Monday 3 September 2007

Epithelial Mesothelioma is Rare?

I was reading an article a while back on the issue of the amount of cases of Epithelial Mesothelioma. Since Epithelial Mesothelioma is "apparently" quite rare there is a lack of clinical knowledge on this particular cancer. So therefore on the presumption that it is a rare cancer then there is the obviousness of the blatant fact that there is less research into and less hope of a cure.

Although awareness about Epithelial Mesothelioma is quite low at the moment I hope that through the efforts of people and the efforts of us here at Epithelial-Mesothelioma.blogspot.com we hope that awareness is increased by a torrential amount.

Sunday 22 April 2007

Epithelial Mesothelioma

Epithelial mesothelioma is a rare and deadly form of cancer affects the membrane lining the chest cavity, heart, lungs and abdominal cavity. There are three forms of epithelial mesothelioma: the most common, pleural mesothelioma; the second most common, peritoneal mesothelioma (accounting for only a quarter of the cases) and the rarest form, pericardial mesothelioma.

The vast majority of epithelial mesothelioma cases are the result of asbestos exposure. Indeed, one of the most frustrating aspects of this type of cancer is that patients who develop it were generally exposed 15 to 40 years before hand, which often makes the time and place the disease was contracted difficult to determine.

The early symptoms of epithelial mesothelioma are subtle and somewhat general. Shortness of breath and chest pain are the most common early symptoms. It is because these symptoms are so generic that epithelial mesothelioma is rarely detected early on.