesothelioma is asbestos. Asbestos is a mineral found in the environment naturally. They are strong fibers that are resistant to heat and strong so that they are good to use in insulation, brake manufacturing, shingle making, flooring and the making of other industrial products. It can be found in solid form or can be broken up into fibers. When the fibers get into the lungs, they are long and pointy. They are not cleared from the body and can irritate the lining of the lungs. Eventually, the irritation causes mesothelioma, although the mechanism of action of this process isn't known. It can happen with brief exposure to asbestos; in other situations, prolonged exposure to asbestos doesn't cause anything.
Possible risk factors for getting mesothelioma include exposure to asbestos, living with someone who works with asbestos and exposure to a certain polio vaccine that was available between 1955 and 1963. The vaccine contained a monkey virus that predisposes people to developing mesothelioma. Radiation exposure in the form of X-rays or exposure to thorium dioxide, a radioactive substance, leads to mesothelioma in some cases. There is a family history link to mesothelioma that is not well understood.
Complications of mesothelioma include problems breathing, problems swallowing, pain in the chest, swelling of the neck from blockage of the superior vena cava, pain in the spinal cord area and an accumulation of fluid in the chest cavity, called a pleural effusion.
If the doctor suspects you have mesothelioma, he or she will do a chest x-ray and possibly a CT scan or MRI of your lungs to define the mass. A biopsy can be done of the tumor to make sure it is mesothelioma. A biopsy can be done using thoroscopy, a camera study of the lung cavity that can take a biopsy of the lung. In some cases, a fine needle aspiration can be done through the chest wall under ultrasound or x-ray guidance. It may also take an open lung biopsy to get a sample of the tissue. This is called a thoracotomy and allows the doctors to get at mesotheliomas that are not on the surface of the lung.
There are several stages to mesothelioma that the doctors use to define the disease. They use X-rays, CT scans, MRI scans and PET scans to determine the stage of the cancer.
Stage I mesothelioma is localized to one aspect of the lining of the lung. Stage II mesothelioma involves the diaphragm or a part of the actual lung. Stage III involves nearby lymph nodes or distant parts of the lung. Stage IV is mesothelioma that has spread to distant areas of the body or extensive areas of the lung. This can include distant lymph nodes.
Treatment of mesothelioma depends on your wishes. Some people will want to do everything they can to fight off the cancer on the off chance they survive. Others will just want to keep themselves comfortable and want to do nothing to actually treat the cancer. Treatment includes surgery to remove the cancer, including removal of lymph nodes that might be involved. Surgery can also be done to remove excess fluid on the lungs or to remove some, but not all, of the tumor. Some surgery goes so far as to remove an entire lung so as to get all possible tumor involved in cancer.
Radiation is another possible treatment for mesothelioma. It can shrink the tumor and kill tumor cells. Chemotherapy can be tried and is somewhat successful in treating mesothelioma. In some cases, heated chemotherapy medications are introduced directly into the lung cavity.