Health & Care Guide

Mesothelioma patients require urgent medical attention from a specialist. As this cancer is comparatively rare, only specialized cancer centers would have the requisite experience and know how to counter it. A wide range of mesothelioma treatment options is available, but doctors decide the most suited line of action after considering the spread of the cancer, the area affected by it, the age and health of the patient. In most cases, detection takes place only at an advanced stage and therefore, chances of survival becomes difficult.

Wide range of treatment methods are used by medical professionals. The commonly followed one is removing tumor through surgery. There are basically eight surgery options available. The palliative surgery reduces the pain; the supportive surgery assists other mesothelioma treatment options like immunotherapy; debulking surgery diminishes the cancerous growth; reconstructive surgery restores the function and appearance of infected organs; staging surgery identifies the stage of cancer, diagnostic surgery determines the type of mesothelioma; preventive surgery removes suspected cancerous tissues and curative surgery eradicates small tumors.

Chemotherapy, which uses a combination of drugs to destroy malignant cells, is the most effective cancer treatment presently available. Drugs are intravenously administered and passed through the bloodstream, but in some cases, drugs are injected directly at the most affected areas. Four types of chemotherapy is resorted to by physicians, namely, palliative chemotherapy for treating the symptoms of mesothelioma, combined modality chemotherapy which is used in combination to surgery, radiotherapy or other treatments available, adjuvant chemotherapy for preventing cancer reappearance and neoadjuvant or preoperative chemotherapy for shrinking the cancer before surgery.

Radiotherapy is often used in combination with surgery and chemotherapy. Radiation therapy uses gamma rays and particle rays to kill the destructive cells. Then there is the Intensity modulated radiation therapy, which administers only the requisite doses of radiation exactly on the cancerous cells.

Many other modern techniques are used as mesothelioma treatment options, where the success rates have found to be varying. Examples of such therapies are photodynamic therapy, gene therapy, biological therapy, multimodality therapy etc. Success of the treatment depends on the response of the patient towards the treatment process.

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Filed under: Cancer