Mesothelioma is a rare and aggressive cancer that is very difficult to diagnose. Most common type of mesothelioma cancer is the cancer of the pleura or pleural mesothelioma. Out of all the mesothelioma cases 75% are diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma.
It is caused due to exposure to asbestos fibers that enter the body through inhaling or with food and water. These asbestos gather in the pleura, lining of the lungs and cause inflammation which leads to development of tumors. It shows after decades of the initial exposure to asbestos. It is often misdiagnosed as many of its early symptoms are similar to the more common illnesses like; flu, cold and bronchitis. Due to the similarities in the symptoms, it is generally diagnosed at its last stages which make the treatment very difficult.
Patients have been known to lose their lives with in a year of being diagnosed. Pleural mesothelioma is not the same as lung cancer which originates from the lung but it actually is formed in the lining of the lung. Pleural effusion is very likely to occur it is the reason for the breathlessness and pain in the chest. Pleural effusion means the excess amount of fluids present in the pleura which is the fluid filled are surrounding the lungs. Presence of the excess fluids limits the space for lung expansion which causes difficulty in breathing. Pleural mesothelioma is more likely to develop in the right and the lower section of the lungs.
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Symptoms:
Most common and earliest symptoms are breathlessness and chest pain which occurs due to the pleural effusion; it is the excess amount of fluid present between parietal and visceral pleura (lining of chest and lungs, respectively). Pain may also be felt in the shoulder or upper abdomen. Patients may also experience hoarseness, cough up blood, unexplained weight loss, muscular weakness and nausea.
Very rare symptoms include fever, chills, and night sweats.
Diagnosing:
80% – 95% clients display pleural effusion in X-ray, the remainder show very little or zero liquid. CT scans not only show somewhat greater outcomes. Nowadays, the method of preference may be the VATS (video-assisted thoracoscopy) technique, which features a analysis yield of >95%, and enables pleural biopsy, discharge of of the fluid and the pleurodesis.
Treatment:
Although there have been vast improvement but still the prognosis for pleural mesothelioma remains disappointing. Treatment of mesothelioma at early stages has a better prognosis, but chances of a cure are very rare. There are three kinds of traditional treatments for patients of mesothelioma.
Radiation therapy (using high-dose x-rays or other high energy rays to kill cancer)
Surgery (taking out the cancer)
Chemotherapy (using drug to fight the cancer)
Treatment of the pleural mesothelioma depends on many factors including: the stage of the stage of cancer, how far it has spread, how the cells look under a microscope and age of the patient.
If a person experiences the symptoms of mesothelioma and is aware of being exposed to asbestos fibers, he/she must consult a doctor for regular check up and scanning. Prolonging the diagnosis only gives time to the tumor ot spread to other organs of the body.
External Links
- ATSDR – Case Studies in Environmental Medicine: Asbestos Toxicity U.S. Department of Health and Human Service (public domain)
- Mesothelioma: Questions and Answers from the U.S. National Cancer Institute
- Cancer.gov: Malignant Mesothelioma from the U.S. National Cancer Institute
- Mesothelioma from the American Cancer Society
- Malignant Mesothelioma review article from the American Cancer Society
- Medlineplus: Mesothelioma from MEDLINE, part of the United States National Library of Medicine
- Worksafe, Western Australia, from Western Australia’s Department of Consumer and Employment Protection
- US Nat’l Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, from the Centers for Disease Control
- Australian Mesothelioma Register
- What is Mesothelioma? Research and advocacy from the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation
- Radiology of mesotheliomas, with additional examples from Radiopaedia.org
- Clinically reviewed mesothelioma information from Cancer Research UK
- UK mesothelioma statistics from Cancer Research UK
- Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma NCCN Patient Guidelines for Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma National Comprehensive Cancer Network