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Sunday, September 12, 2010

5 Ways To Cope With Peritoneum Mesothelioma

It is no new anymore these days that mesothelioma is a deadly form of cancer that gives most of its sufferers less than two years prognosis. It is a terrible disease that comes to torment its victims 30 or 40 years after contracting it. It is one disease that takes many years to come to the sufferers’ notice after which it has taken over the control of the victim’s health and lifestyle. One form of mesothelioma that is making life difficult for many people today is peritoneum mesothelioma. Peritoneum mesothelioma is a relatively uncommon form of malignant mesothelioma which is slightly less than 30% of mesothelioma cases are diagnosed peritoneum mesothelioma. It is mesothelioma tumors that are found in the peritoneal cavity area (i.e. in the tummy of a mesothelioma sufferer). Peritoneum mesothelioma develops in the abdomen among the mesothelial cells that form the membranous layer called peritoneum. Mesothelioma of the abdomen like every other mesothelioma is caused by prolonged exposure to asbestos dust or fibre. Once inhaled or ingested asbestos can affect many body organs, such as lungs, throat, heart, testicles and heart, depending on the health of the victim, Mesothelioma start to develop when asbestos dusts or fibres find their way into the body and lodged itself in the spaces between the mesothelial cells of the body.
As times goes on the asbestos dust will travel into the peritoneal layers where they cause inflammation and irritation as a result of development of cancerous cells. The cancerous cells then cause the thickening of the peritoneum and fluid build-up in the peritoneal layers. These cancerous cells will continue to divide. The abnormal cells caused by membrane thickening in the peritoneum, fluid build and tumors growth put pressure on the internal organs in the abdomen of the victims. The pressure on the internal organs in the abdominal cavity will then result to the following symptoms, among which are swelling and pains in the abdomen (due to growth of lumps under the skin of the abdomen or swelling in the abdominal area), diarrhea, constipation, changes in bowel habits and movements, night sweats, fever during the night, weight loss, nausea, fatigue, obstruction of the small or large intestine, anemia, vomiting and other.
Once all these symptoms are noticed oncologist (cancer specialists) will order many tests but if the patient did not go to a cancer specialist, his or her doctor may be treating other diseases that shared close symptoms with mesothelioma like pneumonia, tuberculosis and others. Among the tests which an oncologist will put the patient through is x-rays, which is the most commonly used by doctors to scan and properly diagnose peritoneal mesothelioma. X-rays test is recommended until the doctor has thoroughly looked into the patient’s medical history and physical fitness. He can then follow that with advanced testing tools such as image, fluid and tissues tests. Image test always contain x-rays MRI and CT scan. These two are used to detect any abnormalities in the body.
From the result of all these tests if any abnormality is noticed, a biopsy operation is usually conducted to know if the cancer involved is mesothelioma or not. Tissue biopsy is a minor surgical procedure that is carried out by oncologists to remove fluid build-up and abdominal tissue growth from the peritoneum. The biopsy fluid and tissue will then be taken to the laboratory for analysis to determine whether the fluid up and tissue growth are present as a result of mesothelioma cells or other cancer cells. These test will also help the doctor determine how advanced the disease has progress and this information will help the doctor determine the mesothelioma treatment option to be administered on the patient.
Once the test confirmed that the patient has mesothelioma, a treatment option plan is then discussed by the doctor and his patient. As with every cancer, treating peritoneum mesothelioma can be a very difficult to do, simply because as at the point the symptoms of it are coming up and manifesting the cancer has progressed to the later stages of its development making it a difficult health problem to deal with. Presently, no known cure exist for mesothelioma and other cancer types yet. What most doctors treating peritoneum mesothelioma do is to recommend treatment that will help patients to combat the disease, reduce pains and discomfort in the life of the patient suffering from peritoneum mesothelioma tumors.
To achieve this aim, doctors treating mesothelioma usually recommend chemotherapy, radiation and surgery options depending on the level of development of the cancer in the body of the patient. Radiation and chemotherapy options are used mainly by oncologists (cancer specialist doctors) to target and kill cancerous cells rapidly diving and multiplying in the body of the victims. Since there is no known cure yet for mesothelioma, victims on their own choice may put themselves into a combination of therapy which may include participation in clinical trials that are mainly aimed at alleviating pain, reduce body discomfort and improve quality of life of sufferers and that of their household. On the other hand, palliative treatment is usually recommended for patients who have their mesothelioma spread too much in the body or are too weak for stressful treatment like surgery.
Of all chemotherapeutic options, intra peritoneal chemotherapy is one existing effective form of peritoneum mesothelioma treatment. This is a situation whereby some medications are prescribed for the patient to be injected directly into the peritoneum immediately after surgery to remove cancer cells from the body. In some patients however, radiation therapy is usually given before surgery to help shrink the cancer tumors. Unfortunately, many mesothelioma sufferers are not recommended for surgery because their cancer has spread to a larger part of the body or because the patient’s health is too poor and weak for the rigours of surgery.
 So many factors affect the possibility of carrying out surgery on a peritoneum mesothelioma patient among which are the stage of the cancer, other medical condition the patient may have and the patient’s general fitness. For many patients, this cancer symptoms usually come up when the disease has spread to larger parts of the body making peritoneal mesothelioma surgery called perconectomy(This is always aimed at removing the part of the peritoneum(the lining of the abdomen) which the mesothelioma is growing to control peritoneum mesothelioma symptoms) virtually impossible and risky for treatment option.

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