Mesothelioma Cancer Staging System

The stage of mesothelioma is mainly about pleural mesothelioma

International Staging System for Diffuse Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma
Tumor Size of mesothelioma
T1

• T1a
• Tumor limited to the ipsilateral parietal +/– mediastinal +/– diaphragmatic pleura
• No involvement of the visceral pleura
• T1b
• Tumor involving the ipsilateral parietal +/– mediastinal +/–diaphragmatic pleura
• Tumor also involving the visceral pleura

Knowledge about Mesothelioma Treatment

The hunting of mesothelioma answer seems found a dead end, even though it is try by many doctor and researchers. Is it mesothelioma cure really exist? Before talking about this kind of question you need to know about mesothelioma and things that can cause it. Like most people know, mesothelioma is a type of cancer that attacks the lining of inner organ. Mesothelioma doesn’t attack the organ, not until it metastasis. The only cause of mesothelioma cancer is a high exposure in a long time of asbestos.

Benign Mesothelioma

Mesothelioma is a very dangerous type of cancer that up until know, the cure is still not found yet. However, like other cancer there is a time when mesothelioma cancer still in situ (a condition where mesothelioma has not become cancerous yet) or benign mesothelioma.

There is a difference between mesothelioma and benign mesothelioma. When it still not cancerous, this cancer usually does not has any relation with asbestos exposure. Benign mesothelioma usually associated with solitary fibrous tumor of pleura, it is a former neoplasm that referred to as benign fibrous pleural mesothelioma. The visceral or parietal pleura fibrous tumors are often have not relation with asbestos exposure, with pleural effusion as an exception. Most of these fibrous tumors are benign, although a malignant form does rarely occur.

Sarcomatoid Mesothelioma Cancer Cell

Sarcomatoid mesothelioma cell is a less common of mesothelioma cell type, and counting 10%-15% of all cases each year. The cell shape typically more oval, irregular shape and the nucleus of each cell, but it is not as visible with a microscope as the epithelioid mesothelioma cancer cells. These cells grow forth out of supportive structures, such as muscles and bones.

Sarcomatoid cancer cells have similar shape with sarcomatoid mesothelioma cell, so it can also easily be confused with the type of typical sarcoma cancer cells.

Epithelioid Mesothelioma Cancer Cell

The most common mesothelioma cancer cell is epithelioid and counting 50%-75% of mesothelioma cells type. The cells usually have uniform shape, so epithelioid mesothelioma cells are easily distinguished if it viewed under high magnification from other cell nuclei. Even though it’s different from another mesothelioma cancer cells, other types of cancer can take a similar form, and if these cancers appear in the mesothelium, they can be confused with epithelioid mesothelioma. The cancer that has similar cell shape with epithelioid mesothelioma is adenocarcinoma.

Epithelioid Mesothelioma and Adenocarcinoma

Mesothelioma Cancer Cells

There are many different types of cancer that can occurs in the lung, so x-rays and other types of imaging are cannot use in to do mesothelioma diagnosis. The best way to do mesothelioma diagnosis is by biopsy, by biopsy your doctor can know what type mesothelioma cancer cells you have, and this can use to distinguish mesothelioma with other cancer, such as lung cancer.

Mesothelioma has three different types of cells that often used in deciding mesothelioma prognosis, they are:

Mesothelioma Prognosis

Mesothelioma prognosis depends on how early it is diagnosed and how aggressively it is treated. However, the prognosis for malignant mesothelioma usually disappointing, although there have been some modest improvements in prognosis from newer chemotherapies and multimodality treatments. Malignant mesothelioma Treatment at earlier stages has a better prognosis, but the cure rate is very low.

Pericardial Mesothelioma

Pericardial mesothelioma, or mesothelioma of the pericardium, is a disease that affects the lining of the heart (pericardium). It is the rarest type of mesothelioma, it only count less than 10% of all this mesothelioma cases. This disease cases are related to the lining of the heart. Just like plural mesothelioma, the fast growth of the tumor can cause expansion of the tissue and accumulation of fluid. The fluid can interfere with the functioning of the heart and cause chest pain.

Pleural Mesothelioma Symptoms

Pleural mesothelioma is the most common mesothelioma type counting up to 75% of all mesothelioma cases. Pleural mesothelioma is a dose-dependent disease, meaning that the longer and more heavily your exposure to asbestos, the greater the chance you have of developing pleural mesothelioma (or another type of mesothelioma). This can affect how quickly you are diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma, although mesothelioma is known for its long periods of even d0 years from exposure to disease progression.

Pleural Mesothelioma

The most common mesothelioma type

Pleural mesothelioma is the widely known variant of mesothelioma and the most common mesothelioma and counts 75% of all mesothelioma. In this form of mesothelioma, tumours develop on the lining of the lungs (lung pleura), and can grow fast and enlarge the pleural space, causing it to fill with fluid. Over time, they cause chronic inflammation that eventually leads to growth of cancerous tumors or, in some cases, asbestosis. Sometimes doctors refer to this disease as mesothelioma of the pleura.

Peritoneal mesothelioma Symptoms

Mesothelioma symptoms and signs may not appear until next 20 to 50 years (or more) after exposure to asbestos. However, once the cancerous tumors start to grow in the peritoneum, fluid begins to rapidly accumulate in the abdominal area. This fluid causes swelling and discomfort and leads to the symptom of peritoneal mesothelioma:

• Upper abdominal pain.
  It is the most common peritoneal mesothelioma symptom.
• Cough and shortness of breath.
  Less common symptoms
• Bowel obstruction.
  
  

Peritoneal mesothelioma

Peritoneal mesothelioma is number 2 most common form of mesothelioma cancer that affects the lining of the abdomen. This mesothelioma type affects the lining that protects the contents of the abdomen (peritoneum) and which also provides a lubricating fluid to enable the organs to move and work properly. Sometimes doctors refer to this disease as mesothelioma of the peritoneum. Peritoneal mesothelioma can spread to the lungs and when this occurs, it is considered secondary lung cancer.

The peritoneum is made of two parts, the visceral and parietal peritoneum. The visceral peritoneum covers the internal organs and makes up most of the outer layer of the intestinal tract. Covering the abdominal cavity is the parietal peritoneum.

Mesothelioma Treatment

Mesothelioma treatment that often uses:

• Traditional mesothelioma treatments
  Which is use the same treatments to treat most other cancer, includes:
• Surgery
• Chemotherapy
• Radiation therapy (radiotherapy) 
• New methods of mesothelioma treatments
  As its name, it use new treatment methods that have been research and developed, includes:
• Development of new chemotherapy agents
• Intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT)
• Photodynamic therapy (PDT)
• Immunotherapy
• Gene therapy
• Other Treatment:
• Multimodality Therapy
• Heated Intraoperative Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy

Mesothelioma Types

Mesothelioma cancer is a type of cancer that attack the serous membranes that surround the major organs in the midsection of the body. It can metastasis and attack different organs because the serous membranes surround the lungs, heart, abdomen and others. Pleural mesothelioma is the most common type of mesothelioma is that which affects the lung lining. Other types are pericardial mesothelioma, which affects the lining of the heart, and peritoneal mesothelioma, affecting the lining of the abdomen.

Mesothelioma Screening

Mesothelioma screening test may able to detect and diagnose mesothelioma earlier than conventional methods. With this screening the survival rate hope will improve for patients. However, this method has no universally agreed for screening people who have been exposed to asbestos. The screening methods use osteopontin serum, the serum osteopontin level might be useful in screening asbestos-exposed people for mesothelioma.

Mesothelioma Symptoms and Signs

It is a serious disease that attacks the mesothelium part. There are many reason that makes mesothelioma dangerous, one of them is mesothelioma symptoms or signs will not appear until 20 to 50 years (or more) after exposure to asbestos. The symptoms are also similar with other diseases that less serious.

The mesothelioma common symptoms are:

• Shortness of breath, 
• Cough, 
• and pain in the chest 

These symptoms often occur due to an accumulation of fluid in the pleural space (pleural effusion). Because early mesothelioma symptoms tend to be general, they often go ignored or else confused for symptoms of less serious ailments. Generally, however, individuals begin to manifest mesothelioma symptoms two to three months prior to being diagnosed .

Malignant Mesothelioma

Malignant mesothelioma is rare type of cancer that occurs in mesothelium part (lining that cover and protect internal organ). The main cause of mesothelioma is exposure asbestos. Although malignant mesothelioma is rare, it is a serious, deadly disease. It is often in the advanced stages when it is detected, so the outlook for the mesothelioma patients is not as good as it is for patients with cancers that are detected earlier. The average survival time after detection is 1 to 2 years. This survival time also depends on the type of mesothelioma. Despite how dangerous mesothelioma is, up to 3,000 new cases diagnosed each year.