Pericardial Mesothelioma

Understanding pericardial asbestos cancer

Pericardial mesothelioma is a rare form of cancer that affects the heart and the membrane that surrounds it.  Like other types of mesothelioma, pericardial mesothelioma is associated with exposure to asbestos fibers.

Diagnosing pericardial mesothelioma

Like the other types of mesothelioma, pericardial mesothelioma produces no symptoms for decades after the asbestos exposure.  The symptoms associated with mesothelioma in the heart include the following:

Persistent cough Shortness of breath

Chest pains Heart palpitations

When these symptoms occur in someone who worked with or was exposed to asbestos products, inform the doctor so the possibility of pericardial mesothelioma may be considered.  Even so, the difficulty of distinguishing the cause of these common problems and diagnosing pericardial mesothelioma means that it often comes too late for effective treatment of the condition.

Once pericardial mesothelioma is diagnosed, the next step is to determine how advanced the disease is.  This is usually done with CT or MRI scanning.  Doctors also take into account the patient’s age, overall health, and medical history when deciding what kind of treatment to pursue.

Treating mesothelioma in the heart

Several kinds of medical treatments are used—often in combination—in cases of pericardial mesothelioma:

• Surgery to remove tumor cells. Most of the time, the pericardial asbestos cancer is too advanced to allow removal of all the cancerous cells without damaging the heart itself.
• Chemotherapy. Chemo aims to slow the progress of the mesothelioma while minimizing the collateral damage to vital systems.
• Radiation therapy. With mesothelioma in the heart, radiation treatment has been more successful than chemotherapy.
• Fine needle aspiration. Excess fluid produced by the disease is drained via a needle inserted into the chest cavity.  This relieves some of the discomfort caused by tumors pressing on the heart and lungs.