Surgical and Non-Surgical Mesothelioma Treatment Options

There are now numerous mesothelioma treatment options available that can improve your quality of life and slow down the progression of this asbestos related disease. A few years ago the medical community was extremely limited in how it could treat mesothelioma, but scientific advances have added several new treatment options to their arsenal.

Mesothelioma lung cancer treatment can be done in one of several ways or a combination of two or more depending upon how advanced the illness is and how healthy you are in other respects. Determining a treatment begins with mesothelioma staging; after that, the doctor or medical team will work with you to determine the best treatment option and chart a course of action.

Mesothelioma Treatment Centers - Most common mesothelioma cancer treatments are surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, palliative therapy and biological therapy.

Mesothelioma Surgery

Surgery can take one of two routes to help relieve symptoms, although the surgical treatment option is not a form of cure. The primary focus of surgery is to relieve discomfort and prolong your lifespan somewhat. In most cases of mesothelioma lung cancer treatment, surgery is used to release pressure on the lungs and enable freer breathing.

Talc pleurodesis is a mesothelioma treatment that involves sealing the area between the pleura of the lungs. This is done by injecting talc into the area so that there is no longer space available for fluid to build up and put pressure on the lungs.

Pleurectomy

A pleurectomy is a more involved version of talc pleurodesis. Instead of filling the pleural area, the pleural lining is actually removed to that the lungs can expand more fully.

Extrapleural Pneumonectomy

Lung removal or extrapleural pneumonectomy is one of the most well-known mesothelioma treatment options and is usually only done if the disease is caught fairly early on, when the cancer hasn’t spread. If this is the case, a portion of the lung on one side (where the cancer is believed to be isolated) is removed. This is usually followed by either chemo or radiation therapy.

Other Mesothelioma Treatment Options

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is an option often used if you have mesothelioma that is still, to some extent, treatable but you are not a candidate for surgery. Each chemotherapy treatment is very specifically designed based on a number of criteria, including your health, age, type of mesothelioma and overall strength. Chemotherapy has to be adjusted and monitored carefully to effectively kill the cancer cells without damaging the tissue around it that may be healthy.

Radiation Therapy

Radiation therapy is another one of the many mesothelioma treatment options that needs to be carefully controlled. There are two forms that are very popular, IMRT, which uses a beam to focus the radiation, and FCA (Radiofrequency Catheter Ablation), in which a catheter is threaded into the body. The catheter leads to the cancerous area and is used to supply heat or chemical directly to the cancerous area.

Immune System Therapies

Although not as common as some other forms of treating mesothelioma, immune system therapies like Interferon and Interleukin are also used to try and halt the spread of mesothelioma and slow down its progression. You may also want to look into experimental mesothelioma treatment options. With mesothelioma on the rise each year in the United States, a great deal of funding has been used to research innovative ways to try and halt the progression of or cure this virulent cancer. Some of these optional treatments are in the clinical trial stage, and if you have exhausted all other methods you should consider enrolling in these trials.

You should talk to your doctor to make sure that you know about all of your options and can make an informed decision. With a supportive medical team working with you, you should be able to find good mesothelioma treatment options that are right for you.

Return from Mesothelioma Treatment Options to the Mesothelioma Cancer Home Page