What Are the Most Common Mesothelioma Symptoms?
The first symptoms of mesothelioma include chest or abdominal pain, bloating and shortness of breath, depending on the location of the cancer. Because early-stage signs can be slight, doctors often mistake them as normal aches and pains or symptoms of less serious illnesses.
Mesothelioma tumors begin as tiny nodules on the lining of the lungs or abdomen. The cancer doesn’t cause symptoms until the tumors have grown and spread, usually around cancer stage III and IV, and they begin to press against the chest wall or abdominal cavity.
Recognizing mesothelioma symptoms early in the cancer’s development is nearly impossible because the disease doesn’t produce early symptoms to identify.
Symptoms of mesothelioma and other asbestos cancers first emerge in small, subtle ways after the cancer has spread. Some are so minor that people and their doctors mistake them as symptoms of some other disorder or shrug them off entirely. These small signals don't develop until 20 to 50 years after exposure to asbestos, known as the latency period.
Mesothelioma takes decades to develop, and symptoms usually don't make an impact on someone's life until the cancer has reached a late stage. Most people who get mesothelioma of any type are diagnosed in stage III or stage IV, which are considered late or end stages.
Although the decades-long latency period is similar with each type of the cancer, some studies suggest it is shorter for people with peritoneal mesothelioma. A 2011 study found women have a slightly longer latency period than men.
