Diagnosis Of Mesothelioma - A Tricky But Very Essential Affair

By Heidi Wingrain

Many factors are there which can hamper exact and speedy diagnosis mesothelioma. There is the possibility of making errors regarding the disease if the doctor is not an experienced person with the required expertise. Mesothlioma, being a rare form of cancer, the number of skillful doctors and cancer centers are comparatively less. The second difficulty is that the symptoms of the cancer like shortness of breath, continuous cough etc are symptomatic of lesser diseases like pneumonia, influenza etc also. Thirdly, all the three types of mesothelioma have more or less similar symptoms making it extremely difficult for the doctors to diagnose it accurately. The fatal nature of the disease can be realized only when we come to know that its symptoms appear only at the advanced stages.

In most cases, doctors detect the existence of the cancer only when a patient visits him with complaints like breathing problems, fever, etc. If in doubt, physicians may start diagnosis mesothelioma with a thorough examination of the patient's work and health history. In many cases, the work history itself testifies the cancer and a thorough diagnosis confirms the doubt.

Many imaging tests are used as a first step in mesothelioma detection. They include MRI, CT Scan, X-ray of the chest and abdomen etc. But these tests cannot confirm cancerous growths. Apart from this additional lung tests are conducted in many cases.

Thoracoscopy is a typical test employed by the doctors with the help of an instrument called thoracoscope. With the help of the instrument doctors look into the chest cavity through a cut made between two ribs, giving a local anesthetic to the patient. Another method used by the doctors is called petneoscopy, with the involvement of a tool named peritoneoscope. This is done to check the abdomen for any cancerous growth. Biopsy is a reliable modern test which is used to confirm cancer. Here microscopic analysis of a small piece of removed suspicious tissue is done to see whether any malicious cells exist.

The most unfortunate fact regarding mesothelioma is that the cancer is diagnosed very late, thus making the chances of a cure, at times even survival a remote possibility. Hence the best possible thing to do for a person who has been under asbestos exposure at any point of time in life is to go for periodic check ups. If at doubt the doctor can conduct urgent diagnosis mesothelioma thus enhancing the chances of a cure or extension of life significantly. - 31397

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