What is pericardial mesothelioma? Pericardial Mesothelioma is a rare form of mesothelioma cancer that accounts for approximately 5% of all mesothelioma cases.  Cancerous cells build up on the lining of the heart. What is the cause of pericardial mesothelioma? Asbestos is the main cause of pericardial mesothelioma.  When exposed to asbestos without sufficient protection, dust and fibres from the asbestos are inhaled and become lodged in the lungs.  From here they can either pass into the lymphatic system and get transported to the lining of the heart or the fibres can just pass through to the heart over time. Who is at risk from pericardial mesothelioma? Those who have worked with asbestos constantly for a period of time without sufficient protection are those at risk.  These people include construction workers and those who work in asbestos manufacturing plants.  Individuals in contact with those in contact with asbestos are also at risk because asbestos fibres can cling to clothes and hair. How much exposure to asbestos does it take to have a possibility of getting pericardial mesothelioma? This varies depending on the concentration of the asbestos dust and fibres in the area but it has been recorded that those ' who have only been exposed for a couple of months have a chance of obtaining pericardial mesothelioma.

What are the symptoms of pericardial mesothelioma? Common symptoms of pericardial mesothelioma are persistent coughing, coughing up blood, shortness of breath, chest pain and palpitations.  Other symptoms that patients may experience are weight loss, nausea and loss of appetite. What is the latency period of pericardial mesothelioma? All forms of mesothelioma have an extraordinarily long latency period (amount of time symptoms take to show up after having disease).  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. What is the prognosis for pericardial mesothelioma? This is highly dependent on how early and how aggressively the cancerous cells are treated.  If the cancer is treated when it has fully developed and matured then the chances of a patient’s survival is very small.  The prognosis could be only a couple of months.

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Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Overexposure to asbestos is the most important factor which is in charge of contracting mesothelioma. Of all the reported mesothelioma cases, about 70-80 % has a record of asbestos exposure. At the same time, a few other cases have been reported where asbestos was not at concerned. Asbestos is a mineral occurring in nature as tons of flexible fibers and it can be separated into fine threads and woven. It is widely put to business use for manufacturing cement, flooring products, brake linings, roof shingles, insulation products and textiles. Due to its widespread use, a number ofworkers have been affected by asbestos mesothelioma .

During the process of manufacturing, these asbestos particles get scattered in the air. Serious health hazards take place in the workers when they inhale or swallow them unknowingly. It is also found that asbestos exposure coupled with smoking increases the risk of getting affected by the cancer. There have been millions of American workers who have been exposed to the material since early 1940s. The workers include those who are in the asbestos mines and mills, shipyard industry, heating and construction industries etc.

As the exposure to asbestos increases, the risk of asbestos related diseases also increases. Since the late 1800s, asbestos has been mined and put to commercial purposes. In the beginning, people were not aware about the risks involved in asbestos. Once the connection between asbestos mesothelioma and asbestos was discovered, many welfare measures and laws in this regard came into existence. Now there is a limit set for acceptable levels of asbestos exposure in the factories.

Asbestos has not left out even the family members and other dear ones of the workers. They have also become miserable victims of the particles when they are brought home by the workers unknowingly in their clothing and hair. But some safety measures adopted recently stipulate that workers should shower and change cloths before leaving the factory.

Diagnosis of asbestos mesothelioma . is extremely difficult as the mesothelioma indications of the illness appear awfully late. The similarity of the symptoms with those of other sicknesses also prove and obstacle in the path of early diagnosis. Improvement in medical technology has given rise to many treatment possibilities for the victims, though a complete cure isn’t materialized so far.

Mesothelioma is a deadly cancer of the lungs and the abdominal cavities. Unlike other diseases, the cause of mesothelioma is not natural. In most of the cases, it is a cancer of lungs inflicted on the human beings by the modern economic factors, which are also credited to bring prosperity to the corporate world. The disease has left many dead and many more fighting for the failing health. The common symptoms related to the disease are breathlessness, dry cough and pain in the respiratory tracts followed by vomiting. The prime Cause of mesothelioma is the exposure to asbestos. Asbestos is a natural fibrous material that was widely used in various industries and building materials because of its stability and heat resistant properties. However, asbestos is also a deadly contaminant and responsible for serious diseases such as asbestosis, mesothelioma cancers and lung cancer. Most of the diseases are caused by inhalation of asbestos fibers that could settle in the internal body organs and cause serious diseases. Mesothelioma and other asbestos related diseases can lie dormant in the body for decades before diagnosis. The worst part is that after diagnosis the patient has hardly any left for fighting these diseases.

Asbestos has extensively been mined in South Africa and exported to UK & US factories for reprocessing. For many years, the industrialists enjoyed the benefits of asbestos as a cheap substitute to wood in Building Material Industry and an integral part of Brake Lining material used extensively in vehicles during the World Wars. Asbestos was also widely used as an Insulation material in the buildings and industries in the US and Europe. The victims of mesothelioma can file lawsuits for seeking compensation against the companies responsible for asbestos exposure. They can seek compensation for medical expenses, loss of income, lost earning capacity, pain and sufferings. The family members and relatives of the people who die because of mesothelioma cancers can also file lawsuits for compensation to recover the loss of consortium care. A dozen of companies who made an exit from the business decades ago are still fighting the huge compensation bills pending against them for causing a major biological disorder. The courts have ordered huge amounts as compensation in most of the mesothelioma lawsuits.

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Lung cancer is classified by the type of tumor and the stage which the disease has progressed to, which is important because the classification determines the treatment regime which will be followed. 
There are four stages of cancer – Stage I to IV and a catch-all category, Occult (which describes those cancers which are known to be present but cannot be seen using diagnostic tools).

The earliest, and least dangerous cancers are Stage I progressing to stage IV which represents very serious danger to the patient’s life and the last stage of the disease.

Stage I & II Treatment Regimes

The main form of treatment is surgery and the removal (or “resection”) of the cancer tumor.

It is common for additional treatment to be administered in the form of radiation treatment to follow up the surgery.  Where a patient is unable to withstand surgical intervention due to their state of health, then radiation therapy alone may be used to destroy the tumor tissue.

Stage III Treatment Regimes

Physicians usually further classify Stage III patients into three further sub-groups:

1. Patients with obvious Stage III disease with abnormally large lymph nodes presenting on X-Ray or CT Scan;

2. Patients with normal looking lymph nodes but still cancerous; and

3. Classic Stage 3b patients with tumors of any size and presenting diseased lymph nodes.

Patients in group 1 probably have cancer in the enlarged lymph nodes and surgery is not likely to benefit them in this instance.  A combination of chemotherapy and radiation treatment may benefit them more than any surgery. Treatment is usually done concurrently rather one after the other, as this produces a better response (but worse side effects) for patients.

Patients in group 2 may benefit from surgical resection but where the nodes are in fact cancerous, treatment as group 1 may be followed before any surgical intervention to remove visible tumors.

Patients in group 3 are not likely to receive surgery in any event and will be advised to follow a combination therapy as per group 1 if they have noncancerous effusion (fluid which is free of cancer cells).  If cancerous effusion is presented, patients may consider receiving chemotherapy alone rather than no therapy and comfort care (unfortunately, such patients tend not to survive any longer than Stage IV patients, i.e. around 8 months).

Stage IV Treatment

Patients at this stage have two options – to receive chemotherapy or receive comfort care with no treatment.For many patients, chemotherapy alone improves overall survival rates and also helps with managing the symptoms of the disease.

Summary

While staging the disease is crucial in formulating an effective treatment regime, the precise nature and timing of any treatment must also be managed with precision and great care.  Only the patient and the oncology team are able to make the determination as to when and what exact treatment therapies should be employed.  In many instances, the aggressive use of combination therapies may allow for re-staging of the lung cancer whereby the tumor is shrunk to allow effective surgical intervention to take place.

Lung cancer may be treated by a variety of therapies including surgery, but chemotherapy and radiation treatments are used extensively to treat the disease whether surgery takes place or not.

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy involves drug medication which is designed to kill fast growing cells in the body – cancer cells are fast growing and it is this uncontrolled growth which causes tumors to develop.Unfortunately, the administered medications are unable to differentiate between cancer cells and other fast growing cells, such as the red blood cells and hair.  As a consequence, there are side effects involved in receiving chemotherapy which includes hair loss and other debilitating symptoms.

Many patients do not like the idea of receiving chemotherapy because they have heard of the side effects usually associated with receiving the treatment.Side effect management has come a long way and in many instances, patients do not experience them to as great an extent as they originally anticipated.

Typically, chemotherapy will involve a combination of drugs which will target specific types of cancer cell – not all cancer cells are fast growing, and different drugs will attack different types of cancer cell depending on the stage it has reached.

Radiation Treatment

Radiation treatment uses ionizing radiation such as gamma rays to kill cancer cells.  The radiation can be targeted very precisely at the area where the cancer has occurred within the body and in some instances is capable of being delivered so that it affects only the tumor and not healthy tissue.

Radiation treatment may also be used to reduce the size of a tumor so that it becomes operable.

Radiation stops cells from undergoing division and forming new copies of the DNA which they contain.  If a cell is reproducing quickly, it is likely to be susceptible to radiation which will interfere in its development and as cancer cells are fast growing, they are especially vulnerable to the treatment.Unfortunately, cancer cells are not the only cells which are fast growing as we have already seen, and radiation therapy affects other cells like blood cells, hair and skin.

Side effects include hair loss, redness of the skin, itching, loss of skin through the outer layers sloughing off, pain and heightened sensitivity, skin pigmentation and swelling (known as “edema”). 

Both therapies may cause a loss in appetite, changes in how your sense of taste and heart issues as well as nausea and vomiting.Patients undergoing these treatments tend to become tired very easily and there is an increased risk of infection as the white blood cells are also adversely affected by the treatment.

We have already noted that radiation treatment may be used to shrink a tumor so it may be removed, but they also are used to tackle cancers which do not lend themselves to surgery in the first instance.  Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC) is usually inoperable and is treated by these joint therapies while operable lung cancers use these treatments both before and after surgery to ensure that any cells which have not been removed by surgery are killed off to prevent recurrence of the condition.