Mesothelioma Cancer Treatment Methods

Mesothelioma is a deadly sickness which attacks the lining that covers the majority of our organs, the mesothelium. It is brought about by the inhalation of asbestos dust, a compound that was used in the construction industry several years ago. Mesothelioma tends to manifest itself more than 30 years after an individual has been exposed to asbestos. That is why we tend to see a large number of people getting diagnosed with mesothelioma now, in the 21st century. Several more will discover they have mesothelioma in the years to come. The use of asbestos continued up until the 1970's. Mesothelioma has also been associated with irradiation, intrapleural thorium dioxide, and the inhalation of other fibrous silicates .

Since mesothelioma is technically a cancer, the same methods used to treat any other cancer are also used in the treatment of mesothelioma. Depending on the patient's medical history and the stage of the mesothelioma , doctors can decide on which treatment would be best for the patient. One can expect either one, or a combination of the following; surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation . Due to the intricacies involved in the treatment of mesothelioma, the prognosis after treatment tends not to be very good. The prognosis for mesothelioma tends to be a few years in the majority of cases .

In order to try and prolong a patient's life as much as possible doctors these days tend to employ all three known treatment methods. The term for this is trimodality therapy. This has proven to increase one's survival time by up to 5 years. Without this a mesothelioma patient can expect to live up to a year at most.

With trimodality therapy chemotherapy is the first treatment to be administered . The drugs used in chemotherapy are given either orally or intravenously. The main objective of this is to halt the growth of malignant mesothelioma. After chemotherapy comes surgery , where any tumor mass is removed. Surgery is performed in four stages ;

wide local excision
pleurectomy and decortication
extrapleural pneumonectomy
pleurodesis
postoperative radiation therapy

The last method is radiation where high-energy x-rays are used to kill off the cancer cells .

Scientists are currently researching new treatment methods in hopes of being able to provide a better prognosis. These include gene therapy, IMRT (intensity-modulated radiation therapy), photodynamic therapy (PDT), and immunotherapy .

Article Source: http://www.phalenes.org/articles

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