Silent but Deadly: Mesothelioma

Mesothelioma is a rare type of cancer with an incidence of 1 to 4 per 1,000,000 people. Because it is so rare, many people have not heard of the disease. Paul Gleason, who played the principal we loved to hate in The Breakfast Club and Steve McQueen (The Magnificent Seven, The Hunter) were two well-known celebrities stricken by the disease.

In mesothelioma, cancerous cells develop in the mesothelium, the protective lining which surrounds most of your internal organs. The most common sites to develop mesothelioma are the lungs (pleura, or outer lining of the lungs and the chest wall) and the abdomen (peritoneum, or the lining of the abdominal cavity). Most people who develop mesothelioma have been employed in a place where asbestos particles or dust have been inhaled. People who live with workers exposed to asbestos are also at risk, due to secondary exposure. The use of asbestos has been banned, but asbestos was widely used in construction and other areas for many years, and exposure can still occur when workers are employed in old buildings and sites where asbestos was commonly used. Researchers are carefully watching those workers who helped in the rescue effort following 9/11 and who were likely exposed to asbestos. Occasionally, no link to asbestos can be found in a person diagnosed with mesothelioma.

Symptoms of mesothelioma may not become evident for 20 to 50 years after exposure. People with pleural mesothelioma may experience the following symptoms:

Shortness of breath and fatigue

Cough or wheezing, sometimes with expectoration of blood

Chest pain

Pleural effusion (fluid around the lung)

Pneumothorax (collapsed lung)

Peritoneal mesothelioma encompasses 1/5 to 1/3 of mesotheliomas. Symptoms may include:

Unintentional weight loss

Muscle wasting

Abdominal pain and distension

Bowel obstruction

Anemia

Fever

Symptoms often mimic those of other diseases, and diagnosis is often difficult.

Chest x-ray, pulmonary function tests, CT and MRI are often used to help make the diagnosis. Where abnormal fluid has accumulated (pleural effusion in the lungs or ascites in the abdomen), abnormal cells can be extracted by needle aspiration and biopsied. Sometimes tissue biopsies are collected by thoracoscopy (the chest) or laparoscopy (the abdomen).

Treatment of mesothelioma may include surgery, which is generally not very successful when performed alone. Chemotherapy and radiation are used in conjunction with surgery for a better outcome. For those people who develop symptoms of mesothelioma and are known to have been exposed to asbestos, early diagnosis is crucial.

SOURCE