MesotheliomaWeb.org Reports Mesothelioma Symptoms

Mesothelioma, more properly known as malignant mesothelioma, is a type of cancer occurring in the mesothelial tissues. These are epithelial tissues that line the body’s thoracic and abdominal cavities – also known as primordial cavities – and surround and protect the lungs, heart and abdominal organs.

Mesothelioma’s only known cause is asbestos, and 75 percent of cases occur in the mesothelial lining around the lungs. Only about five percent of cases occur as pericardial mesothelioma, in the lining around the heart. Peritoneal mesothelioma, in the abdomen, accounts for about 20 percent of cases.

Medical professionals have long regarded mesothelioma as a “silent killer” disease for its tendency to lie dormant for a long period – sometimes up to 50 years – without producing any specific symptoms, after which it advances rapidly to a highly aggressive form of cancer.

Statistics indicate that, from 1999 to 2005, the mortality rate from this disease reached 18,068 in the U.S. alone, with 14,591 of those deaths occurring among males and the balance among females.

Asbestos mining and manufacture in the U.S. declined from 885,000 tons in 1973 to 1,609 tons in 2008. Today, even though asbestos mining and manufacture has moved overseas for the most part, the legacy effects of decades of U.S. use – in everything from construction products to oven gloves – cause about 10,000 American deaths a year, 2,500 of those from mesothelioma. This puts it on a footing akin to skin cancer in terms of commonality, according to one source.

Asbestos fibers get into the body, and the mesothelial tissues, either by inhaling or by ingesting. This can be as simple as swallowing saliva, and – because the body can’t get rid of asbestos fibers the way it does some other toxins – the fibers remain, creating irritations that lead to tissue lesions and, in some instances, to malignant tumors.

Mesothelioma is exacerbated by smoking. When it begins displaying typical symptoms early in life (i.e., at age 30 or before), the course of the disease is more rapid and more aggressive than it is among those who display symptomatology near or during their retirement years.

The symptoms of mesothelioma vary, of course, with location. Victims of pleural mesothelioma may experience a hacking, dry cough or coughing up blood. They may also have difficulty swallowing. In some cases, night sweats or fevers of unknown etiology may also occur. Fatigue is quite common, as is weight loss as the disease progresses and sufferers begin to have difficulty breathing, even when resting.

At this stage, pains in the chest, diaphragm or rib area begin to manifest, possibly along with tangible lumps under skin on the chest. In addition to difficulty, breathing may itself become painful.

When mesothelioma occurs in the abdomen, similar symptoms occur, though patients are unlikely to experience significant difficulty breathing, and the pain – instead of being in the chest – is in the abdomen. Peritoneal mesothelioma sufferers will instead experience abdominal symptoms, including diarrhea or constipation, nausea, and possibly vomiting. Fatigue remains a constant, as it does with almost all forms of cancer.

Pericardial mesothelioma produces symptoms that are site-specific; e.g., an irregular heartbeat and chest pain. It also causes difficulty breathing, fever of unknown origin, night sweats and fatigue.

If patients are sufficiently healthy, doctors may recommend surgery, radiation or chemotherapy, alone or in combination, though these treatments are largely viewed as palliative rather than curative; that is, improving breathing and reducing pain, though not actually eradicating the tumor.

These treatments succeed in adding only a few months to the typical mesothelioma patient’s prognosis, which is about one year to live. However, newer treatments like gene therapy and photodynamic therapy (the use of light) show improved prognoses.

Oncologists are also experimenting with multimodal treatments via clinical trials, and there is hope that a “perfect storm” of methods will eventually be discovered that eradicates mesothelioma entirely.

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