Mesothelioma Stories

Pericardial Mesothelioma

Other symptoms of pericardial mesothelioma include nausea, weight loss and loss of appetite. Chemotherapy includes using drugs to kill off cancerous cells and radiation therapy uses doses of radiation to kill cancer cells although this is difficult in the case of pericardial mesothelioma due to the surrounding vital organs such as the heart and lungs. Pericardial mesothelioma has a number of symptoms but these only start to take effect in the cancer’s latest stages when it is almost fully matured and developed.

Radiation therapy uses radiation to try to kill off cancerous cells although this is extremely difficult in the case of pericardial mesothelioma because too much radiation can badly damage the heart. The disadvantage of using radiation to treat pericardial mesothelioma is that the vital organs close to the heart are also being damaged. Like all other forms of mesothelioma, pericardial mesothelioma is caused by inhalation of asbestos dust and fibers. What is the cause of pericardial mesothelioma.

The latency period of pericardial mesothelioma (30 – 50 years), and its symptoms which are ordinary of other more common diseases such as pneumonia, make it extremely difficult to diagnose and therefore difficult to treat in its early stages. Pharmaceutical companies are conducting trials to come up with the right combination of drugs that can produce better results for treating pericardial mesothelioma. The latency period is between 30 – 50 years and so pericardial mesothelioma is usually discovered in elderly men who have had pericardial mesothelioma for most of their life but have never known it. When the asbestos is processed it releases these small fibers into the air which are easily inhaled by workers, shippers, and can even linger on their hair and clothes and follow them home, potentially exposing their families and friends to pleural, peritoneal, and pericardial mesothelioma.

The cancer affecting the lining of the abdomen (peritoneum) is called the peritoneal mesothelioma and that affecting the “sac like” space around the heart (pericardial cavity) is called the pericardial mesothelioma. The prognosis of pericardial mesothelioma depends largely on how early the cancer is detected. Patients suffering from pericardial mesothelioma may experience chest pain, breathlessness and palpitations.