Symptoms of Mesothelioma

The symptoms of mesothelioma are cruel and painful. As the tumor grows and expands, it often produces fluid that fills the chest or the abdomen, depending upon whether it is pleural or peritoneal mesothelioma. This fluid places pressure on vital organs. In the case of pleural mesothelioma, which represents 80% of cases, the fluid compresses the lung, causing intense pain, shortness of breath and overwhelming fatigue. The mesothelioma sufferer cannot sleep comfortably, loses appetite, and endures excruciating pain as the fluid and the expanding tumor slowly fills up the chest, crushing the lung. Relieving the fluid pressure is only short term symptomatic relief. (p)

Pleural mesothelioma patients in five studies presented by P. Chahinian showed the following symptoms in varying degrees:

Dyspnea (shortness of breath)	6-60% of cases
Chest pain	33-71% of cases
Both dyspnea and pain	19-28% of cases
Cough	3-27%
Hemoptysis (spitting blood or bloody sputum)	1-6%
Hoarseness	1-3%
Dysphagia (difficulty swallowing)	1%
Weight Loss	14-29%
Fever	3-33%
Asymptomatic	3-4%
Pleural effusion (fluid in the chest cavity)	74-84%

Pericardial patients reported different clinical symptoms:

Pericardial effusion (fluid in the pericardial space)

Dyspnea

Pain

Constrictive pericarditis (inflammation of the pericardial sac)

Vascular compression

Cardiac tamponade (bleeding into the pericardium)

Pericardial thickening on scans (12% of patients only)

Peritoneal patients present another set of symptoms again:

Abdominal pain	63%
Abdominal mass	40%
Increased abdominal girth	70%
Ascites (fluid in the abdomen)	66%
Digestive disturbances	33%
Fever	20%
Weight loss	44%
Thrombocytosis (increased platelets in the peripheral blood)	23%
Leukocytosis (elevated white blood cell count)	50%