Asbestos Induced Abdominal Cancer

Abdominal Asbestos Mesothelioma is the official term used by doctors for a rare but dangerous type of cancer that is generally caused by the ihalation or ingestion of asbestos fibers. Asbestos is a fibrous fire retardant material that is heavily used in most industries, and as such people who work in these environments are at the highest level of risk.

Because of the fibrous nature of asbestos, it’s small fibers can be inhaled easily by people, and it can also cling to the skin and clothes, so people who don’t work directly exposed to asbestos can still contract Abdominal Asbestos Mesothelioma. People who live with those who have been around asbestos are equally at risk and can still contract this cancer.

The most common cause of mesothelioma is inhalation or ingesting the particles or asbestos, which leads to the development of malignant cells in the lining which covers most of the body’s internal organs. These malignant cells are what cause the cancer. Thankfully, it is not a contagious disease and is relatively rare, with only around three thousand cases being diagnosed annually worldwide.

Symptoms

Mesothelioma symptoms do not manifest until around twenty to fifty years after asbestos fibers have entered the body, so often the people who are diagnosed are in their middle to late years in life. One of the ways to detect Abdominal Asbestos Mesothelioma is by sudden and rapid loss of weight, and swelling in the stomach area accompanied by sharp pains due to pressure from an increase in body fluids in the abdominal lining.

Another set of symptoms are difficulty in bowel movement, blood clotting, and fevers similar to intestinal flu. The problem with the symptoms of Abdominal Asbestos Mesothelioma is that they are often misdiagnosed because they can easily be taken as symptoms of some other, less dangerous illnesses.

Effects

The effects of Abdominal Asbestos Mesothelioma can be ultimately fatal if left unchecked. One of the more dangerous effects is the development of tumors in the stomach lining due to fluid buildup and the presence of the malignant cells in the body. The tumors cause blood clotting, as mentioned, and can spread from the abdominal area upwards to the chest cavity, affecting both the heart and lungs.

A few of the more severe effect of Abdominal Asbestos Mesothelioma include bleeding in the internal organs once the malignant cells grow to a sufficient level. Left unchecked, this internal bleeding is fatal. Pulmonary Emboli is another effect of this sickness, which is the formation of clots of dried or coagulated blood in the lungs. Again, this is ultimately fatal if left unchecked.

Treatment

Abdominal Asbestos Mesothelioma is treated in a variety of fashions, and while it is generally approached like any other cancer, some of the methods commonly used to treat the more common forms of cancer don’t prove as effective. For one thing, surgery to remove the malignant cells have shown a very low survivability rate among the patients, with an average life expectancy of only 5 years post operation.

The most successful treatments of Abdominal Asbestos Mesothelioma have stemmed from general chemotherapy as well a a fairly new method known as heated intraoperative intraperitoneal chemotherapy. This method combines chemotherapy with a heat surgery treatment that removes the malignant cells without causing any damage to the healthy surrounding tissue. The application of heat to the malignant cells also allows a more efficient introduction to the body of the medical agents used in the chemotherapy.

Avoidance/Safety Tips

On a personal level, one of the most obvious ways to avoid exposure to this cancer would be to stay away from places which have high concentrations of asbestos. There are many different forms of asbestos now being developed, and the ones which have been noted as causing Abdominal Asbestos Mesothelioma were versions primarily developed in the 1970s and 1980s. Modern fire retardant materials are much safer and have been mandated in some parts of the world to replace asbestos entirely.

Since asbestos fibers normally have to be ingested or inhaled to cause mesothelioma then using a face mask and avoiding eating around asbestos is a good safety practice. However, since the fibers are invisible to the naked eye and can actually be carried on skin and clothing, another safety tip is to wear a completely different set of clothing when working around asbestos, and to both remove the clothing and bathe completely after exposure. This minimizes the risk that any fibers will be taken home to one’s families after work and consequently avoid abdominal mesothelioma caused by asbestos exposure.