Could We Completely Eliminate Mesothelioma?

As much as it seems like the world is constantly facing a flood of bad news, we’re making amazing scientific and medical progress on an almost daily basis.

Our knowledge on countless different diseases is increasing. Our therapeutic techniques and cures are growing more robust and more diverse. And while we may face new health challenges, we are beginning to conquer older, deadlier diseases that once held us back.

For example, mesothelioma is getting rarer and rarer. We feel compelled to ask: could it ever be eradicated for good?

The Basics of Mesothelioma

To better understand the situation, we need to understand what mesothelioma is. Mesothelioma is a type of cancer. Cancer, despite being treated as if it is one disease, comes in many different forms and can affect many different parts of the body. However, all forms of cancer involve some kind of cell mutation that allows a group of cells in the body to grow, spread, and potentially have malignant effects.

Mesothelioma, specifically, is a type of cancer that affects the mesothelial lining that surrounds certain organs of the body. Pleural mesothelioma is the most common form of the disease, affecting the lungs. Peritoneal mesothelioma affects the lining of the stomach. It’s also possible, though rare, to have mesothelioma around the lining of the heart.

Almost all cases of mesothelioma originate with exposure to asbestos. Asbestos was a commonly used insulating material for many decades due to its inexpensiveness, its ease of use, and its resistance to fire. However, asbestos is full of tiny, jagged fibers that can lodge themselves in the lining of your organs and cause irritation for years, or even decades. People who have been exposed to asbestos can slowly develop mesothelioma over the course of decades, not noticing any symptoms in the meantime.

This is an especially rare and aggressive, deadly form of cancer. While there are some treatment methods available, they generally only prolong the inevitable. Many patients die within a year of being diagnosed with this disease, as by the time it’s noticed, it has typically spread throughout the body.

Why Mesothelioma Is Getting Rarer

In the United States, there are only about 3,000 new cases of mesothelioma each year. That’s a significant number, but it’s much lower than the peaks that emerged in the 1970s through the 1990s.

Why exactly is mesothelioma getting rarer, if we don’t have a cure or particularly effective treatment?

• Declining asbestos exposure. First, asbestos exposure in affluent countries is declining significantly. It’s possible to develop mesothelioma without asbestos exposure, but it’s extremely rare. We learned that asbestos was harmful a long time ago, and we’ve been working diligently to remove it as a construction material ever since.
• Increasing knowledge. While there’s still a lot we don’t understand about mesothelioma, our knowledge on this disease has increased. We have a much better understanding of how asbestos causes mesothelioma and how mesothelioma develops and spreads. Accordingly, we’re much better at preventing new cases of it.
• Better workplace protections. We also have better workplace protections in place. Anyone who must work with or in an environment that contains asbestos should understand the risks involved and wear the proper protective gear at all times.

Limitations on Cures and Treatments

It doesn’t help that there are some limitations on cures and treatments that can be used for mesothelioma. All cancers are hard to treat, in part because they affect ordinary cells. Mesothelioma is especially hard to treat because it affects the lining of critical organs and because it spreads very aggressively. This makes it hard to even conceive of a potential cure that could eliminate the disease within an individual.

Could Mesothelioma Ever Be Eradicated?

We can be grateful that mesothelioma is not infectious, and it cannot spread. However, even so, it’s unlikely that mesothelioma will ever be fully eradicated.

These are just some of the reasons why:

• Diseases are hard to eradicate. There are many diseases that humanity can be said to have conquered. Smallpox, for example, once affected 15 million new people every year – but the last known naturally occurring case of smallpox was in 1977. Measles outbreaks are all but gone in affluent countries, and total measles deaths around the world have dropped by 75 percent around the world. Most of these diseases were around for centuries before we eventually figured out how to properly address them, and eradicating them was a herculean task. Generally, diseases are very hard to eradicate.
• Asbestos is still around. Asbestos is a material that’s still around. We may not be using it in new construction projects, but it’s present in millions of old ones. Even the act of asbestos remediation presents at least some risk to individuals involved.
• Latency keeps the disease around. Because mesothelioma can be latent for decades, it’s almost impossible for us to know whether or not we’ve eradicated the disease. We don’t have an immediately available feedback loop to help us gauge our progress.
• Not all countries are affluent. Finally, we must acknowledge that while mesothelioma has gotten rarer in the United States and most developed countries, mesothelioma rates are still somewhat high in less developed areas of the world. Even if we somehow eradicate it in the United States, eradicating the disease globally is a totally different story.

It’s a good thing that mesothelioma is getting rarer. But it’s unlikely that the disease will ever be eradicated. Still, we can hold out hope that new treatment methods will at least make the disease more manageable, and bring a higher quality of life to all who suffer from it.