malignant pleural mesothelioma-168-Learn About Pleural malignant pleural mesothelioma

Pleural mesothelioma is the most common type of the disease, representing about 75 percent of all diagnoses.

Pleural mesothelioma is a malignant cancer that develops on the lining of the lungs called the pleura. It is the most common type of malignant pleural mesothelioma. Although the prognosis is typically poor, finding a pleural cancer specialist can diversify your treatment options and help improve your prognosis.

Learn About Pleural malignant pleural mesothelioma

Pleural malignant pleural mesothelioma accounts for about 75 percent of all mesothelioma cases. Like other types of mesothelioma, this particular form of the disease gets its name because of where it is formed — in the pleura, a soft tissue that surrounds the lungs. In almost all cases, pleural mesothelioma is caused by asbestos exposure.

The first symptoms of pleural mesothelioma typically include chest pain and shortness of breath. You may experience no symptoms at all in the first few stages of the cancer’s progression.

The life expectancy of someone with pleural mesothelioma is less than 18 months, but some patients live much longer. It often takes decades (20 to 50 years) for mesothelioma to develop after someone is first exposed to asbestos. This lag time — called a latency period — explains why the disease usually affects older people.

How Asbestos Leads to Mesothelioma

Once inhaled into the lungs, asbestos travels to the pleura. The body then struggles to get rid of the needle-like fibers. Over a long period of time, trapped fibers irritate the pleural membrane, causing chronic inflammation and scarring.

Symptoms of pleural mesothelioma include persistent dry or raspy cough, coughing up blood (hemoptysis), shortness of breath (dyspnea), and difficulty swallowing (dysphagia).

Asbestos fibers can cause excess fluid to build up between the two layers of the pleura, a condition called pleural effusion. While a little fluid in your pleural space is important, too much can make breathing difficult. The extra fluid puts pressure on the lungs, causing chest pain that gets worse when you cough or take deep breaths

Tumor Complications Are Largely Responsible for Symptoms, Which May Include:

• Persistent dry or raspy cough
• Coughing up blood (hemoptysis)
• Shortness of breath (dyspnea)
• Pain in the lower back or rib area
• Painful breathing
• Lumps under the skin on the chest
• Difficulty with swallowing (dysphagia)
• Night sweats or fever
• Unexplained weight loss
• Fatigue

Pleural mesothelioma can be difficult to diagnose, since symptoms usually do not arise until long after the first exposure to asbestos. Since many diseases of the lungs and respiratory system have the same symptoms as pleural mesothelioma, doctors may mistake it for the flu or pneumonia.

These tissues protect and support the lungs and other important structures of the chest. They also produce lubricating fluid between to help the lungs move smoothly as we breathe. The outer layer, the parietal pleura, lines the entire inside of the chest cavity. The inner layer, or visceral pleura, covers the lungs.

Mesothelioma commonly affects both layers of the pleura. The cancer generally forms in one layer of the pleura and rapidly invades the other pleural layer, diaphragm, chest wall or lung. If the cancer reaches nearby glands called lymph nodes, it can metastasize, or spread, to other parts of the body.

Non-cancerous conditions like pleural plaques and atelactasis can develop on the surface of the pleura as a result of asbestos exposure and these conditions are not associated with pleural mesothelioma. They don’t develop into cancer and they don’t increase the risk of developing lung cancer or pleural mesothelioma.

Credit: http://www.asbestos.com/