Mesothelioma treatment methods are virtually identical to that of other cancers, with chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery being the methods employed.

Due to the intricacies of mesothelioma, the survival time after treatment is usually not that long. Sometimes it can be less than a year !

When treating mesothelioma doctors tend to combine all three methods in order to increase the effectiveness. This method is called trimodality therapy. The first method of treatment administered is chemotherapy. During this procedure drugs are used to stop the cancer growth. These can either be administered orally or intravenously. The aim of this is to retard the growth of malignant mesothelioma. After this comes surgery, which is used to remove any tumor mass that will most likely be present. This can be broken down into four sections; wide local excision (removal of the cancer and some healthly tissue around the cancer), pleurectomy & decortication (this removes part of the lining of the lungs & chest), extrapleural pneumonectomy (one whole lung is removed and part of the lining of the chest, the diaphragm, and the pericardium), pleurodesis (chemicals and drugs are used to make a scar in the space between the layers of the pleura. This stops the build-up of fluid in the pleura). The final step is known as postoperative radiation therapy, and this removes any mesothelioma cells that may have remained behind. During radiation therapy high-energy x-rays are used to kill cancer cells. There are two types of radiation therapy used to treat mesothelioma. The amount of radiation administered depends on the stage of the cancer.

As mentioned earlier, mesothelioma is a cancer that has proven difficult to completely eradicate, and that is why doctors have chosen to employ this trimodality therapy. It has been proven to significantly increase the patient's survival time by up to 5 years ! Usually this is a mere year (or two if you're lucky).

At the moment research is being conducted into the development of new mesothelioma treatments with hopes of obtaining better results. Obviously, they hope they can prove to be successful but we have yet to see these results. Some of these new treatments include:

immunotherapy

gene therapy

photodynamic therapy (PDT)

Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT)

If you suspect that you may have mesothelioma, do not hesitate to contact a mesothelioma attorney !