Radiation exposure to the chest
According to several studies, the exposure of radiation, especially to the radioactive substance thorium dioxide present in the X-rays, causes the development of tumor cells leading to mesothelioma. The use of radiation therapy, either to diagnose different cancers or to treat cancer with powerful radiations, becomes the reason for mesothelioma in a lot of patients. The patients of cancer, especially those of lymphoma, are at higher risk of developing mesothelioma due to the excessive and prolonged radiation exposure. The use of particular genetic markers like biomarkers for indicating the tumor also increases the chances of developing mesothelioma in most cancer patients. Moreover, the patients with cancers of the liver, lungs, abdomen who receive radiation exposure for a prolonged time also develop the malignant type of mesothelioma because the radiations damage the genetic material of the cells and mutate the genes, thus causing mesothelioma.