Mesothelioma is a Signature Disease - What Does That MeanAttorney Joe Williams

Mesothelioma has been called a signature disease,
a signature of asbestos exposure. So what does that mean? Hi. I'm Joe Williams. I'm
a mesothelioma trial attorney in New York City and I'm going to answer this question
for you by explaining to you what a signature disease is.

So a doctor or scientist, a physician,
whenever they see a patient with mesothelioma they immediately think asbestos exposure.
And why is that? That's because mesothelioma is a signature disease. The disease bears
the signature of exposure to asbestos. So every physician who is evaluating a patient's
case -- mesothelioma case -- will immediately be looking for asbestos exposures. The known
and widely accepted cause of mesothelioma is exposure to asbestos.

That means that all
the physicians know to a certainty that particular patient who's been diagnosed with mesothelioma
was exposed to asbestos. Now sometimes patients think well mesothelioma is a form of cancer.
What kind of things have I done in my life that could have caused me to get cancer? They
start thinking about things like smoking cigarettes. Well I can tell you that there's no doctor
in the world that would say that smoking cigarettes caused mesothelioma because it doesn't. They
think, well, I was exposed to a lot of chemicals or I was out in the sun.

Or we tend to think
about all the things that we know are known carcinogens. But mesothelioma is a very unique
cancer. Only 2,000 cases diagnosed per year in the United States. And the widely accepted
cause of mesothelioma is asbestos, not these other things that sometimes we think of.

So
persons exposed to asbestos fibers, it takes years and years for the asbestos fibers to
cause malignant mesothelioma and you're in this position of years later chasing back
what your possible exposures to asbestos could have been. Well, I encourage you to call my
office. I'm Joe Williams and we answer questions for mesothelioma victims every day. We represent
mesothelioma victims and their families in court every day and we can answer your questions.
I hope you found this video informative and thank you very much for watching..