Wednesday, December 23, 2009

How Effective Is Mesothelioma Treatment Presently

By Heidi Wingrain

Several factors are responsible for deciding the success and failure of mesothelioma treatment. They include the area of infection, the stage of infection, the level of contamination, the mental as well as physical health of the affected person, his age, the nature of affected cells etc. Before starting the treatment process the patient has to be well informed about the treatment process well in advance.

There are three traditional mesothelioma treatments which are popular. They are radiation, surgery and medication. High energy x-rays or some other energy rays are used in radiation to destroy the malevolent cancer cells. Attempts to remove the cancer cells altogether are done through surgery and powerful drugs are utilized in chemotherapy. According to the discretion of the doctors, a combination of two or three of these methods is also used.

Since clinical tests like blood analysis are not particularly successful in determining the type of cancer, diagnostic procedures like thorascocopy, video assisted thoracic surgery, mediastinoscopy and laproscopy are used to identify the malaise. The actual mesothelioma treatment starts after this.

If the infection is comparatively mild, the cancer can be removed from its roots through surgery. Palliative surgical procedures which treat the symptoms than the causes are also resorted to these days. They include pleuroperitoneal shunt, pleurodesis, pleurectomy, thoracoscopy etc. Pleurodesis and chest tube drainage are the most common among palliative treatment, which cleans the affected areas.

In order to eradicate the disease completely strong treatment procedures are undertaken. Decortication is the procedure used to remove tumor from patients without removing the lung. This is done in stage 1 and stage 2 patients. Pneumonectomy is the procedure for removing the tumor, by extracting the lung. These two procedures are done in pleural mesothelioma cases, which account for more than three-fourths of total cases. Surgery will be conducted only after appropriate tests and analysis.

Chemotherapy helps to cease the spread of cancer, to shrink tumors and get rid of the remnants of the disease after the surgery. Here chemicals are used to fight cancer and they prevent the cancerous cells from multiplying. Palliative chemotherapy is used where there are no hopes of survival. Radiotherapy makes use of penetrating beams of extreme energy or particle streams. Thus mesothelioma treatment is a many-sided tactic meant to lessen the anguish of the patients and eradicate the cancer.

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