Exposure to asbestos can prompt a form of cancer known as malignant mesothelioma, but it can also cause a noncancerous form of the disease called benign mesothelioma. As the name of the disease implies, it consists of nonmalignant - or noncancerous - growths or tumors within the mesothelial cells of the body. The mesothelium is a protective layer of cells that covers most of the organs in the human body. In both forms of mesothelioma, growths occur within this layer; in the benign type, though, these growths are not cancerous and can be dealt with successfully much more easily than the malignant, cancerous tumors involved in the other form of the disease can be.

Information about Benign Mesothelioma

Since they are not cancerous, the tumors that occur with benign mesothelioma do not spread to other parts of the body - a fact that is largely why this form of mesothelioma is so much easier to contend with. With malignant mesothelioma, the disease is much harder to successfully treat because the cancerous growths may spread to many other parts of the body. The benign tumors that can occur with this sort of mesothelioma, while still dangerous, are much more manageable. Like malignant mesothelioma, this disease is caused by exposure to asbestos and is often treated as a warning sign of the potential for cancerous growths elsewhere in the body by physicians who encounter it.

Symptoms of Benign Mesothelioma

The symptoms of benign mesothelioma are very, very similar to those of malignant mesothelioma. In the pleural form of the disease - which effects the lungs - shortness of breath is quite common. A persistent, dry cough typically occurs in people who are experiencing growths or tumors caused by mesothelioma; unlike with malignant mesothelioma, though, the benign version of the illness does not usually involve night sweats or weight loss. The biggest different between benign and malignant mesothelioma is that the former is much more treatable and has a far lower mortality rate than malignant forms of the disease.