Mesothelioma Treatment Options.
Article by Thomas Goldman
Mesothelioma treatment options include surgery, radiation, chemotherapy (including heated intraoperative intraperitoneal chemotherapy), and immunotherapy, depending on the staging (development) of the disease. Treatment can be very expensive sometimes totaling up to 800,000 US dollars. In about 75% of cases combination treatment can extend the patients life by five yars or more, where as surgery alone is only about 15% likely to extend the patients lifespan by more than five years.
Recovery from mesothelioma is not common. The median survival times is about nine months from presentation with the five-year survival rate being about 10%, although a few people do survive for more than twenty years after having the disease. Some patients have survived more than five years after having radical surgery plus chemo and radiation therapy, but radiation therapy alone has proved ineffective.
In the most common form of surgery, the lining of the chest is removed. In other forms of surgery, other body cavity linings are also removed.Radiation therapy alone is not effective in extending the lifetime of the patient, and the doses required to make it effective would be extremely toxic to the patient as a whole. Radiation is sometimes used to treat the symptoms of the disease, as well as part of a combination treatment on the disease itself.
Chemotherapy has been demonstrated to be effective, particularly when combined with specific vitamin suppliments. Heating the chemicals can improve their effectiveness and the heat itself can kill the cancer cells more than normal cells. Heated chemicals are usually administered directly to the tumor area after as much as possible of the tumor has been removed by surgery, allowing high concentrations of the chemicals in the required areas.
Immunotherapy can be effective in some cases, but the side-effects can sometimes be major, although some studies have shown significant decrease in tumor mass with minimal side-effects.
There are ongoing clinical trials of new treatments for Mesothelioma (see http://www.cancer.gov/clinicaltrials), and taking part in such trials can be a valuable treatment option for some patients.
For more relevant information see our Blog Post Mesothelioma Treatment Options
For more relevant information see our Blog Mesothelioma Reports
(sources include http://www.wikipedia.org)
About the Author
Thomas Goldman is an experienced artist musician and knowledgable in a variety of subjects. He loves travelling.