Mesothelioma Treatment

It is difficult to decide on the best mesothelioma treatment options, particularly when dealing with the emotions of learning your diagnosis. Mesothelioma is incurable. But there are options, such as experimental therapies and clinical trials, which allow you to have a choice in your treatment.
Because mesothelioma is often diagnosed in its late stages, treatment and therapy are difficult at best. As with any disease, it is best to take preventative measures. Please make sure to notify your medical provider if you were exposed to asbestos so that appropriate procedures and tests can be done. Imaging studies, such as CT scans and MRI’s, are a very important part of checking and testing for mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases.

Conventional Mesothelioma Treatments

Conventional therapies for mesothelioma are like those of other forms of cancer. They include:

• Surgery
• Chemotherapy
• Radiation including brachytherapy

Mesothelioma Surgery

Surgery to treat mesothelioma falls into two areas: palliative and curative. Palliative surgeries are those that help the patient to be more comfortable but don't reduce the amount of cancer in the body. Since there is no cure for mesothelioma, curative surgeries are meant to help reduce the amount of cancer in the body by removing larger tumors and cancerous tissues.
Surgeries for mesothelioma include, but are not limited to:

• Pneumonectomy
• Thoracoscopy
• Thoracentesis
• Pleurodesis
• Thoracotomy
• Paracentesis

Mesothelioma Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is a widely used treatment for many cancers. It involves introducing a blend of anti-cancer drugs into the body intravenously, directly at the location of the tumor, or both. The chemotherapy drugs attack cancer cells and can sometimes reduce the size or growth of mesothelioma tumors. Because the drugs also affect healthy cells in the body, chemotherapy side effects include the temporary loss of hair, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, fatigue and more.

Mesothelioma Radiation

Radiation therapy targets high energy x-rays at malignant (cancerous) cells or tumors. When the treatment is successful, the cancer cells that were targeted are killed. Since mesothelioma victims often have cancer in multiple areas of their body, mesothelioma can be difficult to treat with radiation.
A newer type of radiation therapy specifically for mesothelioma patients is brachytherapy. With brachytherapy, radioactive rods are implanted directly at the tumor site in the abdomen or chest. Because the treatment is localized, damage to healthy tissues is minimized.

Experimental Mesothelioma Treatments

There are clinical trials available allowing you to participate in treatment programs not yet available to the general public. These trials are important in the continued fight against mesothelioma, particularly since the survival rate is presently 12 months. Before deciding on a clinical trial, you should consult with your physician and your family to determine the best course of action for you personally.
Experimental therapies include:

• Photodynamic Therapy
• Anti-Angiogenesis Therapy
• Gene therapy
• Immunotherapy

Photodynamic Therapy

When treating patients with photodynamic therapy, doctors administer special photosensitizing drugs into the patient's body. These drugs make the body sensitive to certain light wavelengths. Then, doctors target tumor cells with a laser light. The drugs react with the light to produce a type of oxygen that is toxic to the cancer cells.

Anti-Angiogenesis Therapy

Angiogenesis is the process your body uses to build new blood vessels. When tumors grow, they must use angiogenesis to create blood vessels so they get enough blood to survive and grow. Anti-angiogenesis therapy is a new type of chemotherapy being explored by doctors. It uses drugs to interfere with the angiogenesis process of tumors to decrease their blood flow and limit growth.

Gene Therapy

Gene therapy was originally developed to help people with genetic disorders. However, recent clinical trials have begun using several types of gene therapy to treat mesothelioma. These therapies typically use a genetically altered virus to change the way cells normally behave to either make cancer cells susceptible to non-toxic drugs or to bolster the body's immune system to fight cancer.

Immunotherapy

The immune system does not know that cancer cells are harmful and doesn't fight them. Immunotherapy treatment involves training the patient's immune system to recognize cancer cells and attack them. Currently there are three main types of immunotherapy: active, passive, and non-specific.