Mesothelioma in Women
women currently account for about one-quarter of all cases, and mesothelioma incidence rates among women are increasing.
Pleural mesothelioma, which affects the lining of the lungs, is the diagnosis made for most women who acquire mesothelioma. Pleural mesothelioma, which affects the lining of the abdomen, is five times more common in men than peritoneal mesothelioma. Women have greater survival rates.
Historically, mesothelioma cancer has largely affected older males who were exposed to asbestos while serving in the military or working in specific blue-collar industries.
However, women currently account for about one-quarter of all cases, and mesothelioma incidence rates among women are increasing, indicating that the gender gap is decreasing.
Mesothelioma in Women
How Common is Mesothelioma in Women?
Women account for over 25% of all mesothelioma cases in the United States. Women had higher survival rates after being diagnosed with asbestos-related cancer than males.
Researchers believe women have higher survival rates than men because they are diagnosed at a younger age and are generally healthier; they may have had less total asbestos exposure than men; and there may be hormonal differences that explain why the disease is more or less aggressive in one gender.
One year after diagnosis, 45% of women are living, compared to 38% of males. There are various reasons why women have a higher survival rate with this illness.
Diagnosing mesothelioma in women
To detect mesothelioma in women, doctors utilize the same diagnostic techniques that they do for males, such as PET scans, biopsies, and other procedures.
Pleural mesothelioma accounts for over 75% of all diagnosed cases in both men and women. It is the most prevalent of the four kinds.
Women are somewhat more likely than males to be diagnosed with peritoneal mesothelioma.
Mesothelioma Type Ratio in Women and Men.
Women are diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma almost twice as frequently as peritoneal malignancies.
Men are five times more likely to be diagnosed with pleural than peritoneal mesothelioma.
A 2018 Italian study analyzed national mesothelioma registry data and discovered differing female-to-male ratios for both pleural and peritoneal mesothelioma.
The ratio of female to male cases in 16,458 individuals was 0.38 for pleural illness and 0.70 for peritoneal malignancies. This indicates that there were 2.6 instances of pleural mesothelioma in males and 1.4 cases of peritoneal illness in women.
Rare Mesothelioma Cell Types Affecting Women
Almost everyone who gets mesothelioma has had previous asbestos exposure.
In extremely rare situations, some people get mesothelioma without ever coming into contact with asbestos. These patients are mostly young women who suffer from unusual kinds of cancer.
Well-Differentiated Papillary Mesothelioma
Well-differentiated papillary mesothelioma (WDPM), for example, is most typically diagnosed in women in their thirties. It mostly affects the peritoneum, which is the lining of the abdominal cavity. However, the illness has been detected in the pleura, the thin membrane that surrounds the lungs.
People with WDPM have a better prognosis than other mesothelioma patients, with life expectancy ranging from three to more than ten years.
Deciduoid Cell Type
Another unusual mesothelioma that primarily affects women is deciduoid cell. The word deciduoid refers to this cell's likeness to cell alterations seen in early pregnancy. It most commonly affects young women. There are less than 50 cases described in medical literature.
Mesothelioma Misdiagnosis in Women.
Misdiagnosis is a difficulty for all persons with mesothelioma, but women may be particularly vulnerable. Because the cancer is more frequent in men, many doctors do not recognize mesothelioma as a viable female diagnosis.
The bulk of asbestos exposures occur in the workplace, and historically, industrial and military vocations were not available to women.
Symptoms of early mesothelioma are also vague and ambiguous. Coughing, intermittent constipation and diarrhea, bloating, and chest and abdominal discomfort are all common symptoms of less serious disorders.
Patients with pleural mesothelioma may get a diagnosis of bronchitis, asthma, the flu, or pneumonia. Women who have the peritoneal variety of this malignancy may be diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome, menstruation issues, or food allergies and intolerances.
Kasie Coleman, who was diagnosed with peritoneal mesothelioma in 2010, is one of hundreds of women who were given a late diagnosis because physicians did not originally explore the uncommon malignancy. She endured 18 months of repeated symptoms before discovering she had peritoneal mesothelioma.
She encourages women to "keep digging" if they believe a diagnosis is incorrect.
Mesothelioma Treatment For Women
Women and men have similar treatment choices for mesothelioma, depending on the disease stage and kind. Women may have a therapeutic edge over males, however. Women, for example, are more likely to be diagnosed at a younger age, indicating that they are in better condition and more open to new treatment choices.
Treatment Options for Women with Mesothelioma:
Surgery
Chemotherapy
Radiation treatment
Multimodal Therapy
Immunotherapy
The 2018 ASCO Treatment of Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma recommendations states that patients must be in good cardiovascular (heart) and lung condition to survive intensive procedures. Women may be more inclined to follow these principles than males.
Surgery can be performed with the goal of curing early-stage illness, which is often stage 1 or 2. Surgeons seek to remove the whole malignancy with the objective of curing the patient, and younger women may be better candidates for this treatment.
If the disease is advanced and the prognosis is bad, patients may choose surgery as a palliative treatment. Palliative therapies are designed to ease symptoms and enhance quality of life, even if the cancer is not curable.
Women are more likely than males to be diagnosed with a peritoneal illness, which is more curable than pleural mesothelioma.
Many peritoneal mesothelioma patients get heated intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) in addition to cytoreductive surgery to remove all visible tumors. This therapy has given many women with peritoneal illness a fair prognosis.
A 2018 International Journal of Hyperthermia research examined the results of 76 peritoneal mesothelioma patients treated with HIPEC surgery. The median disease-free survival was approximately five years, while the median overall survival was more than eight years.
Women accounted for approximately 45% of the study population (36 individuals).
Data reveal that women survive longer than males following pleural mesothelioma surgery. In one research, doctors examined 702 instances of malignant pleural mesothelioma surgery, in which all of the diseased lung was surgically removed.
The case outcomes were examined based on the mesothelioma cell type found in the patient's tumors.
In this study, women with epithelial mesothelioma survived longer after surgery, whereas men and women with nonepithelial tumors had essentially comparable post-surgical survival. The median life span for both genders was around nine to ten months.
Asbestos Exposure for Women.
Asbestos exposure happens in three main ways.
Major Routes to Asbestos Exposure
On the job
In the environment
Secondary contact, such as touching a family member's asbestos-contaminated work clothing.
The majority of women in the United States who have mesothelioma were exposed to asbestos through secondary contact or in the environment. Some female patients have a history of direct occupational or industrial exposure.
Occupational Exposure
Most mesothelioma sufferers attribute their asbestos exposure to specific employment, such as factory worker, insulator, mechanic, or similar industrial jobs. Because asbestos exposure is more common in male-dominated workplaces, sufferers are often older males.
Although figures for the United States are not easily available, on-the-job exposure is widely assumed to impact significantly more males than women.
According to an Italian study published in 2018, men are more likely to be exposed at work, although some female mesothelioma patients were also exposed to the cancer-causing mineral.
Italian women were more likely to work in the chemical and plastics industries, as well as in the non-asbestos textile sector. This last category indicates that even if individuals do not believe they are working with asbestos, they may be exposed to it.
In the United States, women who had job-related exposure may have occupied occupations that were less labor-intensive than those to which males were exposed. For example, both male and female schoolteachers have gotten mesothelioma.
They were discovered to have worked in school buildings with asbestos. Some interior designers were exposed to asbestos using spray-on asbestos products. Even bakers have acquired mesothelioma as a result of asbestos exposure in and near ovens.
Female mesothelioma cases are increasing in other regions of the world, and many academics are expecting to find definitive proof that women are still particularly vulnerable to the illness.
Environmental Exposure
Some asbestos specialists warn that environmental exposures might be especially dangerous to women. According to a 2019 research of occupational and environmental exposures, women are more likely to develop malignant mesothelioma.
The study comprised 21 cohorts of asbestos-exposed adults from rural locations. The scientists determined that environmental exposure has an equal role in the development of mesothelioma as occupational exposure.
Secondary Exposure.
Secondary exposure is the most typical way that women come into touch with the lethal substance. Exposure occurs when a friend, family member, or loved one carries asbestos particles into the home (typically on work clothing) from outside.
For example, prior to the 1990s, the majority of men working in the shipbuilding sector were severely exposed to asbestos and frequently carried asbestos fibers home on their clothing. Asbestos fibers' jagged nature allows microscopic particles to easily adhere to clothes, shoes, skin, and hair.
Simply dusting off shoes sent asbestos particles into the home, and women were particularly vulnerable if they handled their spouse's contaminated clothes.
Asbestos in Talcum Powder.
Recent legal challenges involving talcum powder and its suspected link to ovarian cancer risk have been in the headlines. This demonstrates the link between talc and asbestos, especially in hygiene goods.
Asbestos and talc are two minerals that may coexist in the soil. This means that talc mines can get polluted with asbestos, and vice versa. Women's principal issue is the usage of talcum powder in the house.
However, ovarian cancer is only half of the problem. Women might also be diagnosed with mesothelioma due to asbestos exposure from talc products.
Asbestos Liability and Legal Challenges for Women.
Because most women have experienced secondary exposure, they frequently confront special hurdles in getting positive legal outcomes and financial recompense.
Women with mesothelioma face unique legal and financial challenges.
The majority of asbestos exposure occurs secondhand, making it difficult to verify.
Women who are not exposed at work are ineligible for workers' compensation.
Many ladies are unsure how or when they were exposed.
Women are financially burdened since they were unable to substantiate their case and receive financial assistance to meet medical expenses.
Insurers may refuse to pay for costly medical treatments for such a rare cancer in women.
Coleman expressed her dissatisfaction with insurance.
"To be honest, I am more terrified of insurance than of my own body. "I believe insurance companies should be more educated," Coleman remarked. "They treat all malignancies as if they were the same when they are not. Mesothelioma is not breast cancer. They are paying the same amount, but it is not the same."
Notable cases and favorable verdicts for women with mesothelioma
Despite these obstacles, some women have been successful in getting legal and financial compensation for earlier asbestos exposures that led to their mesothelioma diagnosis.
In June 2019, a New York jury sentenced Johnson & Johnson to pay Donna Olson and her husband $300 million in punitive damages and $25 million in compensation. They believe her mesothelioma diagnosis was caused by her exposure to Johnson & Johnson talcum powder.
A jury in Los Angeles awarded Joanne Anderson $25.7 million in damages in May 2018. She claimed that asbestos in her baby powder led to a mesothelioma diagnosis.
In July 2018, a jury in Louis awarded Johnson & Johnson to pay $4.9 billion in damages to 22 women who claimed the baby powder caused ovarian cancer. It was the sixth-highest product-defect verdict in US history.
These instances emphasize the significance of seeking experienced legal advice for all women who have been diagnosed with mesothelioma or other asbestos-related diseases.
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