Peritoneal mesothelioma is a disease that occurs in the peritoneal membrane. Before moving forward let’s take a look at what the peritoneal membrane is. The peritoneum is divided into the parietal and parietal peritoneum. The visceral peritoneal lines in the intestines and abdominal organs. The peritoneal parietal wraps the abdominal cavity. These layers protect the internal organs and also secrete liquids that soften the devices facilitating the easy movement of devices within the abdominal cavity.
As with all types of mesothelioma, asbestos is considered the main cause of peritoneal mesothelioma. Asbestos can be lethal to the body and can also cause cancer along with other severe illnesses.
Asbestos dust causes great damage when it enters the body. Dust may enter the body in two ways.
First, the body can enter through the lungs during breathing. In this case, the dust travels through the lymph nodes and reaches the peritoneal cavity. Second, it can interfere because of involuntary ingestion while working with asbestos.
It can also occur due to passive inhalation of asbestos dust. This is called the tail piece of passive exposure. Working clothes that operates in the center of asbestos hold dust between fabric layers. When this clothing is washed or used by another person, asbestos dust enters the body of that person.
Peritoneal Mesothelioma has a very long latency period. It takes symptoms about 20-30 years to become apparent. Symptoms arise only in the final stage of the disease. By the time the disease is diagnosed as peritoneal mesothelioma, it will be too late to provide any useful medication.
Another problem with the diagnosis of this disease is that its symptoms are similar to some of the more common, less severe diseases. Fever, anemia, weight loss, abdominal pain and bowel obstruction are some of these symptoms.
So the doctor is more likely to provide the inaccurate diagnosis. It is, therefore, important to inform your doctor as soon as possible about any exposure to asbestos in the past. This will enable the doctor to treat the disease in its early stages.
The type of treatment depends on various factors such as severity of disease, an age of the patient, patient’s health, and medical history.
Some of the traditional treatments for peritoneal mesothelioma are radiation therapy, surgery, and chemotherapy. Surgery is performed only if the tumor has grown and can not be treated by any other treatment. In chemotherapy, anti-cancer drugs are introduced into the body through a pill or needle.
Consistent research has been conducted to develop effective treatments for this disease. Improvements in medical science and related technology have led to the development of few new methods of treatments. Treatment during phototherapy, immunotherapy and gene therapy are some of the latest methods in the medical field meant to treat this fatal disease often.
Treatment during phototherapy uses light and drugs to destroy cancer cells. They are also used to study the initial stages of mesothelioma. Immunotherapy is designed to increase the body’s immunity. Immunity is the body’s ability to fight harmful substances. This therapy is also used to enhance immunity against cancer cells.
It has also been found that mesothelioma can be cured by correcting certain genes in the body. To this end, genetic therapy is being tested as the potential treatment. Gene therapy helps correct the wrong genes in the body, but this process, along with immunotherapy, has not been introduced into hospitals yet because it is still under medical examination.
There are many treatments for mesothelioma, but there is no single treatment capable of treating the patient alone. Doctors, therefore, take a multimodal approach. This means that a combination of many treatments is used instead of a single treatment. There are many factors that determine the type of combination of treatments that will be used and vary from case to case.