The Maune Raichle Law Firm

Mesothelioma Asbestos Lung Cancer

Contrary to common misconception, mesothelioma is not a lung cancer, despite the fact that it can infiltrate the lungs and cause cancer to develop in the lungs. Pleural mesothelioma is commonly thought of as lung cancer because of its proximity to the lungs but it is in fact a cancer which develops in the mesothelium, and has a noticeably different cellular structure. Mesothelioma can develop around the heart and in the peritoneum in addition to the pleural mesothelium.

Pleural mesothelioma can result in symptoms which are often very similar to those seen in cases of lung cancer and can present itself similarly to the common lung cancer adenocarcinoma which can lead some doctors to misdiagnose mesothelioma as a form of lung cancer. As mesothelioma is better understood, the unique connection between mesothelioma and asbestos becomes more apparent. Lung cancer can be caused by a great number of factors, such as smoking, exposure to airborne toxins, exposure to some types of particulate matter, and even asbestos, but asbestos has been shown to be the cause of 90 percent of mesothelioma cases.

Smoking has no affect on mesothelioma, unlike lung cancer, and this fact helps to make asbestos stick out as the clear cause of the vast majority of mesothelioma cases. Lung cancers can often infiltrate the mesothelium as they spread. Determining that a cancer is mesothelioma rather than lung cancer used to require uncommon staining and high powered microscope evaluation of biopsy samples but can now be done by evaluating markers found in samples and comparing them to known markers found in mesothelioma and lung cancers. There are many markers which are commonly present in one form of cancer and not the other.