Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

Asbestos is especially tricky because there is one uncurable and terrible cancer that it is the only known cause of--although we are reasonably certain it isn't the only cause, it's the only known cause. That has been a boon to the mass tort lawyers in a way that no other substance (that I'm aware of) has benefited them. Also tricky because there is asbestos in the ambient air in a lot of places that has nothing to do with industrial asbestos exposure. It's a natural substance that is out there in the air we breath, even if we've never been near an asbestos-related product.

(To be fair to the zealots, we have probably all been near an asbestos-related product at some point--but the stuff is only dangerous if friable, and the amount of friable asbestos in the modern U.S. from asbestos-related products is pretty low.)

The cancer is mesothelioma, and for all practical purposes (that I'm aware of), asbestos is the only cause.  If you have mesothelioma, you've had contact with asbestos.  I've yet to hear of any instance where that's not true.  My wife has diagnosed many patients, unfortunately, and turned them over to oncology.  They generally aren't anyone's patient for very long. 

I just had a cousin die from it, he was exposed to asbestos many years ago, in his railroad career.  It's a crap cancer and a crap way to go, and watching him wither and die from it sucked.  Although I supposed there aren't many good cancers, except maybe Hodgkin Lymphoma in young people, which is pretty curable.  He was near enough to MD Anderson to go there, but it doesn't matter.  We can't hardly even slow that one down. 

This is pure conjecture worth precisely what you paid for it, and I'm no kind of medical professional.  I hypothesize that a major reason for what you mentioned is that many/most other cancers have much quicker diagnoses compared to mesothelioma.  The quicker you start treating the problem, obviously the better off you are.  I once asked Mrs. DeTiger about the massive delay in asbestos exposure and the onset of cancer.....I mean often we're talking multiple decades.  She said something about the way it works, how slow the process is that eventually becomes cancer.  I believe it has something to do with the lungs, where the problem originates (I'm going way off the reservation now, as far as if I remember this correctly), and due to the particular way the lungs operate compared to so many other organs, the time frame for the body to be affected such that cancer occurs, is longer.  When other cancers are diagnosed, I speculate that one is much closer to the external or genetic factor that lead to it, when treatment may be more helpful.  By the time mesothelioma is spotted, the body has been "processing" those asbestos fibers for years, and the patient is much further away from the triggering event. 

That theory has a flaw I can think of, so even if relevant, it's probably not the only factor.