Thursday, March 18, 2010

How do you treat pericardial mesothelioma?

Of all cancers are caused by asbestos dust (mesothelioma), pericardial mesothelioma is the rarest, accounting for a fraction of the cases (5%). It is a cancer that grows on the pericardium (), the lining of the heart. This is a sensitive "film", and a possible infection to the pericardium may have fatal consequences.

Once a person is already with pericardial mesothelioma, it offers three different treatment options are diagnosed. These are radiation, surgeryand chemotherapy. Pericardial mesothelioma is extremely difficult to treat (due to the intricacies involved in removing the tumours from the pericardium), and a patient's chances of survival are slim. All three methods have a poor success rate mainly due to the fact that pericardial mesothelioma is detected in the mature stages of development. (The reason for this is because in the early stages of the cancer the symptoms resemble those of diseases such as pneumonia). The Prognosis for the patient treatment at this stage (mature stage) is usually less than one year.

Before treatment, the patient has a physician evaluation to determine which of the three treatments appropriate for him / her. Details such as age, weight, medical history, and general well-being are taken into consideration before starting treatment. So, how you treat pericardial mesothelioma?

Radiation - How to use with all cancer treatments, this methodhigh doses of radiation are used to kill cancer cells on the pericardium. The disadvantage of radiotherapy is that you not only kill the cancer cells, but they are also harmful to the vital organs in close proximity to the heart, namely the lungs. The heart is also damaged) (because of the high doses of radiation.

Surgery - we can group them in two parts, aggressive surgery and palliative procedures. Aggressive surgery involves the removal of the cancer --Cell. As this very close to the heart and lungs, it makes it an extremely precarious that requires a process and a highly experienced surgeon.
Palliative procedures are used in the final stages of pericardial mesothelioma, and serve the sole purpose of reducing the symptoms. Normally at this stage the cancer is virtually incurable.

Chemotherapy - This is the most commonly used for cancer therapy is the use of drugs to kill the cancer cells.Unfortunately, most drugs used a low success rate of pericardial mesothelioma. Research is being conducted to come with a cocktail of drugs that have a positive outcome.

There is another form of treatment, which includes all three above-mentioned treatment options. It is known as dual therapy. The operation will be used used to remove the cancer, then chemotherapy and radiation to kill the remaining cells. The success rate of this methodhigher than by radiation, surgery or chemotherapy alone, but can still be dangerous.

Visit : Swine Flu Vaccine

0 comments: