Mesothelioma or Ovarian Cancer?????????

Dear readers, I have something very unique to share with you today.


My mother's father died of mesothelioma, lung cancer, many years ago. Emory was an honest, hard working man from Kansas. He served our country as a medic in WWII for the troops building the Burma Road. He also helped to engineer buildings and pretty much anything this great country asked of him. After the war ended, it took 30 days on a carrier to return home from overseas. He never ate rice again.

Upon returning to Kansas grandma and grandpa decided that it was time to start a family. They started with my mom. Eventually he opened a small construction company in Denver. He built a number of small, quality homes, that made us proud. His integrity and word were important to him. He was precise and paid honest wages for honest work. People were proud of my grandpa. You may have heard my mom on the KLG and Hoda show talk about how her father was her inspiration.

When he was in his 70s he was diagnosed with mesothelioma, and the stage was too late for chemo. He had surgery, returned to Kansas with grandma, and eventually passed away after suffering unimaginable pain.  Our family was at his side when he died after receiving upstanding hospice care. It was so sad, we were all heartbroken.

He wanted chemo, he wanted to live.

I remember once visiting grandma and grandpa in Kansas after they purchased an old post office in a small town of literally 20 people. He did a little remodeling, built a tiny barn, he stocked it with 5 or 6 cows, a hand-full of chickens and planted some corn, not sure. The mini barn was picture perfect, pristine, a little cow palace I thought.

I remember there was not a street light to be seen along the dirt road that wound it's way to the highway. At night you could see billions of stars, hear the crickets sing, and breathe in the freshest air on the planet. The air was still, but alive.

They lived a good life.

Recently I received an email from Andrew Devine, Community Outreach for the

Here is what he had to say:

"Hi Denise,

I came across the Nobody Has Ovarian Cancer site while searching for organizations to reach out to about mesothelioma cancer. It's really great how you used your story to reach out to other women. Although it's rare, mesothelioma in the stomach can metastasize to the ovaries. This type of mesothelioma is often mistaken for ovarian cancer in CT scans, which is unfortunate for early diagnoses and treatment.

I contacted you because I’m part of the Community Outreach team at Mesothelioma Guide, and we are a new site reaching out to the community to provide up-to-date support to mesothelioma patients and family members. Essentially, we’re doing the same thing you are, helping people understand health issues, giving them someone to talk to and how they can be proactive about it, just in a different way."

I was surprised to learn of this possibility, that mesothelioma could be mistaken for ovarian cancer. I did not even know that there are different types of mesothelioma.

I am very thankful to Andrew for revealing this important, but rare cancer danger, so that it can be shared with you.

Please follow this link to learn more:
http://www.mesotheliomaguide.com/guide/guide-b/#


    I love you Grandpa, hope that I see you in heaven some day.



Below I have pasted a link and partial abstract from the The National Center for Biotechnology Information about this type of cancer.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3396062/

Malignant peritoneal mesothelioma presented as peritoneal adenocarcinoma or primary ovarian cancer: Case series and review of the clinical and immunohistochemical features

Performing your original search, mesothelioma ovarian, in PMC will retrieve 2124 records.
Int J Clin Exp Pathol. 2012; 5(5): 472–478.
Published online 2012 May 23.
PMCID: PMC3396062


Salih Taşkın,1 Yeliz Gümüş,1 Saba Kiremitçi,2 Korhan Kahraman,1 Ayşe Sertçelik,2 and Fırat Ortaç1
1Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Ankara University School of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey
2Departments of Pathology, Ankara University School of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey
Address correspondence to: Dr. Salih Taşkın, Ankara Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi, Kadın Hastalıkları ve Doğum Anabilim Dalı, 06100 Cebeci, Ankara, Turkey Tel: +90 532 3925195; Fax: +90 312 3203553; E-mail: salihtaskin@yahoo.com

Diffuse peritoneal malignant mesothelioma is a rare, progressive, and ultimately fatal disease and it can present as primary peritoneal carcinoma or ovarian cancer. Differential diagnosis is important to establish appropriate management. In this article the clinical presentation, immunuhistochemical and histopathological features of 8 diffuse peritoneal malignant mesothelioma cases presented as peritoneal carcinoma or ovarian cancer are evaluated. According to findings of all reported cases, we concluded that clinical distinction of malignant mesothelioma from ovarian cancer or peritoneal adenocarcinoma is very difficult. Differential diagnosis is reliably achieved by immune profile of the tumors with a systematic approach of both positive and negative mesothelioma markers.