Mesothelioma _Symptoms

Symptoms of mesothelioma:

As stated in last hub it takes 15 to 50 years for the symptom to appear. The symptoms are not sharp enough and they may look like symptoms of less serious disease.
The various symptoms can be
Dyspnea: shortness of breath
Pain: mild to throbbing

Early Symptoms of Mesothelioma
As I said before it takes 15 to 50 years for this disease to develop so there is no early symptoms of this cancer and therefore this cancer is diagnosed at a very very late stage and by that time the cancer has developed a lot. Doctors advise that anyone who is working in the industry which use asbestos or works in environment where the asbestos is used then he should get his chest X-Rays every year along with pulmonary function tests ( lung function test) to see if the asbestos is having adverse effect on the body.

There are 4 main types of mesothelioma
1. Pleural
2. Peritoneal
3. Pericardial
4. Testicular.

Peritonial Mesothelioma
The symptoms include:
Loss of weight: this is common to all cancers and this loss of weight can not be explained.
Pain abdomen
swelling of the abdomen
Night sweats
Fever
NVD ( nausea , vomiting and diarrhea)
Fall in hemoglobin leading to Anemia which lead to fatigue
Lumps beneath the skin of abdomen.
 The peritoneal membrane thickens and there is fluid collection between the various layers of the membrane. These causes pressure on the various organs of the region which shows up as the above mentioned symptoms.

   Plural mesothelioma:

The various symptoms are:
Cough which is dry and non productive
Dysphasia: there is pain and difficulty in swelling
Hemoptysis:  Blood in cough.
NVD
Loss of weight which can not be explained.
Fever
Night sweating
Dyspnea
Painful breathing.
 Fatigue due to anemia
 lumps under the skin of the chest.

The plural membrane thickens because of cancer thus there is retention of fluids in between various layers of the membrane. This in turn puts pressure on lungs and cause the reduction in plural space and reduces the functions of lungs and causes pain in breathing.

  Pericardial Mesothelioma:
 This is comparatively rare form of mesothelioma and is on the heart. The way the cancer act is same as above. It thickens membrane of the heart ( pericardium) and fluid deposits in layer, causing the following symptoms:
Palpitations of heart
Arrhythmias of heart ie heart beat is irregular
Pain in chest.
Dyspnea even at rest.
NVD
Fever
Night sweating
Fatigue due to anemia
Testicular Mesothelioma:
A very very rare form of mesothelioma and not even 120 cases has been reported till now. Not much is known about this form of mesothelioma. Not much study has been done about this as not many people had this cancer. The only known symptoms have been painful lumps on testis and loss of weight for no apparent reason. There can be NVD and fatigue too.