Diagnosis & Staging
Mesothelioma can start in your chest (pleural), abdomen (peritoneal) and sometimes your heart (pericardial).
Mesothelioma is not a common cancer.
The most common type of mesothelioma is pleural, in the lining outside of your lungs.
There is currently no cure for mesothelioma. At the time of diagnosis, most people have an advanced stage of mesothelioma. It is important to remember that survival depends on many things. Please talk to your doctor about your specific cancer.
Early symptoms of mesothelioma are also symptoms of other, more common, illnesses. For this reason, mesothelioma may not be diagnosed right away.
If you have symptoms that last longer than several weeks, talk to your family doctor or nurse practitioner.
Symptoms often happen as the mesothelioma thickens or as fluid builds up in the mesothelium.
- Fatigue
- Fever
- Night sweats
- Weight loss
- Shortness of breath
- Chest pain
- Cough
- Abdominal pain or swelling
- Weight loss
- Nausea and vomiting
- Shortness of breath
- Heart rhythm disturbances
If you have any signs or symptoms that you are worried about, please talk to your family doctor or nurse practitioner.
Tests that may help diagnose mesothelioma include:
- X-ray: will show if there is more fluid around the organ than is normal.
- CT (Computed tomography) scan: can show the size and location of the tumour and if the cancer has spread.
- Thoracoscopy: a thin tube with a camera on the end is put through a small cut in your chest. This allows the doctor to see inside your chest.
- Biopsy: a small amount of tissue or fluid is removed. A specialist doctor (pathologist) will examine the tissue under a microscope. There are different ways to take a biopsy:
- Needle biopsy: a thin, hollow needle takes a tissue or fluid sample.
- Endoscope: a thin tube with a camera can grab pieces of tissue.
- Surgery: to get a sample or take out the entire tumour.
Staging describes the cancer. Staging is based on how much cancer is in the body, where it was first diagnosed, if the cancer has spread and where it has spread to.
The stage of the cancer can help your health care team plan your treatment. It can also tell them how your cancer might respond to treatment and the chance that your cancer may come back (recur).
Only pleural mesothelioma staging is listed below. There is no staging system for peritoneal mesothelioma or pericardial mesothelioma.
- Stage 1A:
- Cancer is in the lining of the chest wall (parietal pleura) or the lining covering the lung (visceral pleura) on the same side of the chest as the tumour.
- Stage 1B:
- Same as Stage 1A but cancer has also grown into one of two places:
- Diaphragm (a thin muscle below your lungs that separates your chest from your abdomen).
- Tissues of your lung.
- OR
- Same as Stage 1A but tumour has grown into at least one of these areas:
- Connective tissue (fascia) that makes up part of the chest wall.
- Fat in the space between the lungs.
- Soft tissues of the chest wall (only one area).
- Part way through the lining of the heart (pericardium).
- Stage 2:
- Cancer is in parietal pleura or the visceral pleura on the same side of the chest as the tumour. It may have also grown into at least one of these areas:
- Diaphragm (a thin muscle below your lungs that separates your chest from your abdomen).
- Tissues of your lung.
- Cancer has also spread to lymph nodes in the chest on the same side of the body as the tumour.
- Stage 3A:
- Cancer is in parietal pleura or the visceral pleura on the same side of the chest as the tumour. It has also grown into at least one of these areas:
- Connective tissue (fascia) that makes up part of the chest wall.
- Fat in the space between the lungs.
- Soft tissues of the chest wall (only one area).
- Part way through the lining of the heart (pericardium).
- Cancer has also spread to lymph nodes in the chest on the same side of the body as the tumour.
- Stage 3B:
- Cancer is in parietal pleura or the visceral pleura on the same side of the chest as the tumour. It may also have grown into at least one of these areas:
- Diaphragm.
- Tissues of the lung.
- Connective tissues (fascia) that makes up part of the chest wall.
- Fat in the space between the lungs.
- Soft tissues of the chest wall (only one area).
- Part way through the lining of the heart (pericardium).
- Cancer has also spread to lymph nodes on the other side of the chest from the tumour.
- Cancer is in the parietal pleura or the visceral pleura on the same side of the chest as the tumour. It may have also grown into at least one of these areas:
- Chest wall and may have grown into the ribs.
- Peritoneum (membrane that lines your abdominal cavity).
- Parietal pleura (the lining around the parts of your chest wall, diaphragm and heart) or visceral pleura (lining around your lungs) on the other side of the chest.
- Esophagus (swallowing tube), trachea (windpipe), heart or large blood vessels in the space between the lungs (mediastinum).
- Bones of the spine (vertebrae).
- Spinal cord.
- Through the lining of the heart.
- Stage 4:
- Cancer has spread to other parts of the body (distant metastasis). This is also called metastatic pleural mesothelioma.
