Last month, when former football and television star Merlin Olsen died of mesothelioma at age 69, it was the first many Americans had heard of the disease. Mesothelioma is a rare cancer that affects the thin layer of tissue that covers most internal organs. The most common form, affecting the lungs, is what killed Olsen. According to the American Cancer Society, 2,000 to 3,000 Americans are diagnosed with the condition each year.

Symptoms include shortness of breath, painful breathing or coughing, chest pain under the rib cage, unusual lumps of tissue under the skin on your chest, and unexplained weight loss. People who worked with asbestos are thought to be at greatest risk of mesothelioma, probably from inhaling the fibers. But doctors don’t know how or why the fibers trigger the disease. Symptoms may not develop until 30 or 40 years after exposure. The risk is greatly increased in smokers.

The condition is often aggressive and because it is commonly mistaken for other problems, for most people there is no cure. If it is diagnosed at an early stage, standard cancer treatments — including surgery, chemotherapy and radiation — can help.

— Markian Hawryluk, The Bulletin