Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Peritoneal mesothelioma cancer

The cancer of the lining of the abdominal cavity is called peritoneal mesothelioma. It is not as common as pleural form, comprising an estimated one-fifth to one third of all mesothelioma cases diagnosed. This report of the Monitoring, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) approaches the number of male and 54.7% and 45.3% female with age ranging from 65 to 69 The latency period is shorter in patients exposed to asbestos, the symptoms after 20 to 30Years after the exposure, the usual latency period for mesothelioma is 30 to 40 years.

Peritoneal mesothelioma symptoms

At the time of presentation of peritoneal mesothelioma symptoms include abdominal mass, abdominal pain, increased abdominal girth, fluid in the abdominal cavity (ascites), abdominal distention, weight loss, fever, anemia, fatigue and indigestion. For a few months before a confirmed diagnosis, some patients evencomplain of symptoms that are not specific. By the way, peritoneal mesothelioma is found in a mass percentage of cases if the patient have other health problems such as hernia, gall bladder or pelvic area.

Doctors with experience in this area have pointed out that the patients usually have these symptoms six months to two years before the diagnosis. Men often go to the doctor complaining of a bulge in the groin (inguinal hernia) or around the navel (umbilical hernia) can occur. For womenthe first sign of a problem often occurs after a pelvic exam if a tumor has been discovered.

In later stages of peritoneal mesothelioma, including the symptoms are increased occurrence of blood clots and bowel obstruction des There is a significant increase in platelet count in 50% of patients with peritoneal but different diseases can be caused, so this is actually of little help in the diagnosis. Low albumin level and anemia may also be among theSymptoms.

Peritoneal Mesothelioma Diagnosis

Peritoneal mesothelioma and has two clinical types, the wet "differentiated" may help with the CT findings, the "dry" nature of the. It is as "dry" if there are multiple small masses or a dominant localized mass and is usually little or no classified ascites. The "wet" type is widespread small nodules, no dominant mass and presence of ascites.

If liquid is found, the process of removing itby paracentesis, but the analysis of this fluid has limited diagnostic value. Normally, a final diagnosis obtained by biopsy.

Staging

As there is no staging system for peritoneal mesothelioma, the most popular system for general Cancer Staging (TNM) system is the use. TNM system has the following criteria: (T) status of the tumor (N) and lymph nodes (M) metastases. Other general categories may also be helpfulto determine the stage.

Category 1 - with a localized lesion that can be completely removed (resection) are

Category 2 - the disease is within the abdominal cavity on peritoneal and organ surfaces, where a probability of removing as much tumor tissue removed as possible (debulking)

Category 3 - the disease within the abdominal cavity and removed invades organs like the liver or colon.

Category 4 - the disease is outside the abdominalCavity

Peritoneal mesothelioma treatment

In recent years, the effectiveness of surgery alone or intraperitoneal chemotherapy in the treatment of peritoneal mesothelioma that had not been proven, so multimodality treatment is becoming increasingly popular. Debulking (cytoreductive) surgery has removed all or nearly all visible tumors and can IPHC (intraperitoneal hyperthermic chemotherapy), intraperitoneal combinedChemotherapy and radiation.

Removal of tumors is not always probable, the prognosis for survival may be in conformity with the completeness of cytoreduction, which is determined by these criteria:


Complete cytoreduction

(CC-0): No peritoneal seeding is found within the operational areas

(CC-1): nodule less than 2.5 cm after cytoreduction practices are permeated by intra-cavity chemotherapy, so the process is ascomplete.


Incomplete cytoreduction

(CC-2) nodes with sizes from 2.5 to 5 cm on after wearing cytoreduction

(CC-3) nodules larger than 5 cm are associated with, or is there a merger of tumor nodules that are inoperable at any area within the pelvis or abdomen.

Some patients' healing can spread disease, where surgery is not as potentially, treatment may be palliative debulking done by. Note that special treatmentOnly experienced physicians should be administered as peritoneal mesothelioma is a rare malignant disease.

Recently discovered a clinical study Alimta (pemetrexed) to be effective as a chemotherapeutic agent for the treatment of peritoneal mesothelioma, either alone or in combination with cisplatin or platinum-based drugs. This reflects the recent findings in relation to drugs of pemetrexed mesothelioma.

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