The Virtual LPN

MESOTHELIOMA TREATMENT

Advances in the treatment of malignant mesothelioma offer hope for anyone affected by this rare cancer. Mesothelioma patients are living longer than ever before, benefiting from advancements in treatment and the personalized care they receive at specialty centers across the country. Hope for tomorrow is replacing the gloom and doom of the past.

There are 4 primary types of mesothelioma treatment: surgery, chemotherapy, radiation and multimodal therapy. The types of treatment you receive depend on your diagnosis, the stage and type of your mesothelioma and your overall health. If the cancer has not yet spread (metastasized), a combination of radiation, surgery and chemotherapy likely will be offered to you. This is called a multimodal approach.

If the mesothelioma already has spread significantly, then your options will be more palliative in nature, which means they will treat symptoms to give you the highest quality of life possible. You are still likely to be offered radiation and chemotherapy, but probably not major surgery options.

Regardless of the stage of your cancer, you can seek palliative treatments to improve your well-being. A variety of therapies can alleviate pain, breathing problems and other cancer symptoms that lessen your quality of life.

Radiation therapy can soothe pain and correct breathing issues by shrinking tumors that press on your nerves, veins and airways. Chemotherapy also shrinks tumors, helping with chest pain and night sweats. Non-curative surgeries can remove tumors that cause troublesome symptoms, or drain fluid that builds up in the chest or abdomen.

You may also want to talk to your doctor about other treatment options beyond surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Experimental treatments exist, mostly in clinical trials, and sometimes they can make a huge difference. Those treatments include newer treatments like gene therapy and immunotherapy, along with photodynamic therapy, all of which can be discussed with your doctor

If your cancer is relatively contained in the lining around the lungs or the abdomen, you may be eligible for aggressive surgery. This option can be potentially curative. In addition to an aggressive surgery, you may be given some type of radiation and chemotherapy with the goal of killing the cancer cells that are left behind after surgery.

There also are less traumatic and more palliative surgeries available for mesothelioma patients. Often these are used if you are not healthy enough to withstand the strain of a major surgery, or if the cancer already has already spread. The goal of these surgeries is to relieve some of your symptoms and help you to feel better. You may also have chemotherapy and radiation before or after these surgeries.