There are currently three types of treatment for mesothelioma: Surgery, Chemotherapy and Radiation Therapy. The type of treatment chosen is dependent upon the cancer location, the disease stage, and the patient’s general health and age. These treatments can also be combined to better fight the disease.
There are two types of surgery used to treat mesothelioma. Aggressive surgery is treatment which is aimed towards long term control against the cancer. Palliative procedures, on the other hand, are aimed to relieve the patient of symptoms. Aggressive surgery involves removing the pleura, the lung, the diaphragm and the pericardium. This procedure is known as extra pleural pneumonectomy. The aim of this is to remove as much of the tumour as possible without harming the patient. However, this is a very risky type of surgery and the chances are high of patient fatality within a month. Due to this, only young, fit individuals are referred to this form of treatment. Palliative procedures involve removing just the pleura in order to control the symptoms of the cancer. This is performed when mesothelioma is in an advanced form and is impossible to cure.
Chemotherapy uses drugs to treat mesothelioma although many of these drugs have a poor success rate on patients. Combinations of drugs are often used to improve their effect. Some of these combinations have proved to be effective. Chemotherapy of mesothelioma is being improved regularly as research labs and pharmaceutical companies are discovering new and more effective drugs.
Radiation therapy uses radiation to kill tumors created by the mesothelioma. This procedure is extremely difficult because of the location in which the tumor grows. Due to the closeness of the tumor and many vital internal organs such as the heart and lungs, doctors have to be very careful as to the doses of radiation they use. Lower radiation doses can be used however this lowers its effectiveness. There are two ways of giving this therapy. One, external radiation, in which the radiation comes from a machine, and other, internal radiation, where the cancer cells are found after putting materials that produce radiation into the affected area.
Doctor’s way to relieve patient’s pain is to use a needle or a thin tube to drain fluid that has built up in the abdominal or chest cavities through a procedure called thoracentesis, when it is from the chest, and paracentesis, when the removal is from the abdomen. The specialists may also give the drugs through a tube in the chest to prevent the accumulation of more liquid.
