Treatments For Mesothelioma

Since mesothelioma is a form of cancer, treatments used to treat mesothelioma are the same with typical cancer treatments. Several factors that need to be considered when giving treatments to cancer patients include the extent of the disease, the seriousness of the disease, the patient's age, health condition and medical history record. The common treatments for cancer are radiotherapy, chemotherapy, palliative therapy, surgery, and the combination of the above.

Surgery is the most common treatment for cancer patients. The surgery involves removing the abdomen and its nearby tissue. As for the case of pleural mesothelioma, a surgery called pneumonectomy will be done which involves removing the patient's lung, part of the diaphragm, or the lung's nearby tissue.

Radiotherapy refers to treatment of cancer by radiation. This radiation is produced by the high-tech medical equipment that applies high energy x-rays or similar rays to destroy the cancer cells or malignant tumors in the treated area. At the same time, the patient's normal cells are destroyed as well.

Chemotherapy refers to treatment of cancer by using anticancer drugs. These anticancer drugs are injected into the patient's vein to battle and kill the cancer cells throughout the body. Chemotherapy is often used when the cancer disease has spread to the bigger extent of the body.

Another therapy called Palliative therapy, which involves using suction and needle to drain excess fluid from the cancer patient's lung. The Palliative therapy is not a curative therapy. It cannot give cure to the patient but it can help the patient decrease pain suffering experience.

When it comes to mesothelioma treatments, the combination of the above treatments are often used. However, these treatments are typical cancers treatments and they are not really efficient when treating patients. Therefore, patients are sometimes offered to conduct clinical trials that run by medical professionals in line with mesothelioma medical research. Of course, patients who conducting these clinical trials, may hope that someday in the future, these medical professionals can discover an effective treatment or drugs can that treat mesothelioma.

John Khoo