Malignant pleural mesothelioma common and nonspecific symptoms, which are not easily reduced to a form tumor during the first examinations.
Therefore, upon reaching the correct diagnosis of malignant pleural mesoteliema the process of metastasis may have already affected various organs is essential for a correct evaluation of all factors to determine the selection of therapies.
GIMe.it, Italian Group for Mesothelioma together basic researchers and clinicians actively engaged in research, pre-clinical and clinical, relating this cancer in its various forms; malignant pleural mesothelioma, peritoneal, and rare forms. The Group is committed in helping the sick, the constant search for new treatments and the training of medical personnel and health care.
The patient with malignant pleural mesothelioma should be followed in specialized centers that can evaluate all prognostic factors and decide the best treatment possible.
Malignant pleural mesothelioma growing within the chest cavity and sometimes involves the lung. The process of metastasis can affect many organs, including brain, and metastatic localizations are already present at diagnosis in a high percentage of cases.
The growth of the tumor before the onset of symptoms is generally slow and the first manifestations of his presence are very nonspecific. The most common symptom of malignant pleural mesothelioma is represented by persistent pain referable to the thoracic level.
In some cases the pain is associated with a more or less severe difficulty in breathing (dyspnoea). Latter symptom is caused by a condition called pleural effusion, which consists in the accumulation of fluid in the space between the two layers that make up the pleura.
The presence of this excess fluid makes it more strenuous movements lungs during respiration. Other common symptoms, but still present in many malignancies, are coughing, weight loss and fever (more often low-grade fever). The diagnosis can be made from a chest, but for’esatta see the extent of disease, the examination is more appropriate computerized axial tomography (CT).
A subsequent diagnostic step for malignant pleural mesothelioma should be represented where possible by a thoracoscopy, tests to see the tumor directly, accurately assessing the local extension, and proceed to all”esecuzione biopsies are essential for the exact determination of histological type of Mme. Currently there are no serum markers that allow the diagnosis of malignant pleural mesothelioma.
According to some researchers, the presence of elevated blood levels of hyaluronic acid may be useful for differentiating mesothelioma from other types of cancer, and its dose can be duplicated during or after therapy to assess its effectiveness.
In patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma, the average survival time is 17 months from the onset of symptoms. Survival at 3 years is about 10%, that 5 years is 5% (if you look at 100 patients who were diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma at a given time, after 5 years only 10 of them are still alive, and that number is expected to fall to 5 after a period of 5 years.
Tags: Diagnostic, Malignant Pleural, malignant pleural mesothelioma, Mesothelioma, Thoracoscopy
