Nobody likes to talk or think about cancer, but it’s a serious disease that we should all aim to understand a little better. Better understanding the signs and symptoms of cancer, as well as how to treat it, can help us mitigate risks and act faster, which can ultimately help us see better health outcomes.
In line with this reasoning, it pays to be able to recognize the earliest symptoms of a specific type of cancer called pleural mesothelioma. But what exactly is pleural mesothelioma, how do you spot it, and what are the best things to do early?
What Is Pleural Mesothelioma?
Pleural mesothelioma is mesothelioma of the lungs. Mesothelioma itself is a rare type of cancer that emerges almost exclusively in response to exposure to a material known as asbestos.
Asbestos was a popular insulating material from decades past; it was cheap, abundant, and almost miraculously practical, but most scientists and engineers didn’t realize how hazardous it was. As it turns out, asbestos is full of tiny, jagged fibers that can lodge themselves in the mesothelial lining of your organs. Given enough time, these fibers can spark inflammation and irritation, eventually leading to the development of mesothelioma.
Once developed, mesothelioma becomes very aggressive and deadly. There is no known cure, and although there are many treatment methods available, they can only prolong your life by attempting to keep the cancer at bay. Pleural mesothelioma, specifically, is the most common type of mesothelioma, and it affects the mesothelial lining around the lungs.
Why Are the Symptoms of Pleural Mesothelioma So Hard to Spot?
Why are the symptoms of this disease so difficult to spot?
First, as you’ll see, many of these symptoms can be mistaken for symptoms of other, much more common diseases, and some of them are barely noticeable at all. After all, most of us occasionally wake up with a sore throat or deal with physical fatigue periodically, so it’s not always easy to tell what deviates from the norm.
Mesothelioma also develops only after a latency period. Even with heavy exposure to asbestos, most people won’t develop symptoms of mesothelioma until years, or even decades after that exposure. By that time, you may have forgotten all about your asbestos exposure.
Symptoms also develop quite gradually in many cases. Although mesothelioma is capable of growing and spreading quite quickly, it’s not something that most people find obvious. Instead, symptoms tend to manifest and evolve more iteratively.
The Earliest Symptoms of Pleural Mesothelioma
These are some of the earliest symptoms of pleural mesothelioma that you can notice:
· Difficulty breathing. As this cancer begins to spread throughout your lungs, you may begin experiencing difficulty breathing. This isn’t always easy to notice, especially because it develops so gradually.
· Chest pain. You may also experience unexplained chest pain. It may range from dull and barely noticeable to sharp and very distracting. It depends on the individual and how much the cancer has progressed.
· Coughing. Most of us cough on a daily or nearly daily basis, and we cough even more if we have the common cold or some similar ailment. The coughing from pleural mesothelioma isn’t always easy to differentiate.
· Fatigue. People with mesothelioma often struggle with physical fatigue as well. Have you felt tired for no reason lately? If there’s a reasonable explanation for your fatigue, it’s probably not due to mesothelioma.
· Swelling of the face or arms. Another hallmark symptom of this disease is swelling of the face or arms. This is especially noticeable in combination with other symptoms.
· Unexplained weight loss. Have you recently lost weight? Is there a reasonable explanation for why and how you lost weight? Like many types of cancer, mesothelioma can cause inexplicable weight loss.
· Difficulty swallowing and hoarseness. Some people also notice difficulty swallowing and hoarseness of the throat. This is arguably one of the earliest symptoms that you can notice in pleural mesothelioma, and most people don’t immediately think of cancer when they experience it.
· Fluid buildup. A more obvious symptom of pleural mesothelioma is fluid buildup in the lungs, but you may not be able to notice it without medical imagery.
Why It’s Important to Act Early
Detecting cancer early is critical if you want to improve your potential outcomes. There is no cure for mesothelioma, and it is considered a terminal disease. However, if you can catch your pleural mesothelioma early in its development, you will be eligible for more treatments, and you’ll likely be able to prolong your lifespan significantly.
If you’ve been exposed to asbestos in the past, or if there’s even a risk that you’ve been exposed to asbestos in the past, it’s important for you to be on the lookout for early symptoms of pleural mesothelioma. If you can recognize these symptoms early, and work with a specialist as quickly as possible, you can greatly improve your prognosis.
