WHAT IS MESOTHELIOMA?

Types of Mesothelioma:
There are four types of mesothelioma: pleural (lung), peritoneal (abdomen), pericardium (heart) and testicular. Pleural and peritoneal are the most common types, comprising nearly 90 percent of all diagnoses. Learn more about the form and what it means for your treatment options.

Medical experts recognize four main types of mesothelioma - each named for the area of ​​the body where cancer. The most common type, pleural mesothelioma develops in the lining of the lungs.

The peritoneal mesothelioma forms the peritoneum, the membrane that lines the abdominal cavity. This is the second most prevalent type. The vast majority of the specific mesothelioma treat patients with one of these two types.

The rarer forms of the disease is pericardial and testicular mesothelioma. Pericardial mesothelioma starts in the lining of the heart, while the testes mesothelioma developed in the inner wall of the testes. Together, these types account for less than 2 percent of all mesothelioma diagnoses.

The primary cause of all types of mesothelioma

All the different types and subtypes of the disease, they share a common thread. These are mainly caused by a prolonged exposure to asbestos, usually at work. If the doctor suspects that you have any form of mesothelioma, you should think back through your background work to find a link when you worked with or around asbestos-containing materials and products.


Most pleural mesothelioma patients can remember a time when to breathe in asbestos fibers. In cases of peritoneal mesothelioma patients often swallows the fibers. Researchers are less sure how asbestos causes pericardial and testicular forms of the disease.

1: Pleural Mesothelioma

Pleural mesothelioma develops in the mesothelial lining of the lungs known as the pleura. This type accounts for about 75 percent of all mesothelioma cases. While symptoms may vary, the most common symptoms of pleural mesothelioma include:

Shortness of breath
Persistent dry cough
Persistent chest pain
Difficulty swallowing
Night sweats / fever
Weariness

2: Peritoneal Mesothelioma

Treatment for pleural mesothelioma depends largely on the stage of the cancer, doctors use to describe how far it has progressed. When mesothelioma diagnosed early, potentially curative surgery may be an option for patients. Most treatments in later stages are palliative, meaning that their aim is to relieve symptoms and improve quality of life.

Peritoneal mesothelioma develops in the mesothelial lining of the abdomen, called the peritoneum. Approximately 20 percent of all cases of mesothelioma are peritoneal. Peritoneal mesothelioma common symptoms include:

Abdominal pain
Abdominal swelling
Weight loss
Nausea / vomiting
Constipation or diarrhea
Weariness

Patients with peritoneal mesothelioma may have symptoms caused by thickening of the peritoneal membrane and the fluid accumulation. Because peritoneal mesothelioma spreads throughout the body more quickly than other types of mesothelioma, treatment can be difficult. Heated chemotherapy has shown promise in the treatment of this type of mesothelioma.

3: Pericardial Mesothelioma

Pericardial mesothelioma develops in the lining of the heart known as the pericardium. This type of mesothelioma is rare and represents approximately 1 percent of all mesothelioma cases. List of the symptoms when fluid accumulates in the spaces between the layers of the pericardium. Pericardium Mesothelioma Symptoms include:

Cardiac arrhythmia
Chest pain
Shortness of breath
Cough
Night sweats / fever
weariness

As with other types of mesothelioma, doctors usually treat pericardial mesothelioma with palliative treatments to relieve the symptoms. Removing pericardial tumor by surgery is dangerous because it can develop near the heart.

4: Testicular Mesothelioma

Testicular mesothelioma develops in the vaginalis tunica, the lining of the testicles. This is the rarest type of mesothelioma, accounting for less than 1 percent of all cases. Many patients are diagnosed while receiving surgery or treatment for another condition.

Because of the rarity of this type, it is difficult for medical researchers to come up with a complete list of symptoms. The two main indicators of this cancer is painless testicular lumps and swelling of the scrotum. This form of mesothelioma usually not detected until develop lumps.


Testicular mesothelioma patients can undergo surgical removal of all or part of the testicle affected. Doctors sometimes recommend adjuvant therapy, comprising chemotherapy or radiation therapy after surgery to kill any remaining cancer cells.

How common is each kind of mesothelioma?



It is generally difficult for doctors to distinguish one type of mesothelioma than the other. This is due to the fact that the cancer grows directly on body structures which are formed close before spreading to other parts of the body. Doctors will clearly see more growth in volume in the thoracic cavity with pleural mesothelioma, and more development of tumors in the abdominal cavity with peritoneal mesothelioma.

While at the same imaging scans and biopsy techniques used for the diagnosis of all types of mesothelioma, the name and location of the process will vary depending on the type of mesothelioma is suspected. Some minor surgery to help with the diagnosis of mesothelioma also vary according to the type suspected mesothelioma.

For example, a Mesothorakologia is a small surgical procedure that takes samples of mediastinal lymph node tissue tissue, to determine how far pleural mesothelioma tumors have spread to the chest. A puncture is a test for peritoneal mesothelioma that extracts fluid from the abdominal cavity, so that doctors can look for signs of cancer.

Doctors consider all forms of mesothelioma is rare. Also consider all kinds is rapid expansion, which explains why they like to determine the stage of cancer at the earliest opportunity. The type of cancer affects your treatment options and affect your life expectancy. Medical research shows that Oncologists are more successful treatment of peritoneal mesothelioma from the other three types.

Malignant vs. benign mesothelioma

More mesothelioma tumors are cancerous or malignant. Cancerous tumors have an inclination to spread to other areas, intensifying the risk of cancer.

But not all tumors are malignant. Some prove to be benign - noncancerous. Benign tumors grow slowly and do not spread to distant organs. If these tumors grow large enough, they can cause complications that make it necessary to remove it, but many people experience no symptoms because of the existence of tumors.

Usually benign mesothelioma develop in the abdomen, and often form in people who have no history of exposure to asbestos. Among patients with benign mesotheliomas greater than 7 cm, about 20 percent experienced painful swelling of the joints and bones, low blood sugar, seizures and comas. Most people diagnosed with benign tumors are small to middle-aged women, although doctors have documented benign cases in men.

Benign mesothelioma is not usually associated with a history of asbestos exposure. Although it can occur at any age, is more common among people in their 60 and 70. Benign mesothelioma often appear as solitary fibrous tumors grow as a single mass, and malignant mesotheliomas tend to increase as many small nodules arising on the mesothelial lining and grow together to form a sheet-like volume.

A single mass tumor is often easier to remove than a volume sheet-like, especially if the tumor mass is small. This factor makes benign mesotheliomas easier to remove with surgery. Often surgical removal remedies any symptoms caused by benign tumor.

The importance of cell type

Another way that doctors may describe a tumor is examining the type and structure of cells. Although doctors usually classify this type of cancer based on where the tumor is first formed, there are also various cell subsets of pleural mesothelioma, peritoneal, pericardial and testis.

Using histology (study of microscopic cells), physicians can determine important features of a tumor cell and specify histological type of cancer cells. This information helps them to better predict cancer progression and patient survival time and likely response to treatment.

Most common types of mesothelioma cells

There are three primary types of mesothelioma cell: epithelial, sarcomatoid and biphasic.

1: Epithelial Mesothelioma

Accounting for 50 to 70 percent of all cases, epithelial mesothelioma is by far the most common histologic subclass. In comparison to other cell types, epithelial mesothelioma usually respond better to treatment. Therefore associated with better survival.

Papillary mesothelioma, also known as a well-differentiated papillary mesothelioma (WDPM), is a rare sub epithelial mesothelioma. WDPM considered a benign type of mesothelioma that develops slowly and responding well to treatment. This usually occurs in the abdomen of women, but may be developed in the pleural and.

2: Sarcomatoid Mesothelioma

The least common of the three broad categories of histologic, sarcomatoid mesothelioma is observed in about 10 to 20 percent of all cases. Because this subtype are particularly aggressive, survival is usually poor.

3: Biphasic Mesothelioma

About 20 to 35 percent of cases, mesothelioma tumors containing a mixture of epithelial and sarcomatoid cells. This subtype is called biphasic mesothelioma. The ratio of biphasic epithelial cells may differ considerably from case to case, it affects the patient's outlook. When a biphasic tumor has a greater number of epithelial cell survival is generally better.

Clinical Tests

An increasing number of patients benefiting from clinical trials - experimental studies examining the effectiveness of new cancer treatments and approaches to treatment. Researchers performing studies in almost every type and subtype of mesothelioma, so it may be able to find one for your specific diagnosis.

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