Information for a Mesothelioma Patient

What is mesothelioma and how is it caused?

Mesothelioma is a type of cancer which is caused by inhaling dust particles from asbestos particles. This form of cancer is developed inside tissues of cells that line up the lungs, heart and stomach of mesothelioma patient. These tissues are called mesothelial cells. Once these cells are infected by asbestos, they dry up the fluids surrounding these important organs of the body and then tumors develop inside the body. The most common form of mesothelioma is called pleural mesothelioma. This type of mesothelioma is found in around 75% of mesothelioma patients. Other forms of mesothelioma are peritorial and pericardial mesothelioma but these are less common.

Mesothelioma is caused due to exposure to asbestos. The mesothelioma patient inhales asbestos either during their jobs specially shipyard or mining jobs or even inside their households. This disease can also be caused by living with some already having this disease or due to family history. Smoking has also been found to be one of the reason for this disease.

Mesothelioma cannot be detected immediately after inhaling asbestos. It may take as long as 30 years before this disease can be completely detected in a mesothelioma patient. This is because the mesothelioma takes a long time to incubate inside the human body. By the time the symptoms start to show up in a mesothelioma patient, the damage has already been done by this disease.

What are the symptoms of mesothelioma?

As mentioned before, the symptoms start showing up in a mesothelioma patient after various years of actual exposure. Therefore, it is very difficult or almost impossible to detect this disease in its initial stages. The general symptoms see in a mesothelioma patient are:

• Person coughing for long duration
• Chest pain along with deep breathing
• Loss of appetite and weight loss
• Hoarseness
• Fever with unknown reason
• Recurring episodes of bronchitis and pneumonia
• Shortness of breath
• Blood in spit

Symptoms seen in mesothelioma patient having pleural mesothelioma are:

• pain in side of chest or lower back
• Shortness of breath
• persistent cough
• weight loss
• fever
• fatigue
• difficulty in swallowing food
• Wheezing

Since most of these symptoms are common with other common diseases as well, therefore it makes it all the more difficult to diagnose it inside a mesothelioma patient.

How is this disease diagnosed in a mesothelioma patient?

Since symptoms show up very late, it is very important for the doctors to know the medical history of mesothelioma patient.

• The history of patient with any asbestos exposure is usually the starting point.
• After that, the comprehensive physical examination is done of the patient.
• The X-rays, CT scans and MRI are done.
• Cytology may be performed depending upon the location and amount of fluids.
• The biopsies are done to confirm the diagnosis.
• A Laparoscopy will be done if the lower abdomen or trunk cavity is in question.
• If the cancer is in the lungs, then thoracoscopy is done to get tissue samples or for biopsy.

How can a mesothelioma patient be treated?

The treatment of a mesothelioma patient depends upon various factors like stage of cancer, location of tumor, age and health of the mesothelioma patient. The various types of treatments available today are:

1. Surgery: - In this treatment, the malignant mesothelioma is removed from the body surgically. The feasibility of surgery being done to remove the tumor depends on stage of mesothelioma. There are two types of surgeries in these cases namely aggressive surgery which is done to remove the mesothelioma tumor and the other is called palliative surgery which is not intended o cure the tumor. This surgery is done just to relieve the pain caused by the disease. This is often done in advanced stages of mesothelioma.
2. Radiation – Radiation therapy uses high energy x-rays to kill mesothelioma cells and also to reduce the tumor. There are two types of radiation therapies. External therapy in which a machine is used outside the body to send x-rays inside the body. And other is brachytherapy in which chemicals are injected inside the body which produces similar radiations.
3. Chemotherapy – I this treatment, the drugs are used either orally or through injections to kill the malignant cells. The goal of mesothelioma chemotherapy is for the drug to enter the bloodstream and circulate throughout the body of mesothelioma patient in order to destroy the cancer cells.