Mesothelioma Symptoms
Mesothelioma symptoms are not specific to the disease itself as many mesothelioma symptoms are quite same to the symptoms commonly seen in other medical conditions. So symptoms of mesothelioma are generally non-specific, and may lead to a hindrance in diagnosis. Recent studies show that the symptoms of mesothelioma usually start to appear 30 to 50 years after contact or exposure with asbestos. For both patients and doctors, this is the most annoying aspect of the disease. The period for mesothelioma remains unnoticed is lengthy, making the disease undiagnosable until its very end stages when symptoms finally begin to appear and little can be done to slow the progression of the disease.
Thus, many mesothelioma patients are ignorant that the symptoms they are experiencing are related to something that happened much earlier in their lives. Even a short period of asbestos exposure (as little as a few months) can generate the conditions for a disease that showup much later in life. Most of the people present with complaints of shortness of breath, Also know as Dypsnea. They also can have complaints of chest pain. This pain is often not pleuritic in origin which get worse with deep breathing. Pleura which is the outer covering layer of the lungs is often involved in mesothelioma and like other diseases involving the pleura pain is not pleuritic.
Patients may also be asymptomatic, with the disease discovered on routine physical examination or an abnormal chest X-ray showing abnormal amounts of pleural fluid and mutiple opacities on PA view. As the disease progresses, shortness of breath increases, and weight loss (which is commonly seen in malignat conditions) , decrease in appetite, and night sweats (Commonly seen in Tuberculosis) can also develop. Local invasion by the tumor can result in changing of voice (Hoarsness of voices) , loss of function of the diaphragm, and symptoms specific to the area and involvement of adjacent structures.