Treatment Techniques And Options For Pericardial Mesothelioma
Of all the asbestos related disease brought on by asbestos dust (mesothelioma), pericardial mesothelioma is the most rare, accounting for a fraction of all cases (5%). It is really a malignancy which grows about the pericardium (the lining of the heart). This is a delicate ‘film’, and any infection about the pericardium can lead to fatal outcomes.
As soon as an individual has been clinically determined to have pericardial mesothelioma they’re presented 3 different treatment options. They are radiation, surgical treatment and chemotherapy. Pericardial Mesothelioma is extremely difficult to deal with (because of 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 poor success rate mainly because of the fact that pericardial mesothelioma is diagnosed in the advanced stages of progression. (The reason for this is simply because in the earlier stages of the cancer the symptoms resemble those of ailments like pneumonia). The prognosis for a patient undergoing treatment at this point (mature stage) is usually less than a year.
Before treatment, the individual demands a doctor’s examination so that you can figure out which of the 3 treatments are suited to him/her. Details such as age, weight, medical history, and basic well-being are regarded prior towards the start of treatment. So, how do youaddress pericardial mesothelioma ?
Radiation – Just like all cancer treatments that use this technique, big doses of radiation are utilized to kill the cancerous tissue about the pericardium. The downside to radiation treatment is that not only will you be killing the cancerous cells, but you’re also endangering the essential internal organs in close proximity towards the heart, namely the lung area. The heart furthermore will get damaged (because of the big doses of radiation).
Surgery – We can break this down into two components; aggressive surgical treatment and palliative treatments. Extreme surgical treatment involves the removal of the cancerous cell. Since these are very close towards the heart and lungs, this makes it an extremely dangerous process and one that demands an extremely competent surgeon.
Palliative treatments are utilized in the final of stages of pericardial mesothelioma and serve the only purpose of decreasing the symptoms. Usually at this stage the cancer is virtually incurable.
Chemotherapy – This is the most widely-used of cancer therapies that involves the usage of drugs to kill the cancerous cells. Unfortunately, the majority of drugs utilized have a low success rate with pericardial mesothelioma. Research is becoming conducted to generate a cocktail of drugs that have a more favorable result.
There is another type of treatment that involves utilizing all 3 aforementioned treatment options. It is known as Dual Therapy. Surgery is utilized to get rid of the cancerous cells, then chemotherapy and radiation are utilized to kill the remaining cells. The success for this technique is greater than just utilizing radiation, surgical treatment or chemotherapy alone, but can nevertheless be dangerous.

