Mesothelioma
Mesothelioma cancer most commonly develops in the lungs of people exposed to asbestos.
Effective treatments are available to ease symptoms and improve your prognosis.
Mesothelioma is a rare cancer caused almost exclusively by exposure to asbestos. It usually affects the thin, protective membrane surrounding the lungs, heart or abdominal cavity. Doctors diagnose an estimated 3,000 cases of mesothelioma a year in the United States, and the majority of those are traced to job-related exposure.
Although asbestos use declined dramatically in recent decades in this country, the incidence of mesothelioma remains steady. That difference can be traced to the distinct latency period linked to mesothelioma. The disease can take anywhere from 20 to 50 years after exposure to asbestos before it shows obvious symptoms and an oncologist can make a definitive diagnosis. While no cure for the disease exists and the prognosis is typically poor, researchers made significant progress in recent years in understanding mesothelioma and developing new treatment options and alternative therapies.
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Although asbestos use declined dramatically in recent decades in this country, the incidence of mesothelioma remains steady. That difference can be traced to the distinct latency period linked to mesothelioma. The disease can take anywhere from 20 to 50 years after exposure to asbestos before it shows obvious symptoms and an oncologist can make a definitive diagnosis. While no cure for the disease exists and the prognosis is typically poor, researchers made significant progress in recent years in understanding mesothelioma and developing new treatment options and alternative therapies.
Symptoms of mesothelioma
Most people present with complaints of shortness of breath. They also can have complaints of chest pain. Surprisingly, this pain is often not pleuritic; that is, it does not get worse with deep breathing. This is surprising in that the pleura (outer surface of the lung) is often involved in this disease, and most other diseases involving the pleura are often associated with pleuritic pain (pain that worsens with deep breathing). Patients may also be asymptomatic, with the disease discovered by physical exam or an abnormal chest X-ray.
As the disease progresses, shortness of breath increases, and weight loss, decreased appetite, and night sweats can develop. Local invasion by the tumor can result in changing of voice, loss of function of the diaphragm, and symptoms specific to the area and involvement of adjacent structures. View more about mesothelioma symptoms.
Types of mesothelioma
Pleural mesothelioma is the most common type of mesothelioma, representing about 75 percent of cases. Peritoneal mesothelioma is the second most common type, consisting of about 10 to 20 percent of cases. Approximately 1 percent of cases are of the pericardial variety. Another rare type known as testicular mesothelioma represents less than 1 percent of cases. View more about the types of mesothelioma.
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| Pleural This type forms in the lining of the lungs. An increased incidence rate led to more studies to improve treatment methods and survival rates. |
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| Peritoneal Developing in the lining of the abdominal cavity, peritoneal mesothelioma responds best to a combination of surgery and heated chemotherapy. |
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| Pericardial Emerging from the lining of the heart, pericardial mesothelioma is the most challenging to treat because of tumor location. |
What causes mesothelioma?
Most people with malignant mesothelioma have worked on jobs where they breathed asbestos.
Usually, this involves men over 40 years of age. Others have been exposed to asbestos in a household environment, often without knowing it. Interestingly, the number of new cases of mesothelioma has been relatively stable since 1983, the same time that the restrictions on asbestos were instituted by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). In Europe, the number of new cases of mesothelioma continues to rise. View more about the causes of mesothelioma.
How Mesothelioma is Diagnosed
All patients have a unique path to a diagnosis, but the most important factors to an accurate diagnosis are imaging scans and biopsies. Doctors use several tests to diagnose mesothelioma. Most people initially undergo a basic chest X-ray to check for any abnormalities. If abnormal growth is detected, a doctor will recommend a more detailed imaging scan like a PET scan, CT scan or MRI. If mesothelioma is suspected, a biopsy will be recommended. In a biopsy, a tissue sample is collected to confirm the presence of mesothelioma cells.
Blood tests for mesothelioma are also available, but they do not confirm the presence of mesothelioma. Research and development is underway to determine if mesothelioma blood tests can aid in early diagnosis for at-risk former asbestos workers. View more about how mesothelioma diagnosed.
Mesothelioma Treatment
Treatment options for mesothelioma include surgery, chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy. Many mesothelioma doctors prefer to combine two or more of these treatments, an approach known as multimodal therapy. Clinical trials show this approach has improved survival rates. View more about mesothelioma treatment.
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| Surgery Curative surgery is available for early stage patients, while palliative surgery is best for late-stage patients and helps to ease symptoms. |
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| Chemotherapy Chemotherapy is often combined with surgery or radiation therapy to kill malignant cells, shrink tumors, prevent recurrence and relieve symptoms. |
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| Radiation Radiation therapy is used alone or in combination with chemotherapy or surgery to kill cancer cells, manage tumors and prevent tumor seeding. |
Survivors
Despite the often poor prognosis of someone who has malignant mesothelioma, there are a number of encouraging stories of success – bios of people who are beating the disease and living to celebrate special days with wives, husbands, kids and grandkids. Each mesothelioma survivor has a tale to tell, and there is something to take away from every story. View more about mesothelioma life expectancy.
Recent Mesothelioma News
Researchers at the National Cancer Institute recently uncovered a better way to useimmunotoxin drugs like SS1P to kill mesothelioma cancer cells without harming the healthy ones. The key was finding the right drug combination to work as immune suppressors, which allowed the immunotoxin to work more effectively. The results were impressive, as a large percentage of patients with advanced mesothelioma found their tumors shrink during a recent trial with SS1P.
University of Pennsylvania researchers also came up with a recent advancement in the staging of mesothelioma, which should allow doctors to diagnose the disease earlier and treat it more effectively. Their study involved previously overlooked posterior intercostal lymph nodes, which were examined for the first time in patients who had undergone radical pleurectomies. View latest mesothelioma treatments.
View Article Sources
- Bowker, M. (2003). Fatal Deception: The Untold Story of Asbestos. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
- Cavette, C. (1994). Asbestos. How Products are Made, 4.
- Dodson, R. and Hammar, S. (2011). Asbestos: Risk Assessment, Epidemiology, and Health Effects. Boca Raton: Taylor & Francis.
- Environmental Protection Agency. (2011, August 22). Asbestos: Basic Information. Retrieved fromhttp://www.epa.gov/asbestos/pubs/help.html#pastandpresent
- Environmental Working Group. (2009). The Failed EPA Asbestos Ban: Asbestos manufacturing and sale of asbestos-containing goods in still legal in the U.S. Retrieved from http://www.ewg.org/sites/asbestos/facts/fact5.php
- Johns Manville. (2008). Building on Tradition [PDF document]. Retrieved fromhttp://www.jm.com/marketing/jm150/pdf/JM150thCommemorativePublication-English.pdf
- Kalanik, L., McNulty, M., Stansell, C. (2005, January 1). Johns Manville Corporation. [Abstract]. International Directory of Company Histories. Retrieved from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G2-3429100062.html
- U.S. Geological Survey. (2005). [Asbestos] statistics, in Kelly, T.D., and Matos, G.R.,comps. Historical statistics for mineral and material commodities in the United States: U.S. Geological Survey Data Series 140 [Data file]. Retrieved from http://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/2005/140/
Asbestos removal is nasty no matter how you do it… whether you just scrape it off or remove the wall board completely. Dust will be created either way, and that is the health issue.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.mesotheliomacancernews.com/mesothelioma-lawyers-state
I got much information on your blog, I will surely share it to others. The treatment of mesothelioma varies with types of its kind. Like other cancerous diseases, there are specialists in mesothelioma in various developed states of the world. Thanks.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.mesotheliomacancernews.com/mesothelioma-lawyers-state