Mesothelioma is a form of cancer that results from exposure to asbestos. Due to its long latency period, many don’t know that they have it until the disease has progressed to a late stage. Here are some of the most common symptoms of mesothelioma to help you obtain a diagnosis earlier.
Mesothelioma is a mystery. It is not understood why the fibers attack the mesothelium layer of the tissue in the body or why it waits so long to present itself. There is no cure as of yet, but treatment options can help prolong life if cancer is caught early.
Therein lies another mystery. Depending on the location of the mesothelioma, you may be asymptomatic when the cancer first develops. If you do have symptoms, some can be attributed to so many other conditions, that mesothelioma is not suspected at all. One way to change that is to report any exposure to asbestos, no matter how small or brief, to your doctor.
The latency period for mesothelioma is 20 to 50 years. Even if you experience common symptoms of the disease, the fact that nothing comes of it for three decades can lull anyone into a false sense of health security. Some conditions that have similar symptoms to mesothelioma:
- Congestive heart failure
- Emphysema
- Constipation
- Weight gain (abdominal swelling)
Early Symptoms
Here are some early symptoms that may be experienced:
- Shortness of breath
- Abdominal pain
- Coughing
- Fluid gain
- Weight loss
- Night sweats
As we said, any of these alone can be a sign of another condition. Your doctor may not even suspect that you are suffering from early stages of mesothelioma.
While mesothelioma often occurs in the lungs (pleural mesothelioma) the carcinogenic fibers can also be ingested and end up in the abdomen (peritoneal mesothelioma). Symptoms that involve this area may be ignored because it doesn’t involve a lung condition.
Common Signs
It doesn’t matter whether you have peritoneal, pleural or pericardial mesothelioma. There are some common symptoms between the three types. The same type of physiological changes are taking place: The fibers are lodging in the mesothelium layer, causing it to thicken and fluid to buildup in the space between parietal and visceral mesothelium layers.
Here are a few of the symptoms that you may notice with any kind of mesothelioma:
- Fluid buildup in the chest, lungs or abdomen
- Unusual pain (chest or abdomen)
- Weight loss
- Loss of appetite
- Problems sleeping
Other common signs are specific to one or two of the types of mesothelioma. They include:
- Difficulty swallowing (pleural or peritoneal)
- Husky voice (pleural)
- Vomiting (peritoneal)
- Fever (peritoneal)
- Bowel obstruction (peritoneal)
- Heart palpitations (pericardial)
If you have been exposed to asbestos, common symptoms take on new meaning. They might be attributed to another condition, but connecting them with asbestos could save your life.