On Treatment Pericardial Mesothelioma
Pericardial mesothelioma is a cancer that develops on the pericardium (the lining of the heart). The pericardium is a fluid-filled sac made of thin tissue covering the heart and providing vital lubrication. Pericardial mesothelioma is, in fact, cancerous tumors of the pericardium.
An estimated 5% to perhaps 10% of people who develop mesothelioma have subtype-pericardial mesothelioma. The exact incidence is difficult to estimate as pericardial mesothelioma is easily confused with other illnesses such as cardiovascular disease.
Once a person has been diagnosed with pericardial mesothelioma they are offered three different treatment options. This radiation, surgery and chemotherapy. pericardial mesothelioma is extremely difficult to treat (because of the complexity involved in the removal of tumors of the pericardium), and the chances of patient survival are slim. All three methods have a low success rate due to the fact that the pericardial mesothelioma is detected at a mature stage of development. The reason is that in the early stages of cancer symptoms resemble those of diseases such as pneumonia. The prognosis for a patient under treatment at the mature phase is usually less than a year.
Before treatment, the patient requires an evaluation of a physician to determine which of the three treatments are suitable for him. Details such as age, weight, medical history, and general well-being are taken into account before starting treatment.
Radiation
As with all therapies against cancer using this method, high doses of radiation are used to kill cancer cells on the pericardium. The disadvantage of radiotherapy is that you are not only kill cancer cells, but you’re also damage vital organs near the heart, namely the lungs. The heart also becomes damaged due to the high radiation dose.
Surgical treatment
Surgical treatment may be decomposed into two parts, aggressive surgery and palliative surgery. aggressive surgery involves the removal of the cancer cell. Since these are very close to the heart and lungs, making it an extremely precarious procedure and requires a highly skilled surgeon. Palliative procedures are used in the final stages of pericardial mesothelioma and serve the sole purpose of reducing symptoms. Usually at this stage, cancer is virtually incurable.
Chemotherapy
The chemotherapy is the most widely used therapies against cancer that involves the use of drugs to kill cancer cells. Unfortunately, most of the drugs used have a low success rate of pericardial mesothelioma. Research is conducted to arrive at a cocktail of drugs that have a more favorable outcome.
There is another form of treatment is to use the three treatment options above. It is known that the combination therapy. Surgery is used to eliminate cancer cells, chemotherapy and radiotherapy are used to kill the remaining cells.
The combination of these elements and surgery can be used to treat cancer and reduce the discomfort that the patient with pericardial mesothelioma may face. The success rate of treatment depends in part on the stage of mesothelioma cancer and the patient’s general health.
Written on January 9th, 2012 with
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