Even so, most people exposed to asbestos, even in large numbers, do not get mesothelioma. Other factors, such as a person's genes or having had radiation treatments in the past, may make them more likely to develop mesothelioma when exposed to asbestos. Mesotheliomas related to asbestos exposure take a long time to develop. Mesothelioma is caused by exposure to asbestos.
When asbestos fibers are inhaled or ingested, they cause scarring and inflammation, which can develop into a mesothelioma tumor. Research has shown that 80% of all cases of mesothelioma are due to known exposure to asbestos. No, not everyone who is exposed to asbestos is diagnosed with mesothelioma. Even for people who have been exposed to large amounts of asbestos, mesothelioma is rare.
Although asbestos is the cause of mesothelioma, there are a number of risk factors that make certain people more likely to develop this cancer. Conclusions Exposure to asbestos confers a long-term risk of developing pleural and peritoneal mesothelioma, which increases after cessation of exposure. While the rate of increase seems to begin to stabilize after 40 to 50 years, no one survives long enough for the excess risk to go away. We know that asbestos causes most cases of pleural mesothelioma.
This starts in the two sheets of tissue that cover the lungs called the pleura. Being exposed to large amounts of asbestos for a long period of time increases the risk of developing mesothelioma. Many people with mesothelioma in the abdomen (peritoneal mesothelioma) have also been exposed to asbestos. There is evidence that the rate of increase in the incidence of pleural mesothelioma decreases approximately 45 years after the first exposure, while peritoneal mesothelioma continues to increase.
Mesothelioma doctors will order CT imaging and other tests based on your history of exposure to asbestos to determine if you are developing mesothelioma. In contrast, for peritoneal mesotheliomas the risk increases more rapidly than the time to a potency, suggesting that removal of asbestos fibers from the lungs over a long period of time may be of minor importance, possibly due to the temporal pattern of migration of the fibers to the peritoneum in greater measure exposed people in whom most peritoneal mesotheliomas occur.
