Mesothelioma Treatment Options
Posted On Wednesday, January 20th, 2010 By Ravi
Mesothelioma is very similar to other cancers in respect to treatment. Mesothelioma patients have three treatment options available to them: chemotherapy, radiation, or surgery. Mesothelioma treatments are typically performed in conjunction with one another to ensure the most effective treatment. Let’s start off with surgery. Surgery can be performed on mesothelioma patients to either enchance their quality of life or attempt to cure their illness. The most common procedure performed is known as a plurectomy. During a plurectomy, the patient’s chest lining is removed. A similar procedure known as a extra pleural pneumonectomy involves the removal of inner-chest lining, the pericardium, hemi-diaphragm and the lining of the lung. Surgery alone cannot typically cure mesothelioma. However, when surgery is combined with post-operative treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation, chances of survival are greatly improved. Now, let’s move on to chemotherapy treatment. It is important to understand that chemotherapy, like surgery, cannot alone treat mesothelioma. Chemotherapy is typically administered with pills or injected. Mesothelioma patients usually have the drugs injected into the area where the disease is located. These two drugs typically given to patients are known as Pemetrexed and Cisplatin. These drugs have been known to trigger unfavorable side affects including Continue Reading