How common is mesothelioma?

How common is mesothelioma?

Roy Artal (Pulmonologist and Critical Care Physician) gives expert video advice on: How is mesothelioma diagnosed?; How is mesothelioma treated? and more...

Mesothelioma's a relatively rare condition. In terms of looking at our country, you're talking about a disease in which there may be twenty to thirty diagnosed cases per million people. That's obviously a rare condition. However, in the appropriate workplace setting, it can unfortunately be a more common condition. Asbestos use, which is widely acknowledged to be the cause of mesothelioma, reached its peak in the 1970's. Because this disease has a latency of anywhere from twenty to thirty to forty years, many of the people who were heavily exposed in the 1960's and 1970's are only coming to medical attention now.