How Long Does It Take for Mesothelioma to Develop?

Mesothelium is a two-layer tissue which acts as the protective membrane that protects the internal organs like heart, lungs, abdominal organs etc. The tissue layer that surrounds lungs is called pleura, pericardium is the name of the tissue layer surrounding heart and peritoneum is the tissue cover surrounding the abdominal cavity. The cancer disease which attacks the mesothelium membrane is known as Mesothelioma. Any type of mesothelium membrane can be attacked by malignancy, but the most common form of Mesothelioma cancer is pleural. The only known cause behind Mesothelioma is the exposure to asbestos. When a person lives in an environment containing high level of asbestos pollution, the asbestos gets inhaled within him for a long time and the asbestos fiber gets attached to the internal organs of the person. A long time exposure to such asbestos pollution leads to the stage of Mesothelioma. 

The common symptoms of Mesothelioma include nausea, vomiting, anemia, fever, apetite loss, abdominal swelling etc. Swelling is caused by the build by the buildup of malignant fluid in the region of abdominal cavity. The tumor of the Mesothelioma grows for a long time. At the advanced stage, when the tumor cell metastasize, the malignant Mesothelioma starts spreading throughout the abdomen and the respiratory system, thereby resulting in the Mesothelioma abdominal cancer & Mesothelioma lungs cancer. 

The treatment of Mesothelioma becomes a lot more challenging since the symptoms of this cancer take a huge time to be enough visible to be diagnosed. The sooner you can diagnose a medical condition, the faster you can perform the proper treatment and the higher the rate of curing or having better life span. But Mesothelioma is a silent killer because the tumor cells grow up for a large duration of time and the symptoms can be only visible after the cancer reaches a fairly early stage.

On an average, it takes 20 to 50 years of asbestos exposure for the development of the Mesothelioma symptoms. It must be noted that the first symptom can occur in around 5 to 7 years of enough exposure; but in order to get diagnosed from the symptom, it takes a minimum of 20 years. There is also a recent case where the rescue workers of the ruins of World Trade Centre have reported with the signs of Mesothelioma within just 5 years. This denotes that if the pollution exposure is high enough, the development of Mesothelioma gets accelerated.