Mesothelioma Statistics
Is mesothelioma common?
Mesothelioma is a comparatively rare condition. Each year, about 3,000 new cases of mesothelioma are diagnosed in the United States. In comparison, more than 200,000 cases per year of lung cancer are diagnosed here. In fact, until 1999 the government did not even have a specific cause of death code to track mesothelioma. It is possible that the number of mesothelioma cases was under-reported in the past, but researchers believe current statistics are accurate.
Though asbestos exposure and usage diminished during the last 30 years, it is expected that mesothelioma rates will not decline significantly in the next decade due to the long latency period associated with the disease. Experts predict asbestos will cause 60,000 cases of mesothelioma over the next 20 years.
Who will get mesothelioma?
Mesothelioma is clearly linked to asbestos exposure, but only a very small percentage of the approximately eight million people in the United States who were exposed to asbestos are expected to develop mesothelioma. It is most common among men who were heavily exposed over a long period of time due to their occupations, including:
- Construction workers
- Plumbers
- Electricians
- Pipefitters
- Automobile mechanics
- Shipyard workers
- Insulators
A special case
The destruction of the World Trade Center in 2011 released hundreds of tons of asbestos from those buildings into the atmosphere near ground zero. Emergency and recovery workers at the site are expected to develop mesothelioma from intense exposure to asbestos at the site.
Mesothelioma rates
Mesothelioma affects different population groups at different rates, but the extent of asbestos exposure is the biggest mesothelioma common denominator. The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), which publishes data on the percentage of people with mesothelioma, studies show some interesting facts about mesothelioma rates:
- Men are affected by mesothelioma at a much higher rate than women are—1.8 versus women’s rate of 0.4 per 100,000. This difference is thought to result more from the fact that asbestos workers have been overwhelmingly male than from gender differences.
- For cases in men, 90.2% are in the pleura, 8.3% are in the abdomen, and 1% is in the heart or genital area.
- For cases in women, 71.1% of cases are in the pleura, 24.3% are in the abdomen, and 3.1% are in the heart or genital system.
- The highest incidence is in areas of the United States where shipyards are common.
- By race, the incidence rates were highest for whites, followed by blacks, then others.
- The median age at diagnosis was between 65 and 69 years old for males and females.