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What is Mesothelioma?
Mesothelioma is a cancer that affects the thin membrane protecting several of the body’s most important organs, including the lungs, abdomen and heart. This cancer takes its name from the name that is given to this lining - the mesothelium. Treatment for mesothelioma includes surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and other treatments.
The primary cause of mesothelioma is exposure to asbestos, a naturally-occurring, fire-resistant mineral used by many industries including construction, manufacturing, and the military. There are roughly 3,000 new cases of mesothelioma in the United States every year. It may take decades from the time of asbestos exposure for mesothelioma to develop.
Types of Mesothelioma
Pleural mesothelioma affects the protective lining of the lungs, the pleura. It’s the most common location where the disease occurs — about 75 percent of all diagnosed cases are pleural. If you’ve been diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma, you’ve got the most treatment options available, and the highest life expectancy.
Peritoneal mesothelioma affects the protective lining of the abdominal cavity, the area of your body containing several organs, including the stomach, intestines, kidneys, and liver. It’s the second most common location where mesothelioma occurs—about 20 to 24 percent of all mesotheliomas occur here.
Pericardial mesothelioma affects the protective lining of the heart. It’s a rare location where mesothelioma occurs, and accounts for about 1% of all cases. Because it’s rare, doctors do not get to treat many patients with mesothelioma in the pericardium.
Testicular mesothelioma affects the serous membrane, or “tunica vaginalis,” surrounding the testes in men. As the rarest form of mesothelioma cancer, it is considered highly aggressive and is known to metastasize rather quickly, but accounts for only 1% of mesothelioma cases in the United States each year.
Like other forms of cancer, mesothelioma occurs when cells become abnormal and divide or grow out of control. When someone has mesothelioma, the lubricating fluid in the lining may be over-produced. This excess fluid encases the organs with a thick layer of tumor tissue, described as a rind type of layer, that puts pressure on the organs. People with pleural mesothelioma often complain of shortness of breath and a buildup of fluid in the chest area. In advanced cases of mesothelioma, cells metastasize, or grow and invade other organs and spread to other areas of the body.
Mesothelioma Symptoms
It often takes 10 to 60 years after exposure to asbestos before the symptoms of mesothelioma develop. This period of time is referred to as a latency period. Because of the latency period, the disease commonly affects men and women that are at least 50 years of age and that worked with asbestos between 10 and 60 years ago.
However, there are many known cases of people developing mesothelioma at an earlier age. Often these are the sons and daughters of parents who were exposed to asbestos and who unwittingly brought the invisible dust home on their clothes. In some cases, a parent did home remodeling projects and used products, such as joint compound, that contained asbestos. In some cases the child was around the parent as the parent changed the brakes - lined with asbestos - in the family car. This is called secondary exposure to asbestos.
Many people working 10 to 60 years ago were not required to use any type of protection in the workplace while they were exposed to asbestos even though the companies that manufactured the products containing asbestos had full knowledge that it was dangerous and that exposure to asbestos would harm the health of many of the workers.
Mesothelioma Diagnosis
Mesothelioma is not easy to diagnose. As with other cancers, an early diagnosis is important to effective treatment of mesothelioma. When caught in an early stage, there may be more mesothelioma treatment options available. If you believe that you may have mesothelioma and that you worked with asbestos in the past, you should inform your doctor of this fact.
The disease is often misdiagnosed, especially in the first few visits to a doctor. Doctors may run multiple tests before they settle on a diagnosis. These tests can be expensive and may take weeks to run. The doctors may diagnose other, more common ailments, such as pneumonia. They may prescribe the wrong treatments, such as antibiotics. In the meantime, mesothelioma may continue to develop and spread.
Doctors may perform a series of tests such as x-rays, CT scans, PET scans, a fluid biopsy (called cytology), and a tumor biopsy to diagnose mesothelioma. The diagnosis will be based on consideration of all tests and the clinical findings of your doctors.
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