Did You Know?
Most mesothelioma victims die within 18 months of diagnosis. Mortality is swift not because the cancer is fast-growing but because it usually is far advanced by the time it is detected.
Epithelial malignant mesothelioma is the most common form of mesothelioma that develops as a result of asbestos exposure. Epithelial malignant mesothelioma is also common in the peritoneum of the abdomen. This is caused by the ingestion of asbestos that enters the air. Fifty to seventy percent of malignant mesothelioma is considered epithelial malignant mesothelioma.
Epithelial mesothelioma is a more rare form of cancer affects the membrane lining the chest cavity, heart, lungs and abdominal cavity. There are three forms of epithelial mesothelioma:
- the most common, pleural mesothelioma;
- the second most common, peritoneal mesothelioma (accounting for only a quarter of the cases);
- the rarest form, pericardial mesothelioma.
In most epithelial mesothelioma the patients who develop it were generally exposed 15 to 40 years before hand, which often makes the time and place the disease was contracted difficult to determine.
The symptoms of epithelial malignant mesothelioma that affect the lungs include shortness of breath, persistent cough, pain in the chest, and viral pneumonia symptoms. Many patients are asymptomatic. The right lung is affected sixty percent of the time, the left lung thirty five percent, and both lungs are affected in five percent of epithelial malignant mesothelioma cases.
A person who has been exposed to asbestos for one or two months has the potential to develop epithelial malignant mesothelioma or other asbestos related illnesses up to fifty years later. Mesothelioma has a long latency period. Once diagnosed the prognosis is often bleak. The average patient has a year left to live after they discover their condition.
The vast majority of epithelial mesothelioma cases are the result of asbestos exposure. Indeed, one of the most frustrating aspects of this type of cancer is that patients who develop it were generally exposed 15 to 40 years before hand, which often makes the time and place the disease was contracted difficult to determine. It is because these symptoms are so generic that epithelial mesothelioma is rarely detected early on. Usually when its discovered it is already in an advanced stage and treatment options, particularly localized options such as surgery, are somewhat limited.
If the cancer is in a less advanced stage, aggressive surgery treatments can be sought. Aggressive treatments are treatments aimed at curing the mesothelioma or at least increasing the patients longevity. In some cases an extrapleural pneumonectomy can be performed to try to stop the spread of the mesothelioma.
Malignant Deciduoid Mesothelioma
Malignant deciduoid mesothelioma, a rare phenotype of epithelioid mesothelioma, arises more commonly from the peritoneum of young women, but it is also reported in the pleura of elderly people. Malignant deciduoid mesothelioma (MDM) is a recently characterized variant of epithelial malignant mesothelioma that closely simulates exuberant ectopic decidual reaction.
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