Mortality Rate for Mesothelioma Victims

A relatively rare disease

Although deadly to its victims and devastating to their families, malignant mesothelioma is a rare cancer. The mesothelioma death rate in the United States is currently about 3,000 per year.  That’s a very small portion―less than one percent―of the more than half a million deaths the American Cancer Society estimates result annually from all kinds of cancer in the United States.

Mesothelioma death rate by location

Because it is caused only by exposure to asbestos, mesothelioma occurs far more frequently in industrialized countries where there was heavy asbestos use across a wide variety of businesses and industries. Countries with the lowest mesothelioma death rate include Tunisia and Morocco. In contrast, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia have up to 30 times the mortality rate from mesothelioma than less developed countries.

Mortality rate of mesothelioma is changing over time

In recent years, the death rate for many cancers has been declining.  Unfortunately, that is not the case for mesothelioma victims.  The mortality rate from mesothelioma appears to be increasing.  This could be predicted because the disease typically develops 30 or 40 years after asbestos exposure. The rising mesothelioma death rate corresponds to increased asbestos exposure several decades ago—before asbestos use was regulated in the United States. In the future, the death rate from mesothelioma will probably level off and then decrease.

Researchers also suspect that the actual mesothelioma death rate in the United States may have been significantly under counted before 1999. That was the first year the government began listing mesothelioma as a distinct cause of death. Symptoms of mesothelioma mimic those of other diseases (including lung cancer), and in the past, doctors may not have been aware enough to note mesothelioma as the cause of death on death certificates.

The most recent statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicate that the largest number of mesothelioma cases occurred in older people, with more than 40 percent in those age 75 or older. In previous generations, a lot of these people would have died from other causes before they had a chance to develop mesothelioma from asbestos exposure in their youth. Today’s longer life spans are probably a factor affecting rising mesothelioma death rates.

Incidence varies across the population

The mortality rate of mesothelioma also varies by sex and occupation. Men are afflicted about four times as often as women. Predictably, workers in jobs that entailed heavy exposure to asbestos―such as shipbuilding, manufacturing asbestos product, construction trades, and brake repair―have especially high mesothelioma mortality rates.

The distribution of mesothelioma types differs, too. Pleural mesothelioma, which affects the lining of the lungs, accounts for the vast majority of cases in both men and women. Women more frequently get Peritoneal mesothelioma, which affects abdominal tissue occurs more frequently in women than in men.