Mesothelioma Facts, Mesothelioma Treatment Options and You

A few basic asbestos facts

Mesothelioma is a type of cancer which comes primarily from exposure to certain types of minerals, typically combined into what is commonly known as asbestos.

Asbestos was an extremely effective means of insulation that was primarily used from the early part of the 20th century until the 1970s. When a person comes into contact with asbestos, they begin to run a substantial mesothelioma risk.

Often, since this type of cancer can easily be misdiagnosed as a more general form of lung cancer, it isn't discovered until its latest stages. Thus, the mesothelioma survival rate at the time of detection usually isn't very high.

The available mesothelioma treatment options are still extremely limited, further lessening the chances of an afflicted person's long-term survival.

The different types of mesothelioma

Mesothelioma is different from other types of cancer which tend to enter through and afflict the lungs because of their unique cellular shape.

Most of the time, mesothelioma cells are shaped like microscopic cubes or boxes. There are three types of mesothelioma which have the potential to cause damage:

Epithelioid mesothelioma- Between 50 and 70 percent of cases are epithelioid, which is good in the sense that it is the most survivable type of malignant mesothelioma that can strike a person. It affects epithelial cells, which act as barriers between different surfaces inside your body.

Every internal organ you have has epithelial cells protecting it, and there is also an epithelial layer separating your skin from your internal body.

Sarcomatoid mesothelioma- This is a more dangerous version of the cancer, because it affects bones, muscles, cartilage and fats. Sarcomatoid mesothelioma may strike anywhere, because it has no preference as to what tissues it colonizes.

Mixed or biphasic mesothelioma- This is a combination of the previous two, and involves instances of both types of growths.

Accounting for roughly 20 to 30 percent of all cases, the mesothelioma survival rate of this version is lowest of all. Essentially, anything goes with the biphasic form.

How to tell if you have mesothelioma

One of the facts about mesothelioma that you need to know is that it is extremely likely to come about if you have ever been exposed to asbestos. That material is nasty stuff, and it's killed a lot of people.

If you don't want to be one of them, you'll know what to look for and strike mesothelioma before it strikes you. If you have rehabbed houses in the past, or worked in many types of factory and construction environments, you are at risk.

Some people say that the best defense is a good offense. With that being the case, if you suspect that you've met asbestos face to face, a solid step in proactive health care would be to add a chest x-ray to your annual physical check-up.

If your insurance balks at this, mention your probable encounters and claim that it is medically necessary. If possible, consult doctors until you find one who agrees with you in this. Finding mesothelioma may mean the difference between living one to five years after its advanced stage is discovered, and living to dance at your grandchildren's weddings.

Mesothelioma is as sly as a ninja, and develops over a process that can stretch out 40 years after your exposure. The worst part of all is that you need only be exposed once for the damage to occur.

Just because it's been a few years and you feel fine, don't drop your guard. Like the colonoscopy and blood pressure check, a chest x-ray will become a good friend to you as you stay vigilant against this menace.

One of the most tragic mesothelioma facts is that it can sometimes be completely asymptomatic. However, this cancer is often called different names based upon where it crops up.

For the type of mesothelioma which forms up in the sac containing the lungs (known as the pleura), the term pleural mesothelioma is applied. The symptoms of pleural mesothelioma include:

* A dry, raspy cough that doesn't produce much phlegm

*Hemoptysis, or coughing up blood

*Dysphagia, or trouble in swallowing

*Fevers or night sweats

*Losing 10 percent or more of your bodyweight for no explicable reason

*Being tired when you know you shouldn't be

*Pain from breathing, or persistent pains in your chest or rib area

*Dyspnea, or being short of breath even when you haven't exerted yourself

*Lumps appearing under the skin on your chest

The peritoneum is the cells which line the stomach and intestines. While your mesothelioma risk in this tissue is far lower than in the pleura area, it still bears mention. The symptoms of peritoneal mesothelioma include:

*Fevers and night sweats

*Weight loss for no apparent reason

*Swelling or abdominal pains

*Anemia, or low amounts of red blood cells

*Being tired for no reason

*An unexplained change in bowel habits, such as constipation or diarrhea

*Vomiting or nausea

*Lumps appearing under the skin of your midsection

The pericardium is the group of cells surrounding your heart. When asbestos comes into contact with these cells, they often turn into pericardial mesothelioma include:

*Being short of breath for no reason

*Chest pains, to varying extents

*Heart palpitations, or an unpleasant conscious awareness that your heartbeat is not right

*Coughing

Mesothelioma treatment options

Treating mesothelioma is not going to be a pleasant process. Your options generally include undergoing surgery, chemotherapy or radiation treatments. If the patient's doctor has caught the mesothelioma at an early stage, a cure is possible.

However, this almost never happens, which means that many methods of treatment are merely to reduce the patient's suffering as the disease slowly takes them.

One of the more palatable mesothelioma treatment options is chemotherapy, where drugs are administered either through the swallowing of a pill, or through an injection.

There has been no evidence to suggest that this is an effective way to cure mesothelioma. The best it's been shown to do is relieve some of the symptoms.

As well, radiation promises only that it can help a mesothelioma sufferer to feel somewhat better during their final months or years. Among the mesothelioma treatment options, brachytherapy (where radioactive materials are placed inside the body) and external beam radiation (from a machine outside the body) are perhaps the easiest. Whether or not this is true, they offer very little hope of a real cure.

Surgery, on the other hand, does have a slight chance of success. If there is a light at the end of mesothelioma's tunnel, it is that a tumorous growth detected at an early stage can be physically removed.

As testing methods improve, this will become a more commonly successful occurrence. There is one type of surgery which, while risky and requiring the utmost skill, may be able to pull a life from mesothelioma's jaws.

This surgery is called an extrapleural pneumonectomy. And if you think that's difficult to pronounce, wait until you read what it entails actually doing. Basically, the surgeon removes a section of the lung and part of the pleura (the outer casing of the lungs).Then she removes part of the pericardium (which is the membrane which surrounds the heart) and the diaphragm. As the surgery proceeds, chemotherapy agents are sprinkled on the affected areas, in an effort to destroy every remaining cancer cell. This is the surgical equivalent of the atom bomb- if it doesn't work, there won't be much left to work on.

When the search-and-destroy process has ended, the diaphragm and pericardium are rebuilt using prosthetics. While it isn't quite the six million dollar man, it requires no less skill of the surgeon to do properly.