perilously close to the heart. Misdiagnosis is common, and treatment
options are slim. The tumor can be benign, allowing for easier
removal, or malignant - fast spreading and deadly. There are many
cancers and diseases that affect the pericardial space around the
heart, and pericardial mesothelioma is one of the rarest. However, it
is the most common primary malignant pericardial tumor. It can also be
secondary to malignant pleural mesothelioma.
Five to ten percent of all mesothelioma cases are pericardial
mesothelioma, and the failure to diagnose pericardial mesothelioma
early enough contributes to its low life expectancy from a few months
to less than two years. The failure to detect the disease can also
contribute to its statistical status. Early detection of pericardial
mesothelioma provides a faint hope for prolonged survival, but only in
the rarest and perhaps most medically advanced of mesothelioma cases
is this possible.
Exposure to asbestos is the primary cause of pericardial mesothelioma
and other mesotheliomas, such as the abdominal peritoneal
mesothelioma, and the more common pleural mesothelioma of the lungs.
The lungs, the abdomen and the heart are surrounded by a membrane. The
cancer tumors of mesothelioma attack these membranes that are made out
of mesothelium cells. If you can visualize your heart hanging within a
sac, you can visual the membrane that is the subject of pericardial
mesothelioma.
Pericardial mesothelioma, pleural mesothelioma and peritoneal
mesothelioma all involve the fluid that is retained with the membrane.
This fluid is necessary for proper functioning of the heart, lungs and
other vital bodily systems. Excess fluid interferes, and even halts
normal organ functions. The excess fluid is what is responsible for
many of the mesothelioma symptoms of pain.
Chest pain, shortness of breath, coughing, and severe sweating at
night have all been recorded as symptoms of malignant pericardial
mesothelioma. These are more likely to be symptomatic of a non-cancer
pericardial disease such as an inflammation of the pericardium - which
is called pericardiocentesis and has identical symptoms. There have
been cases where a misdiagnosis of lupus and even tuberculosis turned
up as being malignant pericardial mesothelioma. Secondary cancers from
lung cancer, breast cancer, lymphoma and leukemia can also attack the
pericardium. Malignant mesothelioma in the pericardial region is often
not discovered until surgery.
To further complicate matters, a CT scan can be interpreted as fluid,
rather than the malignant tumor it is. This happened in 1979 with a 17
year old boy. Computed tomography has fortunately made significant
advances since 1979, but CTs, MRIs and PETs must be done quickly. Poor
detection and recognition still exist, and a second and third opinion
should always be pursued. A patient should persist to find the source
of pain and mesothelioma symptoms whenever a physician suggests an
unknown etymology.
Pericardial mesothelioma treatment is in its infancy. Research
continues in the areas of combination chemotherapies to reduce mass,
intracavitary chemotherapy and irradiation, vaccines, molecular
therapy and other mesothelioma treatment and preventative measures. As
mesothelioma cases increase, so will effective mesothelioma
treatments. It may be a long time before a cure for pericardial
mesothelioma and other mesotheliomas are discovered. For now, advocacy
work to ban asbestos use world wide is one of the best preventative
medicines for the future that even a non-scientist can pursue.
Pericardial mesothelioma is often underdiagnosed in traditional tests
and not found until heart surgery. The pain of pericardial
mesothelioma and other malignant mesothelioma cancers can be quite
severe. If a patient has pericardial mesothelioma with severe pain,
the chances of survival and mesothelioma life expectancy is under two
years. In 2004 a pericardiectomy was performed on a 19 year old boy
and he died soon after surgery. A case study on a 54 year old man
reported in the 2008 publication of the Annals of Thoracic
Cardiovacular Surgery concluded that pain been shown to be reduced
with resectioning the tumor and a pericardiectomy, which removes the
pericardium, or a section of the pericardium.
Pericardiectomies are used more frequently to reduce constriction.
However this barely touches the surface of the disease. The surgery is
risky, but as knowledge of the cancer increases, so does the
effectiveness of surgery. The earlier the pericardial mesothelioma
tumor is found, the less risky the surgery. Pericardial mesothelioma
does not respond to radiotherapy. Chemotherapy is used to reduce the
cancerous mass.
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