What is the Difference Between Lung Cancer and Mesothelioma?

Mesothelioma defined

Many people ask this question,to which the answer is both simple and complex. The simple answer is that mesotheliomais a cancer of the mesothelium, the lining or membrane, around an organ, suchas a lung, abdomen, or the heart. This mesothelium has specific names basedupon the organ that it encases. The mesothelial lining around the lung iscalled the pleura, and has two layers that glide on a layer of fluid. The innerlayer lines the lung tissue and the outer layer lines the chest wall. The fluidlayer between the two lubricates the layers, allowing the lungs to expand andcontract as the pleural layers can glide against each other without friction.

Lung cancer

Lung cancer involves the lungtissue and airways, which is contained entirely within the pleural lining anddoes not involve the pleura. Where other organs are involved the mesotheliallining has other names, such as peritoneum for the mesothelial lining of theperitoneum (abdominal cavity), and pericardium for the lining around the heart.

Mesothelioma causes

Mesotheliomais caused by inhaling asbestos fibers in most cases, which work their waythrough the softer lung tissue to the mesothelial lining (the pleura) and lodgein that membrane. It can take as much as 50 years for the fibers to causesymptoms of cancer, but some cases are diagnosable in as few as 10 or 20 years.Obviously, it’s a slowly developing process, and one whose cause isn’t alwayseasy to identify due to the length of time between exposure and symptoms.

Mesothelioma exposure

Most people who developmesothelioma were exposed to asbestos particles on-the-job, which they eitherinhaled or swallowed. Family members were exposed to the clothing, hair, orskin of workers who came home covered in fibers. Women who contacted theseclothes, especially those who shook them out before washing them, or familymembers who greeted and hugged the worker before he had a chance to bathe werealso exposed to the fibers.

In addition, community memberswere frequently exposed to fibers as dust from the mines, or processing plantsthat used asbestos released fibers into the air, which in turn could rain outon nearby communities.

Asbestos lung cancer

As rare as mesothelioma is, asbestoslung cancer is rarer, yet. If lung cancer results from pleuralmesothelioma, it is usually because the cancer has metastasized and spreadthroughout the body. Asbestos lung cancer usually develops from fibers thatlodged in the lining of the airways, bronchioles (small airways) or alveoli,the terminal sacs where oxygen enters the bloodstream. Asbestos fibers aremassaged through the soft lung tissue and rarely lodge there. Instead, theylodge in the lining of the lungs where they remain causing a chronic irritationin the lining rather than the lung tissue itself. Those that lodge in the lungtissue usually become trapped by scar tissue and cause asbestosis, arestrictive fibrotic disease of the lungs.