Treatment part of the mesothelioma depends on stage of cancer, location of cancer, how far the cancer has spread and patient age. Patients diagnosed with mesothelioma do not survive more then on year. While there is currently no cure available for malignant mesothelioma, there are treatments available.
- Surgery
- Gene therapy
- Immunotherapy
- Chemotherapy
- Radiation Therapy
Surgery:
Surgery is the most common treatment of mesothelioma.The doctor may remove part of the lining of the chest or abdomen and some of the tissue around it. Sometimes part of the diaphragm, the muscle below the lungs that helps with breathing, is also removed. Depending on how far the cancer has spread, a lung also may be removed.
The following are some of the most commonly used surgical treatments of mesothelioma:
Palliative surgery – Palliative treatments does not cure the patients but give symptomatic relieve to the patient. Palliative surgery is recommended when tumor cross the mesothelium and it becomes difficult to remove completely. Pneumonectomy and Pleurectomy are examples of palliative surgery.
Curative surgery- The ideal condition for curative surgery is when tumor is localized to mesothelium and patient condition is good. But when these cancer cells start spreading into the chest wall, around the heart and diaphragm then surgery becomes difficult. Surgery is performed on the patient for curative intention. Extrapleural Pneumonectomy is a curative surgery.
Pleurectomy- This is of palliative surgery in which pleura or lining and some tissues of lungs are removed. This give symptomatic relieve like reduces chest pain, prevent formation in the effected area.
Pneumonectomy: This is same as pleurectomy but in this surgery there is a removal of lung. This surgery does not increase the survival rate but give symptomatic relief to the patient.
Thoracentesis : This is a type of palliative treatment in which needle is placed into the chest cavity. This procedure gives symptomatic relief from breathing problem, because pleural fluid can compress the lung and cause shortness of breath.
Radiation therapy:
Radiation is often given post-operatively as a consolidative treatment. The entire hemi-thorax is treated with radiation therapy, often given simultaneously with chemotherapy. The necessary radiation dose to treat mesothelioma that has not been surgically removed would be very toxic.
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is defined as treatment of cancer using chemical substances. Using chemotherapy destroy the cancer cells by further multiplication. It destroys the cancer cells, to shrink the growth, and relief symptoms like pain which is very common in mesothelioma.
Gene Therapy
It involves using genetic material to specifically target cancer cells and make them more vulnerable to chemotherapy treatment. When undergoing this type of gene therapy, the patient is treated with a non-infectious virus that has been altered with genetic material that makes them produce a particular protein. This type of therapy has produced some promising results for mesothelioma patients.
Immunotherapy
It is a type of treatment in which the patient's own immune system is 'tricked' into killing cancer cells. There are two main types of immunotherapy: active and passive. In active immunotherapy, mesothelioma cancer cells are removed from a patient and then treated in a laboratory to turn them into a vaccine. Passive immunotherapy is somewhat different in that it does not attempt to activate the patient's immune system. Instead, it uses substances such as cytokines and other agents to help boost the patient's immune response to their cancer.