Symptoms of Mesothelioma

The main symptoms of Mesothelioma are shortness of breath, blood in the chest, severe coughing, pain in the chest, and rapid weightloss. Remember thee two kinds of Mesothelioma, which are Pleural and Peritoneal. Pleural is the most common for and the symptoms are listed above. Peritoneal symptoms include swelling of the feet, a constant feeling of nausea, fever, impaired bowel function, and abdominal bloating. The bloating is caused by excessive fluids in the chest cavity. It is important to get checked out by a physician if you have a majority of these symptoms. In general, people that have Mesothelioma wait too long before going to a doctor, because they relate the above symptoms to other physoligical factors in their livers. This is especially true with the symptoms of weight loss, bloating, fever, and nausea.

Also just as in any kind of cancer, there are two forms of Mesothelioma. They are benign and malignant. Usually benign Mesothelioma has few symptoms, if any, which makes it that much harder to detect. Malignant Mesothelioma will cause the typical symptoms that have been discussed in the first paragraph. The later the malignant mesothelioma goes undetected the more signs of fever and weight loss will occur.

When the patient tells the doctor about their symptoms, and he/she believes that the symptoms are Mesothelioma, the doctor will preform certain tests to make sure that an accurate diagnosis of Pleural or Peritoneal Mesothelioma can be made. A physical exam, chest X-ray, a CBC blood count test (this test measures the amount of red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, and hemoglobin in the red blood cells), a sedimentation rate (this test checks the rate at which red blood cells settle to the bottom of a test tube), a biopsy test (this involves a fine needle aspiration biopsy, thoracoscopy, laporatomy, and a thoracotomy biopsy), a bronchoscopy (this involves looking inside of the trachea in order to find abnormally large areas), and a cytologic exam (the doctor exams cells to determine if there is anything abnormal about the cells.

Diagnosis of Mesothelioma--Once the prognosis is made by the physician, the cancer will fall into on of four categories. The categories are stage one, stage two, stage three and stage four. Stage one cancer is localalized, meaning that it will be in the lungs and/or the diaphram. Stages two, three, and four cancer is more advanced. Stage two Mesothelioma will be found in the lymph nodes and like stage one cancer will be found in the lungs and diaphragm. Stage three cancer will advance to the chest wall, mediastinum, the heart beyond the diaphragm, and the lining of the peritoneum. Stage four cancer, the most advanced, will spread to distant organs or tissues.

Treatment for Mesothelioma-- If you have a majority of the above symptoms or have family or friends that complain about these symptoms; go to the doctor. This fact can not be reiterated enough. Treatment options, though slim, are slowly progressing with technology. Currently, when someone is diagnosed with the Pleural or Peritoneal forms of Mesothelioma the doctor should suggest two types of treatment. One being the typical or traditional way of treating Pleural or Peritoneal Mesothelioma and the other being advanced treatments which are generally referred to as clinical trials. Surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy are currently the traditional ways of treating Mesothelioma.

Surgery can persist of Wide Local Excision, which is surgery to remove the cancer and some of the healthy tissue that surrounds the cancer; Decortication which is surgery to remove some of the covering of the lungs, lining of the chest, and a part of the exterior surface of the lungs; Extrapleural pneumonetomy which is surgery to remove the entire lung, some of the lining of the chest, the entire diaphragm, and the lining of the sac that is around the heart; and Pleurodesis which is surgery that uses chemicals or drugs to make a scar in the layers in between the pleura. The purpose of the last treatment mentioned is to stop the excessive fluid in the pleural cavity.

Radiation entails destroying the cancer cells with high powered radiation. The most common being X-rays.

Chemotherapy involves using drugs to terminate the growth of cancer cells. Chemo can be injected directly into the body, which is done through veins, muscles, spinal cavities, or organs, and enters the blood stream, when taken by mouth or injection and kills the cancer cells. In the instance of chemotherapy performed through the spinal cavities or organs the drugs can kill some of the surrounding tissue.

Please remember that this is not medical advice and a doctor should be contact as soon as possible when symptoms arise.

Mesothelioma Article (abstract)

By Elaine Lies

TOKYO, July 15 (Reuters) - A surge in the number of reported Japanese deaths linked to asbestos some 25 years after the first world health warnings has sparked accusations of government negligence over its policies toward the cancer-causing material. Media have been filled with revelations of asbestos-related deaths and warnings of more to come in the two weeks since farm equipment maker Kubota Corp. said 79 former employees may have died of such illnesses over several decades. Health Ministry data show that nearly 900 people died from mesothelioma, a lethal cancer of the chest and abdominal cavities caused mainly by asbestos exposure, in 2003 alone. The Trade Ministry announced on Friday that a survey of 89 companies found that 374 employees have died of asbestos-related illnesses over decades and 88 are being treated. The situation, experts say, echoes a 1990s blood products scandal in which thousands were infected with HIV due to a delay in banning unheated blood products, despite knowing their risks. "Japan's asbestos policy is far behind that of other developed nations," said Fuyushi Nagakura, director of the Asbestos Centre, a group that supports patients with asbestos-linked illnesses. "The national government is scrambling to respond after things have already happened, which is a bit similar to their response to the AIDS blood scandal." Asbestos, used collectively to refer to a group of fibrous minerals long used as fire retardants, was identified as a carcinogen by the World Health Organization in 1980, and new uses of it were banned in the United States in 1989. Japan, however, did not ban the two most toxic kinds of asbestos until 1995, although their use had tapered off over the previous few decades. The use of all types of asbestos in construction was not banned until last year, and it was only last week, amid the furore, that the government moved to ban all uses of asbestos -- from 2008. Kubota's disclosure of its employees' deaths as well as the fact that three residents living near a now-closed plant were ill prompted other firms to report asbestos-linked deaths among their employees and, in some cases, the workers' family members.