Mesothelioma is a rare cancer of the lining of the heart, lungs, or the abdominal cavity. The malignancy of the thin and fibrous membrane covering the heart causes pericardial mesothelioma which is the most dangerous form of this disease and extremely difficult to treat because of the proximity to heart. Pleural mesothelioma is the malignancy of the pleural membrane of the lungs, whereas peritoneal mesothelioma is the cancer affecting the membrane covering the peritoneal membrane of the abdominal cavity.
This is a rare form of cancer and asbestos is solely responsible for causing this form of malignancy. Therefore, people associated with occupations that lead to exposure to asbestos are susceptible to this disease condition. Thus, shipyard workers, industrial workers, miners, and construction workers are among the most likely population group to contact this disease. Even the family members of these people are susceptible to mesothelioma because of the inhalation of the asbestos particles present in the clothing of the workers.
On the other hand, adenocarcinoma is a cancer that affects mostly the glandular tissues and other organs surrounding membranes. Adenocarcinoma related malignancy could affect a number of vital organs such as lungs, breasts, stomach, colon, and prostate. They can also affect several other organs with some degree of secretory function such as pancreas and cervix. Thus, adenocarcinoma can affect a large number of organs in the body and cause devastating effects on the people suffering from it. One of the possible causative agents of adenocarcinoma is asbestos.
However, the similarity with mesothelioma ends there only because apart from affecting lungs and being fatal in a large number of cases they do not have much in common.
Asbestos is only one of the causative agents of adenocarcinoma while there are a number of other chemical agents that may also give rise to this condition. Cigarette smoke can cause adenocarcinoma and this is the reason why smokers are susceptible to this form of malignancy. Exposure to a variety of other agents including mustard gas, radon, and uranium to name a few can trigger this malignancy.
The areas that can suffer from adenocarcinoma are also far more extensive and widespread compared to the areas affected by mesothelioma. One of the basic differences between mesothelioma and adenocarcinoma lies in the type of cells these two types of malignancy affect. Mesothelioma usually affects epithelial cells and connective tissues such as the fibrous outer membrane of heart, lungs, and abdominal cavity. On the other hand, the attack on the epithelial or the membrane cells is the nature of adenocarcinoma.
Treatment of adenocarcinoma usually involves removal of the entire or parts of the affected lungs tissue. However, removal is not usually possible in case of mesothelioma because of the nature of the malignant tissues that do not have clearly demarcated boundaries with the healthy tissues. Use of drugs as part of chemotherapeutic treatment and radiation therapy also produces only limited result. Therefore, mesothelioma often proves to be a fatal condition in later stages of the disease. Thus, mesothelioma and adenocarcinoma differs on far more counts compared to their similarities.
