Friday, January 22, 2010

Mesothelioma Treatments: Hope For The Sufferers?

By Heidi Wingrain

The success of mesothelioma treatments depends on the stage of the cancer at the time of detection. Physicians follow several treatment methods, both traditional and modern. Conventional therapies include surgery, radiation and medications like chemotherapy or a combination of two or three of these. More than two-thirds of stage-1 and stage-2 mesothelioma patients usually get their lives extended by five years or more, and surgery itself has succeeded in doing the same in around sixteen percent of all cases. Surgery involves removing the cancerous growth through surgical incisions. The most common surgery here is the decortication or pleurectomy in which the chest lining is removed. The extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP), which removes the lining around the lung, inside the chest, the hemi-diaphragm and pericardium, is less common.

In surgery, the removal of cancerous growth takes place through incisions. The extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP), removes the lining around the lungs, inside the chest, the hemi-diaphragm and pericardium. The decortication or pleurectomy surgery involves the removal of chest lining. It is the most common surgery done in mesothelioma patients.

If the disease is confined to a particular area, radiation is the best possible treatment available. It is also used after the operation as a consolidating treatment. The entire hemi-thorax is made to undergo radiation at times in consonance with chemotherapy. Thousands of mesothelioma patients are benefited out of these treatment processes. The preventive function of radiation ensures the stoppage of malignant cell from being spread. Chemotherapy, despite of its drawbacks has emerged as the best mesothelioma treatment in the present days. The treatment procedure is not so hard as radiation or surgery. But it is a lengthy process, physically and emotionally difficult for the patients to bear.

Immunotherapy, which strives to improve the immune response, has yielded vacillating results so far. Heated Intraoperative Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy, in which drugs are heated to a certain degree of temperature before being administered, helps improved penetration of anti-cancer drugs. Researches are on to find alternative and more effective mesothelioma treatments.

Before starting the treatment, the extent of the disease, the patient's age and his overall health have to be reflected upon. The patient should be given a chance to find out the best possible treatment, the costs, advantages and disadvantages of the treatment method, the risk involved and chances of success. Palliative treatment, which alleviates pain, is followed where other mesothelioma treatments are found to be futile. Here only the symptoms are treated, not the cause.

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