Mesothelioma can present itself in various types, and for diagnosing Mesothelioma it is important to understand the various types of Mesothelioma that exist. There are three types in which we will focus on, Pleural Mesothelioma, Peritoneal Mesothelioma and Pericardial Mesothelioma.
Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma
| malignant pleural mesothelioma |
The most common of the three types of Mesothelioma is the Pleural Mesothelioma which occurs in about 70% of the cases. Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma often times originates within the chest cavity and often times affects or involves the lungs as well. This particular type can metastasize to other organs within the body, hence why we call it Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma. Frequently, in the early stages of Pleural Mesothelioma, the symptoms can be very mild.
Patients may come in complaining of having chest pain in one specific area that never abates, they may present with weight loss, which is many a times a very big clue that some underlying disease is present and patients may even present with having a fever. There are those unfortunate times though that a patient may present with much more severe disease and will have severe symptoms because they end up having fluid that has built up in the chest, causing them difficulty with breathing leading to what is known as a pleural effusion.
What is often used to diagnose Pleural Mesothelioma is a Chest X ray, or a CT Scan which many consider to be proven as the best test for identifying how far along the disease has progressed and if there are any malignancies involved with other organs.
Unfortunately the survival rate for patients that have been diagnosed with pleural Mesothelioma is not high because many patients don’t live beyond seventeen months from onset of their symptoms, which is why we encourage that any patient that may have been exposed to Asbestos, which is many times the cause of patient having Mesothelioma get help early.
Peritoneal Mesothelioma
The next type of Mesothelioma will be discussing in our triad of Pleural, Peritoneal, Pericardial Mesothelioma is Peritoneal Mesothelioma. This particular type of Mesothelioma originates in the abdomen and will frequently spread to other organs like the liver, bowels, pancreas, or your spleen. Many patients will present with having severe abdominal pain and again there may end up having some fluid buildup in the abdomen as well. Other symptoms that patients may present with are difficulty with their bowel movements, fever, nausea, vomiting, etc. The survival rate for these individuals unfortunately is even worse than for those diagnosed with Pleural Mesothelioma.
Pericardial Mesothelioma
Last of the various types of Mesothelioma is the Pericardial Mesothelioma, which is by far the least common form of Mesothelioma and as the name suggests this is the type that affects the heart. What it does is it invades the pericardium, which is the sac that surrounds the heart. As this form of cancer envelops the heart it prevents oxygen from being able to be delivered efficiently to heart causing decline in the patients health at an accelerated rate. Many times the symptoms associated with Pericardial Mesothelioma mimics what a person would feel if there were to be having a heart attack, such as chest pain, nausea, shortness of breath.
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