There are a variety of diseases that stem from asbestos exposure. The most common kinds of these diseases would be asbestosis, lung cancer, pleural plaques and mesothelioma. Asbestosis occurs when an individual inhales particles of asbestos over very long period. It grows into becoming a chronic and prolonged disease which causes problems to the lungs and other major difficulties with time. Anyhow, asbestosis is not a cancerous disease unlike mesothelioma which is a cancerous disease that affects the protective lining of the organs such as the lungs, heart etc. inside the body. The most common cause of mesothelioma is asbestos exposure and does not seem to exist among individuals who do not have exposure to asbestos.

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Mesothelioma is a kind of lung cancer, in which the cells of the mesothelium acquire cancer and grow un-controllably. The mesothelium is a covering membrane that guards the lungs, the heart and abdominal organs. It is two-layered and between the two layers, the cells produce a serum which allows for relative mobility of the organs and their protection from shocks and jerks within their repective cavities. The mesothelium that covers the lungs is called pleural mesothelium and a cancer of this mesothelium is pleural mesothelioma.

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When an individual is diagnosed with lung cancer, it is a common thing to detect pleural effusions in him too. Pleural effusions are obviously not a safe thing to be diagnosed but it is not dangerous if it is dealt with immediately. It is important the doctor states whether or not the pleural effusion is cancerous. But what exactly is pleural effusion? It is the extra fluid that begins to fill up the space around the pleural cavity which is in simpler words the lungs. Obviously if there is an excess of this fluid around the lungs, it limits the space that the lungs require to respire and hinders the process of breathing for the individual.

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Malignant pleural effusion is a complication that arises because of a disturbance in the procedure of re-absorption of fluids present in the pleural cavity (the serous cavity covering the lungs) caused by cancer. Excessive amounts of fluids accumulate in the cavity and this obstructs the expansion of lungs during normal breathing, thus making breathing difficult. The fluids that may accumulate in the pleural cavity causing malignant pleural effusion are blood, chile, pus and serous fluid (produced within the pleural membranes).

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Pleural effusion occurs when too much of fluid congests the space between the lungs and hampers the process of breathing as very little space is left for the chest to expand. Pleural effusion is a disastrous thing a patient with malignant neoplasms can experience. The new concept of pleural effusion might be a development of a malignancy that occurred before and remained undiagnosed. The first thing that can be done about malignant pleural effusion in to avail of thoracentesis where a sample specimen is taken and sent for testing so the stage and state of the problem can be diagnosed. If no definite result is gathered from a thoracentesis, pleural biopsy can be conducted.

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