Mesothelioma treatment

Mesothelioma is a form of incurable cancer which occurs in the inner linings if the organs and is caused due to a sustained exposure to asbestos either directly or indirectly. The problem with mesothelioma is the fact that the condition has an extremely high gestation period and sometimes the symptoms of the condition do not reveal themselves up to twenty years after the time of exposure. Also, the symptoms of mesothelioma of any kind are very general and non generic. As a result, this is very difficult to diagnose. Most of the treatment for mesothelioma is mainly palliative and offers a relief from the pain more than anything else. Also, some of the treatments aim to slow down the growth of the cancer.

The traditional modes of treatment used to treat mesothelioma are the ones which are usually used to treat cancer. These are surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy or radio therapy. What usually happens with mesothelioma treatment is that trimodality is often used as a technique where all the three modes of chemotherapy, radiation therapy and surgery are used so that the treatment is as successful as possible. Usually what is done is, the treatment starts with chemotherapy which is administered with the aim of slowing down the growth of mesothelioma cancer and prevent the cancer from metastasizing too fast.

This form of treatment is followed by surgery where it is used to remove a tumor or a cancer mass which traditionally develops along with mesothelioma. These tumors cause a lot of pain and must be surgically removed to remove a major cause of discomfort from the body. To do the surgery often the technique of extrapleural pneumonectomy is performed on the patient. This is a part of the aforementioned trimodality therapy that is carried out on the patient. The final step is the radiation therapy or the radio therapy.

This is mainly a post operative technique and is carried out so that the remaining traces of the mesothelioma cancer cells are removed from the body to the largest extent possible. The trimodality therapy has not been able to remove malignant mesothelioma permanently from the body ever. However, it has been very effective in being able to prolong the survival rate of the patients. After this therapy patients have been able to live for as long as five years, whereas, for other treatments, the post diagnosis survival has been for a mere one year only.

There is continuous research being carried out in the field of mesothelioma treatment and doctors and researchers alike are trying to find out newer cures for the condition which shall be permanent and will be able to eradicate all traces of the mesothelioma cells completely from the system. There are many new alternative treatments that have come up for mesothelioma and these are