Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma Symptoms & Treatment

Before understanding how Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma develops, we should know the structure of the mesothelium in the lung. It is two layers of membrane.

Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma - Symptoms and Treatment

First layer, outer or parietal layer serves as a lining for the chest cavity and the second layer called as inner or visceral layer which covers the lungs themselves. Malignant pleural mesothelioma cause when asbestos fibers become caught between these two layers of mesothelium.
There are several symptoms of pleural and the vagueness of many can direct to a misdiagnosis.

Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma Symptoms:
- Chronic fatigue
- Night sweats
- Noticeable lumps developing on the chest
- Coughing up blood
- Difficulty swallowing
- Chronic dry cough
- Painful breathing
- Inexplicable weight loss
- Difficulty breathing and a shortness of breath, even when not active
- Chronic chest pain

How to test:
X-rays and CT-scans are common ways to test malignant pleural mesothelioma but blood testing is becoming common and sometimes doctors also discuss a patient's personal as well as family history and take a look for the common symptoms.

Various treatments of Pleural Mesothelioma:

- Surgery: In that doctors either remove part or all of a lung in order to remove the tumor. It stops the disease from spreading.

- Radiation treatment: In that high doses of radiation are used to kill the cancerous cells. But radiation treatment also kills healthy cells along with cancerous cells and that can form side-effects.

- Chemotherapy: In that drugs are used to kill the tumor and to stop the spread of cancer. Like radiation treatment, chemotherapy also forms a number of unpleasant side-effects.

- Immunotherapy: It has been primarily tested in animal studies and some clinical trials using human patients. Still it is not become a typical treatment for mesothelioma.

- Photodynamic therapy: It is recommended only in certain cases and not effective for treating cancer which Has been spread throughout the body.

Gene therapy: It is still in the developmental stage and has not been approved by the FDA as a standard cancer treatment.

In the recent modern treatment, combination of all three treatment options is taken to cope with malignant pleural mesothelioma that can increase a patient's chances for survival. The 3-year survival rate for malignant pleural mesothelioma cancer is 10% (approximate) and 5-year survival rate is only 5%.

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