Of all of the asbestos related disease caused by asbestos fiber dust (mesothelioma), pericardial mesothelioma may be the most uncommon, accounting for a small fraction of all cases (5%). It is a malignancy that grows on the pericardium (the lining of the heart). This really is a delicate ‘film’, and any infection on the pericardium can lead to dangerous outcomes.

As soon as someone has been clinically determined to have pericardial mesothelioma they’re offered 3 different therapy options. They are radiation, surgery and chemotherapy. Pericardial Mesothelioma is very hard to treat (due to the complexity involved in removing the growths from the pericardium), and a patient’s chances of survival are generally slim. All 3 techniques have a below average success rate mainly due to the fact that pericardial mesothelioma is detected within the mature stages of progression. (The reason for this is simply because within the early stages of the cancer the symptoms resemble those of diseases like pneumonia). The prognosis for a patient going through therapy at this point (mature stage) is usually less than one 12 months.

Before therapy, the individual requires a doctor’s assessment in order to decide which of the 3 treatments are suited to him/her. Details for example age, bodyweight, health background, and general well-being are regarded prior to the start of therapy. So, how can youtreat pericardial mesothelioma ?

Radiation - As with all cancer treatments that use this technique, big doses of radiation are utilized to kill the cancerous tissue on the pericardium. The down-side to radiation therapy is that not only will you be eliminating the cancerous cells, but you are likewise damaging the essential internal organs in near proximity to the heart, namely the lungs. The heart furthermore will get damaged (due to the big doses of radiation).

Surgery - We can break this into 2 parts; aggressive surgery and palliative procedures. Extreme surgery entails the removal of the cancerous cell. Since these are very close to the heart and lungs, this makes it an very dangerous procedure and one that requires an very skilled surgeon.

Palliative procedures are utilized within the latest of stages of pericardial mesothelioma and serve the sole purpose of reducing the symptoms. Generally at this stage the cancer is practically incurable.

Chemotherapy - This may be the most widely used of cancer treatments which involves the usage of drugs to kill the cancerous cells. Regrettably, nearly all drugs utilized have a low success rate with pericardial mesothelioma. Research is becoming carried out to generate a cocktail of drugs that have a much more favorable end result.

There does exist another form of therapy which involves utilizing all 3 aforementioned therapy options. It’s known as Dual Therapy. Surgery is utilized to remove the cancerous cells, then chemotherapy and radiation are utilized to kill the residual cells. The success rate for this technique is higher than just utilizing radiation, surgery or chemotherapy alone, but could still be dangerous.

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Tags: asbestos related disease, mesothelioma, pericardial mesothelioma

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 13th, 2010 at 7:54 am and is filed under Spa Treatments. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.