Mesothelioma Medical Research and Advances: State of the Art and Hope for the Future

The International Mesothelioma Interest Group (iMig) held a virtual conference on May 7-9, 2021 discussing all things medical (plus a little more) about Mesothelioma and other asbestos related illnesses. The scope and depth of the discussions by doctors and medical researchers around the globe was staggering; in fact, overwhelming for those of us who are not used to the medical and disease treatment terminology.

During the first plenary session, they broke the numbers down by country (they have at least some data sources from 65 countries) and issues, and then built them back up again to show the world wide ramifications. They possess this data as Mesothelioma is one of the cancers identified in the WHO Cancer Registry. The estimate of deaths from Mesothelioma on the low side is 38,400 people per year. They were not able to provide a high-side estimate as the data from the low-income countries just isn’t robust enough to make that estimate.

Because the use of asbestos and the disposal of asbestos (such as ship breaking) has migrated since the mid-1980s and 1990s to developing or third-world countries, the 30 to 40 year lead time from exposure to disease developments means that we will experience a future higher incidence rate of Mesothelioma in those low-income countries.

The lectures on the medical and researchers were, at times, way above my head.

Suffice it to know that a lot of people in this world are involved in Mesothelioma related research, with the understanding that about 1,500,000 already living ill-fated people are destined to suffer and perish from this preventable disease in the next 40 years — even with no further exposure. Further, each year this number will re-set as some die while others reach the 30 to 40 year time frame since their exposure.

What should we do? The answer is clearly two fold: (1) fund more treatment research to either prevent or ease the suffering of those who are destined to become sick and (2) sort out eliminating (or at least minimizing) the existing and future exposure to friable asbestos fibers for all others who live on this global world.

My dad died of Mesothelioma in 1981, almost 40 years ago. Isn’t it time that we put the resources into this exposure and disease before another 40 years gets past us?

Let me know what you think by sending me an email at TheAsbestosBlog@gmail.com or leaving a comment on this Blog.