Asbestos exposure is associated with a wide range of illnesses, including cancer, but they take many years to appear.

Ongoing testing is vital if you were regularly exposed to asbestos in your lifetime, even as a child.

However, people diagnosed with asbestos-related diseases often spend decades enjoying good health without ever contemplating their risk. The early warning signs of lung cancer or malignant mesothelioma are, in many cases, either deceptively mild or easy to attribute to old age or a lifetime’s worth of hard work. 

People exposed to asbestos dust on a parent’s work clothing as children may develop cancer as adults.

But, by the time that unmistakably serious symptoms of asbestos-related cancer and  disease begin to emerge, it is typically too late for physicians to achieve complete removal. 

Instead of trying to push an aggressive cancer into remission, doctors may recommend care designed more to relieve pain and alleviate complaints than effect anything resembling a full recovery. 

Although detecting a disease like lung cancer or pleural mesothelioma in its initial stages can offer hope for a more positive prognosis, there are few reliable ways to both screen for asbestos exposure and determine whether ingested fibers present a significant threat to an individual patient’s health. Some scientists have even gone so far as to suggest that screening serves little purpose when modern modes of treatment can neither prevent nor cure many life-threatening conditions. 

Nevertheless, a growing body of evidence supports what should be a common-sense conclusion: identifying diseases that have yet to ravage the body could allow for more efficient treatment, and increased odds of long-term survival.

Asbestos is a class of naturally-occurring mineral that can be found throughout the United States and around the world. It is comprised of microscopic bundles of fiber, which are extraordinarily flexible and broadly resistant to heat, electricity, and corrosion. 

Para las demandas por much of recorded history, asbestos’s unique properties lent it a favorable reputation. It has long been used to make cookware and fabricate fireproof textiles, with more innovative applications appearing during and in the immediate aftermath of the Industrial Revolution. 

Asbestos has never been fully banned, and asbestos products and materials are still out there, especially in old buildings and infrastructure like cement.

In the United States, rates of asbestos production rose steadily throughout the 20° century, peaking some time between the late 1960s and early 1970s. Manufacturers and construction companies used asbestos to reinforce an astounding assortment of materials, from automotive parts to boiler ducts and floor tiles. 

However, asbestos’ greatest advantage is also its biggest weakness: through mining, milling, and regular use, asbestos and asbestos-based products can gradually degrade. If crumbled or partially reduced to a fine and fibrous powder, it poses a significant inhalation risk. 

The health dangers of inhaling or swallowing asbestos include cancer of the respiratory and digestive systems.

Once inside the body, asbestos can wreak havoc. It is associated with conditions including, but not limited to, the following: 

  • La Asbestosis 
  • Cancers of the lungs, colon, ovaries, and throat 
  • Enfermedad pulmonar obstructiva crónica 
  • Effusions
  • Malignant mesothelioma 
  • Placas pleurales

Some asbestos-related conditions, like asbestosis, can take an excruciating toll on patients’ physical well-being and overall quality of life—but they are not necessarily life-threatening, and can typically be managed with medical care. 

Other diseases, like malignant mesothelioma, have worse prognoses. In the case of malignant pleural mesothelioma, the most common form of mesothelial cancer, few patients live more than several years past their initial diagnosis. Surgery, chemotherapy, and similar treatment can relieve symptoms and increase an individual’s longer-term odds of survival, but it is exceedingly rare for mesothelioma to go into full remission. 

Nevertheless, Americans living with asbestos-related illnesses—whether no malignas, o malignas—fare best when their disease is detected early, and treated before it gets the chance to evolve and worsen. 

Almost every asbestos-related disease, from asbestosis to malignant mesothelioma, has an unusually long latency period. In other words, it can take years—often decades—for the initial symptoms of illness to appear, emerging only in old age and in the utter absence of any recent asbestos exposure. 

Latency poses a challenge for treatment: that’s why early, ongoing treatment is so important.

However, by the time that the early-warning signs of a disease like mesothelioma become apparent, it is typically too late to reverse the cancer’s course or prevent it from metastasizing and spreading across the body. This is due, in no small part, to the seemingly mild nature of mesothelioma’s initial symptoms. 

El early symptoms of malignant pleural mesothelioma, for instance, sometimes include the following: 

  • Accumulations of pleural fluid, or effusions, inside the chest
  • Chest or lower back pain
  • Chronic cough 
  • Fatiga 
  • Recurring fever
  • Swelling in the arms or face
  • Pérdida de peso inexplicable 

The generalized character of these symptoms can be deceptive. In many cases, patients believe their complaints are easily explained by age, infection, or another pre-existing condition. Signs are ignored or dismissed, and only investigated as they become increasingly severe. 

Consequently, malignant pleural mesothelioma is rarely diagnosed at a point when there is real potential for its management. 

El American Society of Clinical Oncology notes that mesothelioma’s low 5-year survival rate of 12% is explained by it “usually [being] diagnosed at a late stage.” But, if it is “found at an early, localized stage,” the 5-year survival rate is twice as high—nearly 25%. 

Anyone with a confirmed or suspected history of asbestos exposure should inform their doctor and seek immediate medical attention if they experience any of the telltale symptoms of an asbestos-related disease. 

However, diagnosing most asbestos-related illnesses can prove challenging, even for experienced medical professionals. Conventional screening methods are somewhat limited in their effectiveness, since they cannot always highlight embedded asbestos fibers or early-stage tumors. 

But, in many cases, routine screenings for asbestos scarring can assist in either confirming a diagnosis or ruling out other possibilities. 

Physicians who believe a patient might be suffering from an asbestos-related illness will typically take steps including: 

  • Asking questions about a patient’s medical history and general asbestos exposure timeline 
  • Conducting a physical examination
  • Listening to the lungs for the signs of fluid accumulation or other pleural abnormalities 
  • Ordering periodic chest radiographs and lung function tests to assess risk and detect early signs of disease 

Medical researchers have also recently advocated increased awareness of the risks of lung cancer among former asbestos workers and other persons with histories of asbestos exposure. 

Although the role of asbestos in the development of lung cancer is often overshadowed by other risk factors, like tobacco consumption, asbestos exposure is nonetheless the [single] most important cause of occupational lung cancer mortality” in the United States. 

In fact, asbestos exposure and tobacco have an unusually synergistic relationship. Individually, both tobacco and asbestos are potent carcinogens. But, put together, they have a multiplicative effect, meaning a risk of lung cancer that is magnitudes higher than the risk posed by either factor alone. 

La exposición al asbesto increases the risk of lung cancer by 5%.

Smoking increases the risk of lung cancer by 10%.

Together, Asbestos AND Smoking increase the risk of lung cancer by 50%.

A growing body of research has shown that the benefits of semi-regular lung cancer screenings for people who have histories of asbestos exposure, or histories of asbestos exposure and cigarette smoking, are both significant and manifold. 

Semi-regular lung cancer screenings, performed with low-dose computed tomography (CT) scans, have shown marked success in detecting early-stage lung cancer and are touted as “an unprecedented opportunity to intervene in the natural history of a lethal occupational disease." 

Unfortunately, these findings and recommendations are not adhered to in every state. Patients must, more often than not, be proactive: in informing their doctor that they have been exposed to asbestos, in insisting on regular screenings, and in paying close attention to their health, especially as they grow older.