mesothelioma ,survival rates,cuases,treatment

Mesothelioma is a type of cancer that develops from the thin layer of tissue that covers many of the internal organs (known as the mesothelium).The most common area affected is the lining of the lungs and chest wall. Less commonly the lining of the abdomen and rarely the sac surrounding the heart,or the sac surrounding the testis may be affected. Signs and symptoms of mesothelioma may include shortness of breath due to fluid around the lung, a swollen abdomen, chest wall pain, cough, feeling tired, and weight loss. These symptoms typically come on slowly.

Mesothelioma

Mesothelioma is a rare, aggressive form of cancer that primarily develops in the lining of the lungs (pleural mesothelioma) or the abdomen (peritoneal mesothelioma). Caused by asbestos, mesothelioma has no known cure and has a poor prognosis.

Most people have the pleural type, which forms on the lining of the lungs, but the cancer can also form around the lining of the abdomen or heart.

Greater than 80% of mesothelioma is caused by exposure to asbestos. The greater the exposure the greater the risk. As of 2013 about 125 million people have been exposed to asbestos at work.High rates of disease occur in people who mine asbestos, produce products from asbestos, work with asbestos products, live with asbestos workers, or work in buildings containing asbestos. Often it takes around 40 years for the disease to begin. Washing the clothing of someone who worked with asbestos also increases the risk. Other risk factors include genetics and infection with the simian virus 40. The diagnosis may be suspected based on chest X-ray and CT scan findings, and is confirmed by either examining fluid produced by the cancer or by a tissue biopsy of the cancer.

Signs and symptoms

The most common symptoms of peritoneal mesothelioma are abdominal swelling and pain due to ascites (a buildup of fluid in the abdominal cavity). Other features may include weight loss, fever, night sweats, poor appetite, vomiting, constipation, and umbilical hernia.[15] If the cancer has spread beyond the mesothelium to other parts of the body, symptoms may include pain, trouble swallowing, or swelling of the neck or face.[citation needed]

Chest wall pain
Pleural effusion, or fluid surrounding the lung
Shortness of breath
Fatigue or anemia
Wheezing, hoarseness, or a cough
Blood in the sputum (fluid) coughed up (hemoptysis)
In severe cases, the person may have many tumor masses. The individual may develop a pneumothorax, or collapse of the lung. The disease may metastasize, or spread to other parts of the body

mesothelioma symptoms, like coughing, chest pain and difficulty breathing, mirror many other types of lung-related diseases. Symptoms can be different based on the type of cancer and can be vague and mild even as the disease progresses into a later stage. Early signs can be so slight that they are mistaken as normal aches and pains or symptoms of other illnesses, making asbestos-related cancer hard to detect.

common symptoms

Dry Cough or Wheezing
Shortness of Breath
(dyspnea)
Respiratory Complications
or Difficulty Breathing
Pain in the Chest or Abdomen

Advanced symptoms

Fever
Pleural Effusions
Anemia
Muscle Weakness

Tumors that affect the abdominal cavity often do not cause symptoms until they are at a late stage. Symptoms include:[citation needed]

Abdominal pain
Ascites, or an abnormal buildup of fluid in the abdomen
A mass in the abdomen
Problems with bowel function
Weight loss

There are two ways to categorize the type of mesothelioma a person has. The first is by where the tumors are found in the body (lungs, abdomen, or heart), and the second is by the type of cell structure the cancer has (epithelioid, sarcomatoid, or biphasic).

Cause

Working with asbestos is the most common risk factor for mesothelioma

causes, swallowing asbestos fibers could contribute to a type of mesothelioma that forms in the abdomen, known as peritoneal mesothelioma. Asbestos may also travel through the lymph nodes to other parts of the body, such as the pericardium, the mesothelial layer surrounding the heart.

Asbestos is a generic name for six types of silicate minerals that share common properties. Some studies have shown that certain forms of asbestos may cause mesothelioma at greater rates than others.

Asbestos was known in antiquity, but it was not mined and widely used commercially until the late 19th century. Its use greatly increased during World War II. Since the early 1940s, millions of American workers have been exposed to asbestos dust. Initially, the risks associated with asbestos exposure were not publicly known. However, an increased risk of developing mesothelioma was later found among naval personnel (e.g., Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard), shipyard workers, people who work in asbestos mines and mills, producers of asbestos products, workers in the heating and construction industries, and other tradespeople. Today, the official position of the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the U.S. EPA is that protections and "permissible exposure limits" required by U.S. regulations, while adequate to prevent most asbestos-related non-malignant disease, are not adequate to prevent or protect against asbestos-related cancers such as mesothelioma. Likewise, the British Government's Health and Safety Executive (HSE) states formally that any threshold for exposure to asbestos must be at a very low level and it is widely agreed that if any such threshold does exist at all, then it cannot currently be quantified. For practical purposes, therefore, HSE assumes that no such "safe" threshold exists. Others have noted as well that there is no evidence of a threshold level below which there is no risk of mesothelioma. There appears to be a linear, dose-response relationship, with increasing dose producing increasing disease. Nevertheless, mesothelioma may be related to brief, low level or indirect exposures to asbestos.The dose necessary for effect appears to be lower for asbestos-induced mesothelioma than for pulmonary asbestosis or lung cancer. Again, there is no known safe level of exposure to asbestos as it relates to increased risk of mesothelioma.

Simian Virus 40 (SV40)

One study showed that in more than half of mesothelioma cases, the patient was also infected with SV40. Further research has indicated that SV40 may contribute to the development of mesothelioma, though it does not appear to cause mesothelioma on its own.