Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Stage 3 Mesothelioma

Stage 3 Mesothelioma

    Stage 3 mesothelioma is considered to be an advanced stage of the disease. By the third stage, pleural mesothelioma has typically traveled to the abdominal cavity, while other subtypes of mesothelioma have spread to other organs, tissues and lymph nodes. The areas most commonly affected by advanced Stage 3 mesothelioma include:
  • Chest wall
  • Esophagus
  • Trachea
  • Blood vessels
  • Diaphragmatic muscle
    Tumors are classified as Stage 3 if they involve all of the pleural surfaces as well as endothoracic fascia, mediastinal fat, soft chest wall tissues or the pericardium.

Stage 3 Mesothelioma Symptoms

    Symptoms of mesothelioma typically are mild and vague. By Stage 3, however, these symptoms have intensified and may interfere with everyday functioning. Pain becomes more frequent and notable, coughing becomes more severe, and shortness of breath begins to occur even when the patient is at rest. Metastatic symptoms are rare, but small bowel obstruction is a late feature noted by a small percentage of late-stage peritoneal mesothelioma patients.

Treating Stage 3 Mesothelioma

    Mesothelioma therapy plans are strongly influenced by the stage of the disease being treated. Because the illness is not contained to one area, Stage 3 mesothelioma can be somewhat difficult to address. One study found that the median survival for patients with Stage 3 tumors was 13 months, yet prompt treatment can help improve the prognosis associated with the disease.
    Although advanced stage can disqualify a patient from surgical consideration, some Stage 3 mesothelioma patients are still candidates for resection. Surgery will often be preceded or followed by another type of treatment to promote the death of all cancer cells. Neoadjuvant therapy, which comes before surgery, and adjuvant therapy, which is given after surgery, can both include the same treatments such as chemotherapy.
    Chemotherapy and radiation therapy are both used for the treatment of Stage 3 mesothelioma (not in all cases). Chemotherapy kills cancerous cells with powerful drugs while radiation therapy destroys the cells by exposing them to radioactive substances. An aggressive course of mesothelioma treatment that combined an extrapleural pneumonectomy with radiotherapy and either adjuvant or neoadjuvant chemotherapy increased median survival rates in Stage 3 patients. In one study, only six of 30 Stage 3 mesothelioma patients showed no improvement in chest pain, cough, dyspnea or chest pain after a chemotherapy and radiotherapy regimen.


Source : http://www.asbestos.com

No comments:

Post a Comment

PC Gaming Blogs - BlogCatalog Blog Directory