Asbestos: A silicate mineral composed of fibrous crystals, Asbestos is highly toxic and can wreak havoc on human health. Mesothelioma, Asbestosis, and cancer of the lungs are the primary conditions that are associated with exposure to – and inhalation of – Asbestos dust.

Asbestosis: An inflammatory state that attacks the parenchymal tissue of the lungs, Asbestosis appears in the wake of extensive and repeated exposure to Asbestos. It is largely defined as an occupational lung disease. Asbestosis causes scarring to the tissue of the lungs.

Chemotherapy: Chemotherapy is one of the forms of therapy utilized in the treatment of Mesothelioma. It involved the particular usage of chemicals to kill cells of micro-organisms or cancer. The process works by targeting those cells that rapidly divide – which is one of the main aspects of cancer-cells.

Clean Air Act: The United States’ Clean Air Act is controlled and regulated by Congress. It oversees the regulation of air-pollution in the United States, and ensures that the strict guidelines for handling, and working with, Asbestos are strictly adhered to.

Clinical Trials: Within health-care, clinical trials are carried out with a particular aim: to collect and analyze information relating to new and experimental medications – including those used in the treatment of Mesothelioma.

Computed tomography (CT Scan): This is a particular medical imaging process that is utilized to secure a 3-D image of the inside of an object (such as the human body) from an extensive series of two-dimensional X-ray images.

Curative Surgery: This can chiefly be explained as the removal and obliteration of tissue that is showing evidence of being cancerous. It can also involve the removal of cancer-affected organs of the body. In an effort to try and make certain that all of the cancerous tissue is excised, it is sometimes vital to remove a percentage of unaffected tissue that surrounds the affected, cancerous zone.

Diagnostic Surgery: A process that is focused upon the removal of samples of the patient’s tissue, Diagnostic Surgery is undertaken to permit the samples to be tested for the presence of cancer.

Epidural: A specific means of combating and alleviating chronic pain, an epidural is a form of regional anesthesia, in which medicines are specifically injected - by catheter- into a section of the spine. An epidural works by achieving in the patient a lack of feeling and/or pain. It achieves this result by blocking the nerves in and around the spinal-cord of the patient.

Lung Cancer: Lung-cancer can be defined as a disease that results in uncontrollable cell-growth of a malignant nature within the tissues of the patient’s lung or lungs. A particular growth of this nature can lead to a condition called Metastasis – in which the original cancer begins to spread beyond the lungs to other areas of the patient’s body.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI): Also known as Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging (NMRI), this is chiefly a medical imaging technique, and one primarily utilized in radiology to permit viewing of the internal structure of the patient’s body.

Mesothelioma: Mesothelioma is type of cancer that primarily results from exposure to Asbestos dust, and usually over the course of a decade or longer. Malignant cancer starts to appear in the patient’s mesothelium: a lining which offers protection to the bodily organs. Primarily, Mesothelioma appears within the outer-lining of the lungs and the internal chest-wall. It can, however, also surface within the peritoneum (the abdominal cavity lining), the pericardium (a sac surrounding the heart), and the heart.

Palliative Surgery: Most surgeries are designed to offer a cure. Other surgeries, however – including palliative surgery – are focused upon decreasing the patient’s pain via the removal of tumors.

Paracentesis: This is a surgical procedure involving the drainage of fluid from bodily cavities via the insertion of a needle. It is chiefly utilized in conditions affecting the abdomen, such as Peritoneal Mesothelioma.

Pericardial Mesothelioma: A cancer that aggressively attacks the lining of the patient’s heart: the perircardium.

Peritoneal Mesothelioma: This is a form of cancer that focuses on the peritoneum, which is the lining of the abdominal cavity.

Pleura Mesothelioma: A form of cancer that attacks the sac-lining of the chest: the pleura.

Pleurectomy: In a Pleurectomy, the lining of the chest is removed via surgical methodology. With some Mesothelioma patients, an Extrapleural Pneumonectomy (EPP) may be needed. This procedure can be explained as the removal of the chest-lining, the lung, the pericardium, and the hemi-diaphragm.

Pneumonectomy: A Pneumonectomy is a form of surgery that is focused upon lung-removal. Such a procedure is generally undertaken to ensure the removal of tissue that is cancerous.

Radiation Therapy: This is the usage of ionizing-radiation to both manage and obliterate cells that are showing evidence of malignancy. It is generally either the chief or secondary option of therapy available for patients diagnosed with Mesothelioma.

Surgery: Surgery alone does not have a high success rate in the treatment of Mesothelioma. However, when combined with radiation-based therapy and chemotherapy, the results are significantly better: current estimates suggest that this three-pronged attack on Mesothelioma has a 74.6 percent rate of success in lengthening life-spans by half a decade, or perhaps more.

Thoracentesis: This is a surgical procedure that is focused upon the removal of fluid or air (or, indeed, both) for purposes of a therapeutic or diagnostic nature.

Thoractomy: A Thoractomy – which, in layman’s terms is a chest-incision – is carried out to permit access to the thoracic organs, and primarily to the lungs and the heart.

Wrongful Death: A claim for Wrongful Death can be filed if the victim’s exposure to substances of a hazardous nature occurred during their employment – which is usually the case with patients that have been diagnosed with Mesothelioma. It is a claim that allows for action to be brought against specific companies, people, and/or bodies that may be considered liable in a case relating to the death of an individual.