Sean Sasser, One-Time Star of MTV's 'Real World,' Dies of Mesothelioma

Celebrity Sean Sasser of MTV fame lived productively for 25 years after being diagnosed with HIV, a testament to the progress that has been made in treating a once-deadly disease. Yet he lived only six weeks after being diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma, a reminder of how aggressive this asbestos cancer is. Sasser, who rose to fame in "The Real World: San Francisco," a reality television show that launched in the 1990s, died last week. He was 44. His death came soon after he was hit by the rare but lethal interaction of these two insidious diseases. "If you are HIV positive, and you get mesothelioma, it's going to travel like wildfire. It happens so fast, it makes your head spin," said Raja Flores, M.D., chief of thoracic surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City and a renowned authority on mesothelioma. "You hardly ever see it – I've seen it only twice in my life -- but you put the two together, and it's a real bad situation," Flores told Asbestos.com. Flores did not treat Sasser and did not speak of him specifically, but he responded to a question about the effect that HIV would have on a mesothelioma patient. Immune System Plays Key Role Mesothelioma, which is diagnosed in an estimated 3,000 Americans annually, is caused by inhalation or ingestion of microscopic asbestos fibers. There is normally a long latency period (10 to 50 years) between exposure and diagnosis. It is diagnosed typically in older patients (65-70) who worked for many years around  asbestos...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - Category: Environmental Health Authors: Tags: Celebrities Source Type: news