Mesothelioma is a cancer that originates in the mesothelium, a layer of cells that lines serous cavities of the body.
Mesothelioma is a general medical term to classify mesothelioma, which depending on which body to go play outside, have a specific name, in fact, speak of the peritoneum, which lines the abdominal cavity and part of the pelvis, we also speak of the pleura, which covers instead the two lungs, pericardium and talk about, that covers the outside of the heart muscle.
Mesothelioma
The mesotheliomas
Almost all reported cases of mesothelioma are currently borne by the pleura, and this cancer is related to exposure to airborne asbestos fibers, or even more commonly called asbestos, with a particularly high latency time (up to 45 years) and a course of one or two years. The mesothelium is a serous coating that has the function to protect the organs that coats, such as the pleura, is constituted by a double package mesothelial, one parietal, ie external, visceral and one, namely the internal and that is in contact with the lung, and between these two layers there is a kind of transparent liquid, pleural fluid, which has the function of being able to allow the lungs to expand when you make a deep inspiration without coming into friction with the rib cage.
Mesiotelioma and asbestos
As we have already said, mesothelioma, is a type of cancer that occurs more frequently in people who have been exposed to asbestos for a long time, and when the mesothelium is affected by this disease, it can cause pain and other problems , up to the formation of a cancer mesothelioma, simply called mesothelioma.
Diffusion of mesiotelioma
Mesothelioma is a rare form of cancer enough but in compensation very serious, and in most cases this cancer can not be treated and cured. However, there are cases, so to speak benign, they can find the solution. Generally, the term mesothelioma almost always refers to that big chunk of cases in which the cancer is considered malignant, as the cases in happy outcome represent a very small percentage.
Mesothelioma is a rare disease burden but fortunately
Nowadays, mesothelioma is a form of cancer very well known and publicized, despite its relative rarity, and we owe this to the fact that the only known cause of its formation is exposure to asbestos, in particular, is also sufficient ' inhalation or ingestion of small and microscopic asbestos fibers in order to generate the tumor. Tumors, which are among the leading causes of death on the job in the industries in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
How has Mesothelioma?
The disease has an unusually long latency period, as people who have been exposed to asbestos, they can not develop the first symptoms of this disease before they are gone at least fifteen or twenty years from exposure, and sometimes it may take even forty, before it occurs the disease. And it is for this reason that the widespread use of asbestos in industries such as industrial material around the seventies, is still producing new diagnosis of mesothelioma among workers who are now retired. In other cases, mesothelioma has also brought in people who had not had previous exposure to asbestos, and in most of these cases were the families of the people who had worked with asbestos, who inhaled the fibers or particles of this material through the manipulation of clothing, shoes, and through his hair, and then through the covers of his family, which then turned out to be the vehicle of transmission of the tumor. Also in these cases also includes the people who lived in the neighborhoods adjacent to the industries that employed asbestos, thanks to the spread of dust particles in the air of this material.
Studies on mesothelioma
Research has shown that only one year of exposure to asbestos can be enough to trigger mesothelioma in a healthy person, because these particles settle in the mesothelium, causing the growth of cancerous cells.
What are the symptoms manifest in those who are suffering from mesothelioma?
Some of the symptoms of mesothelioma, which are common to the various forms of this cancer are:
Are classified as mesothelioma?
There are two basic classifications for mesothelioma cancer cells:
This classification is performed based on the type of cells that are to be part of mesotheliomas, but there is a third possibility of involvement of cells, ie we speak of biphasic mesothelioma, in which cells are involved in both types. So as we see, the cancer cells that develop from cancer of the mesothelium, can be of two types, but we can have three different forms of cancer. The epithelioid tumor cells are the most common type of cell found in mesotheliomas, whereas the sarcomatoid cells are less common and are most often related to peritoneal mesotheliomas.
The epithelioid mesothelioma and the treatments for the cure
The epithelioid mesothelioma, also known as epithelial mesothelioma is a form of malignant mesothelioma that affects specifically the epithelial cells that make up the tissue that lines the outer wall of the internal organs. Approximately fifty, seventy percent of all diagnosed cases of mesothelioma are classified as epithelioid. The epithelioid cells are epithelial cells that begin to function incorrectly, and then begin to reproduce in an uncontrolled manner, thus becoming cancer cells.
Initially, the epithelioid mesothelioma was considered very frequent, since it was exchanged with another form of tumor, adenocarcinoma that is, due to the shape of the cells, for which it came to a wrong diagnosis microscope.
Initially, the epithelioid mesothelioma was considered very frequent, since it was exchanged with another form of tumor, adenocarcinoma that is, due to the shape of the cells, for which it came to a wrong diagnosis microscope.
The symptoms of epithelial mesothelioma depend on the area or organ in which the tumor is located, which may be the stomach, lungs, abdomen, and also depends very much also from the possible spread in the body.
The epithelioid mesothelioma treatments generally include an approach from several points of view, as they are more factors to consider such as:
Very often, if the patient is in a position to be operated on, we proceed with the resection of the tumor, there where it is still possible, and this action is to remove sections of the mesothelium that have been affected by the cancer cells, and also the ' intervention may include the removal of a whole or part of the body concerned.
With or without surgery, treatment of mesothelioma typically requires a combination of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, and sometimes, a first treatment is done with radiation launched during the surgery. Chemotherapy is usually mainly used to slow the progress of mesothelioma through drugs, some of which are able of succeeding positive effects, as they can interfere with the synthesis of DNA and RNA from these cells, is in fact to remember that peculiar characteristic of cancer cells in general is precisely to reproduce in an uncontrolled way. In this way, you can give the patient a survival time longer than the one proposed by the evolution of spontaneous mesothelioma.
The sarcomatoid mesothelioma and treatments
The sarcomatoid mesothelioma is the second form of mesothelioma, and all cases of mesothelioma, it represents a share ranging from seven to twenty percent of the total, and this is a given positive enough in some respects from the time that the cells are sarcomatoid difficult to treat with chemotherapy. This type of mesothelioma can occur at many points in the mesothelial tissue, and is classified by the presence of oval cells and irregular, with a distinct nucleus contours not good and not very visible. Such as mesothelioma epithelioid, sarcomatoid also that can be confused with other types of cancer, and as a result it can be difficult to diagnose.
The symptoms of mesothelioma sarcomatoid essentially depend on which part of the mesothelium is affected by the tumor, and the state of progression of the disease.
Indeed, if the mesothelioma is located in the pleura, the patient experiences symptoms such as:
If, however, mesothelioma is located in the peritoneum, the patient may experience symptoms such as:
Rarely sarcomatoid mesothelioma can attack the mesothelium of the heart, the pericardium or, if this is happening to some of the symptoms that can be detected are:
The diagnosis of sarcomatoid mesothelioma is very difficult to do for a variety of reasons, first of all, the early mesothelioma symptoms are similar to many others, the conditions are less severe and can be easily attributed to something else. To get an accurate diagnosis, are usually required sophisticated diagnostic procedures. Sometimes, it is used immunohistochemical analysis, which uses enzymes, dyes, or gold, to mark the substances produced by cells of sarcomatoid. Since sarcomatoid mesothelioma can be confused with other types of cancer, if you have been exposed to asbestos, and it was diagnosed with sarcomatoid carcinoma, it is good to seek a second opinion from another doctor, as they receive a correct diagnosis is important for several reasons. Indeed, since the sarcomatoid mesothelioma is considered incurable, whereas other types of cancer can be treated more easily, knowing what is your real prognosis is important to better define what are the treatments by directing against that form of cancer, and also if you are considering the possibility of a plea to take legal because it is suspected that the disease is caused by exposure to asbestos, get a proper diagnosis is essential in order to proceed.
treatment for sarcomatoid mesothelioma, usually does not differ from the treatment for other types of mesotheliomas, in reality there is no real cure, but treatments are performed to try to reduce the amount of cancer cells that are in the body, thereby slowing the progression of the tumor, to search for to make the last months of life of the patient as comfortable as possible through palliative care.
instead While curative treatments may include surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, or a combination of any of these. There are other experimental treatments that have been researched, and others who are being tested in clinical trials.
treatment for sarcomatoid mesothelioma, usually does not differ from the treatment for other types of mesotheliomas, in reality there is no real cure, but treatments are performed to try to reduce the amount of cancer cells that are in the body, thereby slowing the progression of the tumor, to search for to make the last months of life of the patient as comfortable as possible through palliative care.
instead While curative treatments may include surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, or a combination of any of these. There are other experimental treatments that have been researched, and others who are being tested in clinical trials.
The biphasic mesothelioma
Mesothelioma is instead a biphasic mesothelioma diagnosed in those patients in whom there is a response both epithelioid cells and both cell sarcomatoid mixed together or in separate areas of the tumor. The symptoms are similar to other types of mesotheliomas and therefore depend on the area in which it is located. The biphasic mesotheliomas represent about twenty, thirty-five per cent of mesotheliomas in total.
Benign mesothelioma and malignant mesothelioma
The benign mesothelioma, first, represent a percentage of about ten percent of all diagnosed cases of mesothelioma, and offer a much more positive prognosis compared to the remaining ninety percent, which instead are malignant.
A key difference between benign and malignant mesotheliomas, is that the former can not be due to exposure to asbestos, whereas malignant ones certainly depend to exposure to asbestos.
Furthermore, the cells of the benign mesothelioma does not tend to spread to other organs, although they reproduce uncontrollably anyway.
There are several types of malignant mesotheliomas, depending on the position of the body in which the tumor develops in principle.
The most common ones are:
Symptoms of malignant mesothelioma depends on the location in which they are established, and then we have symptoms that affect pleural mesothelioma, which are:
Regarding instead, mesotheliomas affecting the peritoneum, between the symptoms include:
The treatments and therapies indicated for mesothelioma
First of all there is to say that the malignant mesotheliomas, such as pleural, peritoneal what are the terminals. The average patient survives on average up to about one year after diagnosis, and because it is an average, we are aware that there are patients who survive only a few months, whereas others are also able to survive for more than a year or even up to five years. The survival rate depends on many factors, one of which, and the most important, is the presence of an early diagnosis, as patients diagnosed at an early stage, can usually rely more treatment options available.
Among the treatment options that may be recommended for people suffering from malignant mesothelioma, there are basically three types of treatment:
The palliative treatments include steps that attempt to comfort the patient and to alleviate the pain. We have palliative care, including pain medication, surgery, or other therapies to reduce pain, swelling, which are used to remove liquids or large tumors. And then there are the non-medical palliative care, a person can be effective, but have not been shown to slow or cure the disease, and that include a special diet, yoga or meditation, prayer, dietary supplements, the oxygen therapy, and others.
As for the medical treatments, it must be said that we have available treatments such as chemotherapy, radiation therapy, surgery, which can treat other cancers, but not mesotheliomas, and in the best case with these techniques intervention, it can reduce the amount of cancer cells in the body and slow down the diffusion.
The experimental treatments are those treatments of mesothelioma in which the researchers are working tirelessly to try to find a cure for this type of cancer, which unfortunately is unstoppable. To date, several experimental therapies available in clinical studies offer some hope that a cure can be found in the future, some of these therapies include immunotherapy, gene therapy, photodynamic therapy, and antiangiogenesis therapy.
Final consideration on mesothelioma
In short, if not immediately, sooner or later an effective cure will be within our reach, and as soon as we see this day, and as soon as we can announce that mesothelioma is no longer a terminal and incurable form of cancer.
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