Treatment

Mesothelioma

Before you and your doctor decide on a specific type of treatment, several factors must be taken into consideration, such as what areas in the body are being effected, how advanced the symptoms are. The patient's age and physical health are also taken into consideration. Your doctor may recommend one of the following types of treatment for mesothelioma, which are surgery, radiation treatment or chemotherapy.

Surgery
Surgery to remove mesothelioma involves cutting the affected area and some of the tissue around it. Depending on the stage of the cancer and size of the affected area, parts of organs may need to be removed.

Radiation Treatment
This treatment involves either the internal or external use of radiation to kill the cancer cells in the affected area. This is the least invasive method of treatment.

Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is the use of drugs to kill the cancer cells in a patient's body. The drugs used in this procedure are often very toxic and your doctor will need to discuss their effects.

There is a new combination chemotherapy treatment now available that helps fight mesothelioma. Dr. Nicholas J. Vogelzang, MD of the University of Chicago Cancer Research center has said of this treatment, "For the first time, we have a therapy that makes a difference." A study that included 448 individuals suffering from mesothelioma, found the following promising statistics. Fifty percent of patients that took a combination of the cancer drug Cisplatin, and the new drug Pemetrexed were still living after one year. Only thirtyeight percent of patients that took only Cisplatin were still living after one year. Fourtyone percent of the individuals involved in the combination therapy were found to have tumors shrinking, compared to the single Cisplatin treatment patients that only experienced seventeen percent of those patients tumor's shrinking. Pemetrexed combination therapy was found to offer relief in pain and shortness of breath in patients.