Pericardial mesothelioma is a mesothelioma cancer that startsperilously close to the heart.   Misdiagnosisis common, and treatment options are slim.  The tumor can be benign, allowingfor easier removal, or malignant - fast spreading and deadly. There are manycancers and diseases that affect the pericardial space around the heart, andpericardial mesothelioma is one of the rarest. However, it is the most common primary malignant pericardial tumor. It canalso be secondary to malignant pleural mesothelioma.



 

Five to ten percent of all mesothelioma cases arepericardial mesothelioma, and the failure to diagnose pericardial mesotheliomaearly enough contributes to its low life expectancy from a few months to lessthan two years.  The failure to detectthe disease can also contribute to its statistical status. Early detection ofpericardial mesothelioma provides a faint hope for prolonged survival, but onlyin the rarest and perhaps most medically advanced of mesothelioma cases is thispossible.

 

Exposure to asbestos is the primary cause of pericardialmesothelioma and other mesotheliomas, such as the abdominal peritonealmesothelioma, and the more common pleural mesothelioma of the lungs.  The lungs, the abdomen and the heart are surroundedby a membrane.  The cancer tumors ofmesothelioma attack these membranes that are made out of mesotheliumcells.  If you can visualize your hearthanging within a sac, you can visual the membrane that is the subject of pericardialmesothelioma. 

 

Pericardial mesothelioma, pleural mesothelioma andperitoneal mesothelioma all involve the fluid that is retained with themembrane.  This fluid is necessary forproper functioning of the heart, lungs and other vital bodily systems.  Excess fluid interferes, and even haltsnormal organ functions.  The excess fluidis what is responsible for many of the mesothelioma symptoms of pain. 

 

Chest pain, shortness of breath, coughing, and severesweating at night have all been recorded as symptoms of malignant pericardialmesothelioma.   These are more likely tobe symptomatic of a non-cancer pericardial disease such as an inflammation ofthe pericardium - which is called pericardiocentesis and has identicalsymptoms.  There have been cases where amisdiagnosis of lupus and even tuberculosis turned up as being malignantpericardial mesothelioma.  Secondarycancers from lung cancer, breast cancer, lymphoma and leukemia can also attackthe pericardium.  Malignant mesotheliomain the pericardial region is often not discovered until surgery.

 

To further complicate matters, a CT scan can be interpretedas fluid, rather than the malignant tumor it is.  This happened in 1979 with a 17 year oldboy.  Computed tomography has fortunatelymade significant advances since 1979, but CTs, MRIs and PETs must be donequickly.  Poor detection and recognitionstill exist, and a second and third opinion should always be pursued.  A patient should persist to find the sourceof pain and mesothelioma symptoms whenever a physician suggests an unknownetymology. 

 

Pericardial mesothelioma treatment is in its infancy.  Research continues in the areas ofcombination chemotherapies to reduce mass, intracavitary chemotherapy andirradiation, vaccines, molecular therapy and other mesothelioma treatment andpreventative measures. As mesothelioma cases increase, so will effective mesotheliomatreatments. It may be a long time before a cure for pericardial mesotheliomaand other mesotheliomas are discovered. For now, advocacy work to ban asbestos use world wide is one of the bestpreventative medicines for the future that even a non-scientist can pursue.

 

Pericardial mesothelioma is often underdiagnosed intraditional tests and not found until heart surgery.  The pain of pericardial mesothelioma andother malignant mesothelioma cancers can be quite severe.   If a patient has pericardial mesotheliomawith severe pain, the chances of survival and mesothelioma life expectancy isunder two years.  In 2004 apericardiectomy was performed on a 19 year old boy and he died soon aftersurgery. A case study on a 54 year old man reported in the 2008 publication ofthe Annals of Thoracic Cardiovacular Surgery concluded that pain been shown tobe reduced with resectioning the tumor and a pericardiectomy, which removes thepericardium, or a section of the pericardium.

 

Pericardiectomies are used more frequently to reduceconstriction. However this barely touches the surface of the disease.  The surgery is risky, but as knowledge of thecancer increases, so does the effectiveness of surgery.  The earlier the pericardial mesotheliomatumor is found, the less risky the surgery. Pericardial mesothelioma does notrespond to radiotherapy. Chemotherapy is used to reduce the cancerous mass.