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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.