About Mesothelioma

  The period 2015-2020 is a significant period for a number of medical issues:

• The risk factors, the incidence and the prevention of cardiovascular diseases
• The control of the emerging infectious diseases and of the epidemic areas (malaria, polio)
• Cancerous diseases
• And a particular tumor, very dangerous, mesothelioma

Mesothelioma the beginning

     One in 100 people born in 1940 will develop mesothelioma, which is almost exclusively a consequence of the exposure to asbestos. The primitive tumor of the pleura rarely appears until 25 years after the exposure, and especially it appears to over 50 years from the time of inhalation of asbestos fibers. Half of the current cases are in people over 70 years, of which 80% are men. For a man who had occupational exposure to asbestos during his youth, the risk of developing mesothelioma is of 1:5.

     Some researchers in Britain have identified two different patterns of occupational exposure: men born in 1920 who were employed in building, which have had a progressive level of exposure to asbestos the whole lifetime, while the men born around the 1950s had a higher exposure (greater than the previous generations), of short duration, in the early career, which ended up at the age of 30 years, when the use of asbestos was prohibited.

     Asbestos is an excellent building material and it has been widely used in construction, especially in the interwar and postwar period, until 1980. Although it was banned in countries like the U.S. or UK, asbestos is still used in some places in motor vehicles, electrical products (hair dryers, air conditioning), the insulator, in textiles and even cosmetics. In developing countries, the import of asbestos still remains at high levels.

     In Europe, the estimated average death rate for the period 2015-2020 is of 2000 persons a year, with a higher rate for Eastern European countries. The incidence of mesothelioma is already in decline in the U.S., the measures to limit the imports and to ban the asbestos in the building being taken early. Many countries, however, will face an epidemic of mesothelioma in the next decade, following a belated awareness of the harmful effects of asbestos.

What mesothelioma is

     Mesothelioma is a slow-growing tumor and it originates from the mesothelial cells structure: parietal pleura, peritoneum or tunic vaginalis of the testicle (not reported cases of pericardial mesothelioma). But the most common location is the pleura. The mesothelioma symptoms consist of chest pain or dyspnea (difficulty in breathing) that results from the accumulation of fluid in the pleural cavity. Sometimes the mesothelioma disease can be asymptomatic, installed insidious (as the patient's neglect) or even symptoms free.

     Once identified the pleural disease, the differential diagnosis must be made with pleural plaques and other causes of pleural effusion (a special issue represents a break of a secondary malignant pleural adenocarcinoma). The cytology examination of pleural fluid and the fine needle biopsy are often inconclusive, as it is necessary to identify the collection of some appropriate pieces in order to identify mesothelioma. Survival from diagnosis is 1 year on average, with variations large enough, given the slow growth pattern. The effectiveness of various methods of treatment is reduced.

Mesothelioma pictures

          These are a few mesothelioma images, you can see even more mesothelioma pictures on our pictures page Mesothelioma pictures

  

Mesothelioma treatment

     The mesothelioma treatment consists in removing the tumor. Benign mesothelioma can be treated relatively easily, unlike the malignant mesothelioma, which has a high mortality and benefits only of symptomatic and palliative treatment. The node removal is done surgically, the patients' prognosis being very good. If there is pleural effusion, the patients will be fit a drain tube to evacuate the liquid. In the presence of a prompt treatment, the prognosis of patients is very good. There is the possibility that in 1 of 10 patients, that the node to recurrence (the mesothelioma disease to have a recurrent character). In some cases the recurrence manifest even at 10 years after the removal of the first node string.

     All the patients operated by benign mesothelioma must perform regular radiographic checks to monitor the progress. The emergence of mesothelioma may be a sign of the existence of some disseminated disease due to exposure to asbestos. Asbestos mesothelioma is deadly. Therefore it is recommended that patients to be investigated in detail in the early diagnosis of other diseases with the same origin.

     The survival rate is, during treatment (very wide) between 16 to 18 months. Very few patients survive up to 5 years, even during mesothelioma treatment. The prognosis is reserved in all cases and depends heavily on:

• Histological type of cancer;
• The stage at which treatment begins (if it is greater than II, survival is much reduced);
• Therapeutic possibilities;
• The intensity of the felt chest pain;
• The level of hemoglobin (the more reduced, the more the prognosis is worse);
• Leukocytosis;
• The LDH level greater than 500 IU / L;
• The patient age at diagnosis;
• Sex male.

Diagnosis of mesothelioma

     The diagnosis of malignant mesothelioma may be determined by:

• Highlight the break effusion;
• The collection of pleural biopsy tissue fragment by thoracoscopy (it can establish a diagnosis of certainty in over 98% of cases).