Mesothelioma can occur in different varieties. One form is the abdominal mesothelioma, which is also called peritoneal mesothelioma.
The disease is defined as an asbestos induced cancer that develops within the tissue of the peritoneal cavity, located in the abdomen. Males at the age range of 50 to 70 are usually affected by this illness. Nonetheless, a solid 20% of all new diagnoses pertain to women. The symptoms of abdominal mesothelioma include: the loss of weight due to loss of appetite, pain in the abdomen and abdominal swelling. If a patient exhibits any of the aforementioned symptoms and has a known history of being exposed to asbestos, further medical examination, e. g. X-rays, CT-Scans and PET Scans will narrow down the likelihood of a possible peritoneal diagnosis. A conclusive diagnosis can only be made after a biopsy. A biopsy is a surgical procedure with the purpose of extracting a tissue sample of the affected area, which will be then tested further on malignancy in a therefore specialized laboratory.
If the pathology comes back positive on peritoneal mesothelioma, the next step is to determine a treatment regimen, together with the patient and Oncologist. The treatment protocol strongly depends on the patient’s overall health condition, his age, the grade of and the location of the tumor and whether it has spread further already. Unfortunately, this form of cancer comes with a poor outlook on survival, which is mainly due to the fact that is frequently gets detected at a rather late stage only. Treatments are typically designed to improve a patient’s quality of life rather than curing the disease.
If you encounter any unusual symptoms on yourself, don’t waste any time and make an appointment with a specialized health care professional. The fact that I went to see an Urologist right away after I found blood in my urine, prevented me from getting an even worse diagnosis than ‘only’ a stage one kidney cancer.
