Mesothelioma Treatment

If you have been diagnosed with mesothelioma, an oncologist will tailor the treatment to ensure the best prognosis. Unfortunately, the prognosis of mesothelioma is rarely positive. Mesothelioma is often not diagnosed until the later stages of the cancer, when the cancer has already spread to other areas of the body from the mesothelium.
There is no known cure for mesothelioma at the present time, but patients do have access to various treatments that can help manage the disease and contribute to a longer life.

Mesothelioma arises from the surface of the pleura covering the lungs, occasionally remaining localised at the original site but more often than not spreading diffusely and involving a substantial amount of the pleura with the possibility of encroaching onto the pericardium via the inner surface of the visceral pleura.Treatment of mesothelioma has in the past been very unsatisfactory usually due the amount of pleura involved in the disease.

Traditionally, advanced pleural mesothelioma has been treated by extrapleural pneumonectomy. While a very small number of sufferers qualify for aggressive treatment with surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, and enjoy long-term survival, the vast majority have incurable disease. The treatment options up until now have proved only modestly effective at alleviating symptoms and improving life expectancy.

New radiation treatments are becoming available and there have been some promising results from studies using TomoTherapy and Cyberknife.

Mesothelioma Radiation Therapy

Radiation therapy can be used to relieve the symptoms of malignant mesothelioma, including chest pain. However, because of the location of malignant mesothelioma, it is extremely difficult to deliver high enough doses of radiation to kill the tumour without damaging the surrounding organs.

Mesothelioma Surgery

A procedure called extrapleural pneumonectomy involves removal of the pleura, the lung, the diaphragm and the pericardium. The intent of this very aggressive, complicated surgery is to remove as much of the malignant mesothelioma tumour as possible.

If surgery is possible for Peritoneal Mesothelioma, there is an operation called a Peritonectomy. This involves the removal of the peritoneum where the mesothelioma is evident. More recently there is a technique called cytoreductive surgery for peritoneum mesothelioma. During this procedure the surgeon will carry out up to six different peritonectomy procedures. At the same time or shortly afterwards, chemotherapy may be given straight into the peritoneal cavity.

Mesothelioma Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is the use of medications to treat cancer, it cannot cure malignant mesothelioma, but it may be administered after surgery in an attempt to kill cancer cells that could not be removed during the procedure.