Mesothelioma Cancer

Welcome to the mesothelioma cancer... Mesothelioma is a type of cancer that is nearly always caused by previous contact to asbestos, which is a group of fibrous metamorphic minerals of the hydrous magnesium silicate variety. With this disease, malignant cells shape the body’s membrane that covers most of the internal organs. The most common area for this disease is the pleura, outer lining of the lungs and chest cavity however it may also arise in the peritoneum or the pericardium.

Experts anticipate that people diagnosed with mesothelioma will persist to enlarge in the United States for at lease another 10 to 20 years. At lease 8 million Americans have already been exposed to asbestos particles.


Types

There are three main types of mesothelioma. The most common form is pleural mesothelioma. It is when the cancer is affects the lungs, protective lining, and cavity of the lungs. A rare form is the peritoneal mesothelioma, which affects the stomach and abdomen. The last and the rarest of mesothelioma is the pericardial. This is where the cancer affects the heart and the cavity that surrounds the heart.

Symptoms

Many of the symptoms of mesothelioma are similar to those related with other health problems and in the early stages most patients experience no symptoms at all. The following are some symptoms caused by mesothelioma:

These symptoms are also very common in minor illnesses; therefore, may not cause a doctor to suspect mesothelioma.

Treatment

Usual mesothelioma treatments are the identical as those used to treat most other cancers, and include:

Traditional mesothelioma treatments are often used in conjunction with one another in effort to provide the most thorough and effective method of treatment. For example, trimodality therapy combines all three traditional methods of treatment, where chemotherapy is administered first with the aim of slowing the growth of malignant mesothelioma. Chemotherapy treatments are followed by surgery designed to physically remove a mesothelioma tumor mass. Postoperative radiation therapy is used for the final step, to target any lingering mesothelioma cells. Although trimodality therapy has been unable to eradicate malignant mesothelioma, it has proven to be effective in significantly prolonging patients’ survival time by as much as five years (the average post-diagnosis survival time is one to two years).