Mesothelioma – What is it and how is it diagnosed?

Mesothelioma is a very rare kind of cancer that affects the mesothelium, which itself is the protective shield casing most of the body organs. The primary cause of this disease is exposure to asbestos and the most common organ affected is the pleura of the lungs. Though it is generally assumed that smoking which often causes lung cancer may also be causing mesothelioma, it has been proved that smoking has no role to play in the development of mesothelioma.

The symptoms may not be noticed till about 25 to 30 years after the asbestos exposure, but they can be very disturbing. Typical symptoms are accumulation of fluid in the lungs leading to breathing problems, coughing and pain in the chest. Besides pleural mesothelioma, another condition called peritoneal mesothelioma which is a condition affecting the peritoneum can cause abrupt weight loss, anemia and a high level of clotting. If this is not treated on time, it can progress upwards and result in the neck getting swollen apart from the patient experiencing difficulty in swallowing.

It is often difficult to immediately diagnose this cancer as the patient may exhibit symptoms common to other disorders and it does require investigation at the right time to identify mesothelioma. If a patient has had prior exposure to asbestos, specific chest and lung X-rays are taken to identify any pleural thickening that may have occurred. In that event, a CAT scan as well as an MRI is advised to detect any growth tissues in the pleura and if that is also positive, a biopsy is done to ascertain the presence of any cancerous cells in the pleural fluid. As far as peritoneal mesothelioma is concerned, only a laparoscopy can detect any cancerous cells in the abdomen.

Once diagnosis is complete, the examining doctor identifies the stage of cancer and this is again categorized as localized if it is just restricted to the surface of the membrane and advanced if it has managed to make further inroads into the body.

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