About Treatment
Pleural mesothelioma (endothelioma, pleural cancer) is a rare tumor that exists in a malignant and benign form. It can develop at any age, but most often a similar diagnosis is made to patients after 40-45 years old, mainly men.
With a benign form of the disease, recovery occurs in 90% of cases after surgical treatment.
In the malignant form, mesothelioma grows quickly enough and manifests itself in the form of nodules or flakes on the pleura. The tumor can look like a dense accumulation of cellular elements on the serous membrane with an admixture of blood and lymph, or spread to the entire pleura, surrounding the lung like a shell. As the tumor grows, it grows into the heart bag, heart, liver, lung.
Mesothelioma can quickly spread through the lymphatic tract to the lymph nodes, hematogenous metastases are rare.
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Causes of Disease
genetic predisposition to the disease;
radiation during therapy for other cancers;
contact with chemicals in production (nickel, copper, polyurethane, beryllium, etc.). -
Types of Pleural Mesothelioma
epithelioid - occurs most often, up to 70% of cases;
sarcomatous - about 10% of cases;
mixed - about 20-25%.
If a malignant tumor is detected at an early (asymptomatic) stage, and has not yet reached a significant size, a high effect can be achieved with the use of radiosurgical treatment of pleural mesothelioma with CyberKnife.
The advantage of this choice is the highest accuracy in the delivery of ionizing radiation, which is fatal to the tumor. At the same time, the required dose will be evenly delivered by CyberKnife to each point of a small tumor, preventing insufficient irradiation, which quite often becomes the cause of tumor radioresistance (observed during radiation treatment with outdated cobalt devices or with insufficient attention to planning treatment with linear accelerators).
With larger spread of the process, surgical intervention is most often used as a radical method of treating mesothelioma, which is combined with chemotherapy and radiation therapy.
In order to make a diagnosis, it is necessary to carry out a number of diagnostic procedures. In addition, in order to diagnose mesothelioma, it is necessary to find out whether the patient has had contact with asbestos, since this substance is one of the substances that provoke neoplasm. During the diagnosis, x-ray of the chest organs is performed.
As a rule, primary complaints require CT and MRI studies, and the final diagnosis is made after pleural biopsy and immunohistochemistry. Mesothelioma is also determined using whole body cancer screening.
The main symptoms of the disease are followings:
tappearance of heaviness in the chest area
dyspnea
chest pains of varying degrees and locations
dry cough
significant weight loss - up to 10-15 kg, without diets and sports
increase in body temperature to 37 degrees and above
general weakness
increased sweating
joint and muscle pain
If you notice at least two of the above symptoms in yourself or someone close to you, see your doctor to rule out the possibility of a disease or confirm the diagnosis and start treatment for the neoplasm. Early diagnosis always increases the chances of successful treatment.
To prevent the occurrence of mesothelioma, contact with carcinogenic substances must be avoided. This is especially true for asbestos and other harmful minerals. Those people whose work is related to the extraction of these substances, work in production, must undergo a medical examination at least once a year, and be tested. The same goes for those who live in industrial areas.
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