Malignant Peritoneal Mesothelioma
In the abdomen, a cancer of the peritoneum or tissue lining the abdominal cavity and covering various organs is called malignant peritoneal mesothelioma. Peritoneum is the thin membrane, which shields various organs of the abdomen and also provides a lubricating fluid to enable the organs to move and work properly. Pleural mesothelioma, which affects the lining of the lungs, is the most common, accounting for about 75 percent of all malignant mesotheliomas. Malignant pleural mesothelioma is a fast-moving cancer with a median survival time of between one and two years.The majority of mesotheliomas are associated with asbestos exposure.
Symptoms of peritoneal mesothelioma include nausea and vomiting, weight loss, fever, bowel obstruction, loss of appetite and general pain in the stomach area. This, combined with the lack of an accurate history of asbestos exposure in some patients, may considerably delay diagnosis.
Remember that only a doctor can confirm the presence of mesothelioma by examining medical reports, asbestos exposure history, MRI and/or CT scan. When a biopsy of the cancer tissue is done, the types of cells that make up the cancer may be epithelioid, mixed, or sarcomatoid.
The exact treatment a lung cancer patient receives will depend on several factors. People with epithelioid cell cancers tend to survive somewhat longer; those with sarcomatoid cancers usually have the shortest survival.DMM is always treated as aggressively as possible. The epithelioid cell type has the best prognosis, the mixed or biphasic cell type the next best prognosis, and the sarcomatoid cell type the worst prognosis. The five-year survival rate for early non-small cell lung cancer is close to 50 percent; five-year survival drops to about two percent in the most advanced cases. Because of this poor prognosis, the cancer is treated as aggressively as the patient’s overall physical condition allows, with some combination of surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Surgery is a preferred option where the bulk of the cancer can be removed. Radiotherapy to the chest may also be used to kill off remaining cancer cells.