Malignant Pericardial Mesothelioma

Malignant Pericardial mesothelioma develops in the pericardium, a double-walled sac that contains the heart and the roots of large blood vessels. The onset of the disease is caused by inhalation of asbestos. You can be exposed to asbestos due to your occupation or, secondarily, through contact with workers or family members exposed to asbestos. The pathogenic effects of asbestos are slow; mesothelioma can wait until 20 to 50 years or more after exposure before manifesting.     

Like other types of mesothelioma, conventional treatment for pericardial mesothelioma is rarely effective. The majority of patients have a median survival of 6 to 12 months after diagnosis. However, survival rate varies greatly depends on the degree of malignancy of the tumor, presence of local metastasis via exfoliated cells, and invasion of underlying tissue and other organs in the pericardial cavity.   

Although incidence rates continue to rise over the last twenty years, mesothelioma remains a rare cancer. The incidence of pericardial mesothelioma is even rarer. Pericardial mesothelioma is regarded as the rarest type of mesothelioma; it represents about 10 percent of all mesothelioma implications annually, less than one case per one million inhabitants.  

There is no cure for malignant pleural mesothelioma. At an early stage, surgery along with radiation therapy, or/and chemotherapy can slow the progression of the tumor, and reduce symptoms. In most cases, the prognosis of malignant pericardial mesothelioma is bad.