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Introduction

Mesothelioma is a cancer which affects the tissue which surrounds and protects various organs in the body. This tissue is called the Mesothelium, and Mesothelioma causes it to become abnormal, divide without control, and invade and damage nearby organs. The most common form is pleural mesothelioma which affects the sac that lines the chest cavity and protects the lungs (the pleura). Other forms are peritoneum mesothelioma (which affects the abdominal cavity) and pericardium mesothelioma (affecting the lining around the heart). The tumours can be either benign (non-cancerous) or malignant (cancerous) although they are most often malignant.

Causes

Mesothelioma is caused by the inhalation of asbestos, a fibrous carcinogenic. These fibres lodge themselves in the lining of the lung affecting the mesothelial cells. Sometimes they cause scarring of the lungs (which is called asbestosis) but this is not cancerous. They can, however, trigger tumour growth between 20 to 50 years after they are inhaled (the average is 35 to 40 years). Asbestos fibres which are swallowed can reach the lining of the abdominal cavity where they play a part in causing peritoneal mesothelioma.

It is generally the case that the longer or more intense the exposure to asbestos the more likely Mesothelioma is to occur. However, there are cases of people getting Mesothelioma years after having worked with it for just a few months. The families of asbestos workers are also at risk as they would possibly have been exposed to asbestos fibres on the clothing of their loved ones.

The dangers of asbestos are now well known, but this was not always the case. Before the 1970s asbestos was a primary insulating material with little or no control in its use or handling. The resulting increase in cases of Mesothelioma is a direct cause of these past practices.

Symptoms

Mesothelioma is often advanced before symptoms occur. This means that the prognosis is not usually very good, with the average survival time for all stages of Malignant Mesothelioma being about one year. Symptoms resemble pneumonia, which coughs, breathing difficulties and abdominal pain being common.

Treatments

Mesothelioma can be treated by chemotherapy, radiotherapy or surgery, or a combination of the three.

Surgery
Extra pleural pneumonectomy is where the entire lung and a portion of the lining of the chest, the diaphragm, and some or the entire sac which surrounds the heart is removed.

Wide local excision targets and removes the cancer and a limited amount of the healthy tissue surrounding the cancerous region.

Pleurectomy and decortication removes part of the covering of the lungs, as well as the lining of the chest and portions of the outside covering of the lungs.

Pleurodesis uses a blend of chemicals and/or drugs to create an intentional scar between the layers of the pleura. Post surgery, the space created by the scar must be drained, using either a catheter or chest tube, and is then filled with a chemical which inhibits the accumulation of fluid in the pleura cavity.

Radiation Therapy
Radiation Therapy uses high energy x-rays to kill cancer cells.

In External radiation therapy a machine emits radiation in a targeted stream at a certain portion of the body.

Internal radiation therapy uses needles, seeds and catheters to place radioactive substance directly on or near the cancer.

Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy uses cancer targeting drugs to stop the cells them from dividing and thus prevent their growth.

Are you or a loved one unsure about a Papillary Mesothelioma prognosis? Find out what you need to know about Mesothelioma at our website. Papillary Mesothelioma is a form of Mesothelioma that has a…

Are you or a loved one unsure about a Papillary Mesothelioma prognosis? Find out what you need to know about Mesothelioma at our website. Papillary Mesothelioma is a form of Mesothelioma that has a…

Are you or a loved one unsure about a Papillary Mesothelioma prognosis? Find out what you need to know about Mesothelioma at our website. Papillary Mesothelioma is a form of Mesothelioma that has a…

Pleural Mesothelioma is a type of cancer that is most often found in people who have, at some point during their lives been exposed to high levels of asbestos. Asbestos is a type of naturally occurring mineral that was, for many years mixed with cement, plaster and paint and used in the interiors of houses. It was used as it is highly resistant to heat and is surprisingly strong. Unfortunately asbestos is made up of thin fibres which have since been found to be highly toxic to humans when they get into the body and it is these fibres that can be breathed in and cause a large number of health problems.

Due to the way that asbestos acts once inside the body it is usually many years later that asbestos related Pleural Mesothelioma is noticed. Pleural Mesothelioma is normally diagnosed when there is a change in the thin layer of membranes that are in the chest. When this pleural lining thickens or starts to calcify it is known as pleural plaques. These plaques in themselves are not always a definite precursor to cancer but they can greatly affect the function of the lungs and they can signal the start of Pleural Mesothelioma.

Pleural Mesothelioma may begin in the pleura but it can soon radiate outwards to the abdomen, the heart and the outer wall of the chest. When this happens and a diagnosis of Pleural Mesothelioma is made the prognosis is not good and many patients with Pleural Mesothelioma are not expected to live much longer than 12 months or so. With this in mind it is critical that anyone who has had previous exposure to asbestos is regularly tested for any changes in the pleura as this is an early sign that Pleural Mesothelioma could be imminent. When Pleural Mesothelioma is suspected early enough the patient can be treated and this can help them to live much longer than someone who has been diagnosed with full blown Pleural Mesothelioma.

Some of the symptoms of Pleural Mesothelioma are pain in the lower back, shortness of breath and pain towards the side of the chest. Some people may have problems when swallowing, have a cough that will not go away and in some cases a patient might even be coughing up blood. Some people also find that they start to lose weight quite rapidly once the disease sets in.

As the outlook for a person with Pleural Mesothelioma is not good as treatment can be quite limited due to the aggressive nature of the disease. If the disease is caught quickly enough surgery can help to remove the pleura that are affected and the patient will live for longer than someone with advanced Pleural Mesothelioma. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy are also options that some doctors will use to further extend the life of their patient but this does need to be carefully considered. Painkillers are used to keep the patient as comfortable as possible and other complimentary therapies can be used.

Treatment of malignant mesothelioma can be very difficult for a wide variety of reasons. First and foremost, mesothelioma can be difficult to correctly diagnose and may not show up in a patient for decades. This can create problems for treatment because with mesothelioma, as with all cancers, treatment is more difficult the longer the disease has been allowed to progress. In addition to the difficulties created by delayed treatment of mesothelioma, the disease often does not respond to traditional cancer treatments, further complicating treatment. Also, the organs that are involved in mesothelioma cannot be partially or wholly removed usually, which means that surgical options can be extremely limited. Lastly, the fact that the majority of mesothelioma patients are men of advanced age, usually over 50, means that some more radical treatment approaches cannot be used because of declining health due to old age.

Altogether, this can mean that even mesothelioma patients that have been recently diagnosed can be given a fairly negative prognosis from their doctos. Statistics are hard to come by, but British scientists suggest that 10% of newly diagnosed mesothelioma patients will live for at least three more years; Only 5% will live five years or longer. For patients in the first stage, 50% live for at least two more years. However doctors can be mistaken, and a diagnosis of mesothelioma is in no way always tantamount to a death sentence. In one famous case, scientist Stephen Jay Gould survived with peritoneal mesothelioma for almost twenty years. Eventually, he died from another kind of cancer.

There are four stages of malignant mesothelioma, which measure how far the disease has progressed. How a patient’s mesothelioma is treated depends largely on which stage he or she is in when the disease is found.

* Stage I: Localized mesothelioma that exists only in the lungs, the diaphragm or the pericardial lining.

* Stage II: Advanced mesothelioma that has spread into the lymph nodes of the chest.

* Stage III: Advanced mesotheioma that has spread into the wall of the chest, the center of the chest, the lining of the heart and the diaphragm. Stage III malignant mesothelioma may or may not have spread to the lymph nodes.

* Stage IV: Advanced mesothelioma that has spread far from the chest and abdomen into other organs.

Surgery

Patients with Stage I or milder Stage II mesothelioma are generally offered one or more of the conventional cancer treatments: surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. For early-stage patients, surgery for mesothelioma aims to cure the disease by literally cutting the cancer out of the patient’s body. The most common type of surgery for pleural mesothelioma is a pleurectomy/decortication, which is where doctors remove all or part of the tissues lining the lungs and chest cavity. If doctors find that they can’t remove the cancer without removing the lung underneath those tissues, they may remove one lung as well; this is called a pneumonectomy. A more radical type of surgery for pleural mesothelioma is called an extrapleural pneunonectomy (EPP). In the case of an EPP, surgeons will remove parts of one lung, the pleura, the diaphragm, and the lining of the heart. These are quite dangerous and difficult types of surgery, which will not be recommended lightly by doctors or surgeons.

Patients with peritoneal mesothelioma — the kind that affects the abdomen — may be offered cytoredutive surgery. In this surgery, doctors are trying to remove all of the cancerous tissue they can find in the abdomen and gut. Doctors may also opt for a peritonectomy, in which the entire lining of the abdomen is removed. Again, this is not an easy surgery and may not be possible for everyone, but it has been successful in some patients. Patients with pericardial mesothelioma are not generally offered surgery.

Radiation and Chemotherapy

In addition to or instead of surgery, doctors may offer an early-stage mesothelioma patient chemotherapy, radiation or both. Radiation and chemotherapy are designed to kill the cancer cells without killing the patient. Unfortuantely, in order to kill the cancerous cells, these treatments often kill healthy cells as well. This is why cancer patients often lose their hair, have trouble eating and feel generally weak and sick during treatment. Doctors who prescribe chemotherapy or radiation may also suggest dietary supplements or other measures to control these symptoms.

Chemotherapy is any treatment where patients are given chemical medication specifically designed to attack the cancer cells as the undergo cell division. The drug is swallowed or injected into the bloodstream regularly over a period of weeks or months, in cycles that give a patient some recovery time in between treatments. A patient could stay at home, only requiring visits to a doctor’s office for treatments; sometimes, they can even have the treatments at home. In some cases, doctors may choose to apply chemotherapy drugs directly to the cancerous tissue; this requires surgery, so patients must check into a hospital. There are many different kinds of chemotherapy drugs, and scientists are trying to develop better ones every day.

Radiation therapy seeks to kill the cancer cells with high-energy rays of radiation, such as x-rays, that stop them from growing. With external-beam radiation, patients will be subjected to directed rays of radiation directed as specific parts of the body affected by cancer. This treatment lasts about 30 minutes a day and is given in the exact same way each day over a period of weeks. In internal radiation therapy (brachytherapy), doctors put a container of radioactive material next to the cancerous tissue, using surgery or an existing body cavity. Some will be left in the body; others will be removed and replaced. Lastly, radiopharmaceuticals are sometimes used to administer radiation treatments, with the drugs being either injected, inserted into a body cavity or swallowed.

Cancer takes on many forms and results from many causes. Some cancers are preventable. Some forms of cancer have a good prognosis. The type of cancer that is the focus of this article is called Mesothelioma and it is preventable. If someone develops mesothelioma, typically the prognosis is poor and families need to seek help from a mesothelioma lawyer.

Mesothelioma is caused by exposure to asbestos and the legacy of mesothelioma is a disturbing one. Thousands of people unduly suffer from the effects of asbestos exposure and many more have wrongly died. The hazardous effects of asbestos became know in the 1920s but corporations, who were using asbestos, did not tell their employees of the danger nor did they use alternative materials.

Thousands of persons were unnecessarily exposed to asbestos and as a result many developed mesothelioma in their later years. If you, or anyone you know, have mesothelioma contact a mesothelioma lawyer to help you receive compensation if you were wrongly exposed to asbestos.

If you know someone who died from mesothelioma, it is important that their family contact a mesothelioma lawyer who can recommend whether a mesothelioma lawsuit may result in compensatory benefits.

Mesothelioma attacks what are called mosothelial cells of an organ. The most common organ cells affected by mesothelioma are those in the lungs, heart or abdomen. Pleural mesothelioma is the most predominant type of mesothelioma and it presents as an extremely virulent variety of lung cancer. Pleural mesothelioma is separated into two explicit categories. The first type is called diffuse and malignant (cancerous) and the second type is known as benign (not cancerous).

Malignant mesothelioma is a life-threatening rare condition accounting for almost 75% of all the mesothelioma cases. Malignant mesothelioma must be treated aggressively as it is a malignant type of cancer.

Not only for this reason but, also because more often than not, by the time it is has been diagnosed, the disease has moved into an advanced stage of cancer. The diagnosis of mesothelioma can only be made definitively by taking a biopsy and conducting a pathological analysis.

As the pleural mesothelioma tumor spreads over the pleura, (a thin membrane that covers the outside of the lungs) it produces thickening of this membrane. As the thickening progresses, a restraining type of girdle effect takes place.

As the pleural membrane becomes thicker and more restrictive, the lungs become more restrained and start to diminish and become smaller. The ultimate result of this progression is that the lung(s) are less capable of performing their functions.

One of the first signs someone will begin to experience is shortness of breathe. This will initially be noticeable when they put forth energy or effort in actions such as light exercise, making a bed, and yard work etc.

As the pleural mesothelioma grows and the lung(s) become less functional, the difficulty in breathing expands to occurring when the patient is involved in activities requiring even less exertion than light exercise. Eventually the pleural mesothelioma patient will experience shortness of breath even when lying down, sitting in a chair, and/or resting.

The tumor is constricting the lungs as it moves inward and as it expands outward, to affect nearby tissue of the chest cavity and ribs, it more than likely will create an excessive level of pain.

The second type of mesothelioma mentioned above is referred to as peritoneal. The tumor associated with form of mesothelioma affects the peritoneum membrane that lines several abdominal organs. Peritoneal mesothelioma is not as rare as pleural mesothelioma but it presents more aggressively and as a results in a reduced life expectancy.

As with all cancers, peritoneal mesothelioma can be benign or malignant. Peritoneal mesothelioma takes years to develop and it is generally discovered by sheer chance and prior to symptoms beginning.

Typically the symptoms of peritoneal mesothelioma include: abdominal pain, a generalized weakness, poor appetite with eventual lose of weight, nausea and vomiting, and swelling of the abdomen.

The symptoms of peritoneal mesothelioma progress slowly and as time passes they become more and more severe. As with pleural mesothelioma, there is no cure and the prognosis is affected by the tumor size and stage, the type of tumor cell, and the response to treatment.

Treatment options for both types include: chemotherapy, radiation, surgical intervention, and intra-operative photodynamic therapy; which is the latest drug and light treatment used in the early stages of mesothelioma. If you feel you have been irresponsibly exposed to asbestos, call a mesothelioma attorney today.

Product Description
In October 2001, James O’Connor was diagnosed with mesothelioma, the asbestos caused cancer. His prognosis was less than a year to live. Surgery was not possible because of the position of the tumor and chemotherapy would decrease his quality of life and not significantly improve his length of life. His oncologist suggested that he take his wife on a cruise and start hospice care upon his return. James rejected the idea. Instead he was determined to survive this can… More >>

They Said Months. I Chose Years! A Mesothelioma Survivor’s Story

Product Description
In October 2001, James O’Connor was diagnosed with mesothelioma, the asbestos caused cancer. His prognosis was less than a year to live. Surgery was not possible because of the position of the tumor and chemotherapy would decrease his quality of life and not significantly improve his length of life. His oncologist suggested that he take his wife on a cruise and start hospice care upon his return. James rejected the idea. Instead he was determined to survive this can… More >>

They Said Months. I Chose Years! A Mesothelioma Survivor’s Story