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Treatment of Mesothelioma |
The treatment of mesothelioma is often a complicated task as all types of mesothelioma are quite resistant to conventional forms of treatment. Generally a combination of two or more treatments is required to make the life of the patient a better prospect. With the development of new drugs and better medical technology that helps in the early detection of the cancer the outlook is much better these days than what it was earlier.
There are mainly three kinds of treatments that are generally carried out on patients suffering from pleural mesothelioma. The decision is generally based on the stage to which the cancer has advanced and the spread of the cancer. The physical health of the patient is also taken into consideration.
The kinds of treatment that are available are:
a)Surgery: There are generally three kinds of surgeries that are usually performed on the patients suffering from mesothelioma. These three are:
Curative surgery: The purpose of performing a curative surgery is to cure the patient comprehensively by eliminating as much amount of cancer as possible. Quite often the curative surgeries are followed by other treatments like radiation therapy and chemotherapy.
Diagnostic surgery: Diagnostic surgery is non-invasive in nature and is generally performed in order to ascertain whether the cancer is present or not and also to find its location.
Palliative Surgery: This form of surgery is generally performed in order to provide a symptomatic relief to the patient. It generally involves the complete removal of cancer from the pleural region.
For patients suffering from Pleural mesothelioma, the kinds of surgeries that are performed are:
Thoracentasis: This type of surgery is performed using a long hollow needle which is inserted into the pleural region of the lungs and fluid is extracted from there. This fluid is sent to a laboratory in order to conduct diagnostic testing if the surgery is performed for diagnostic purposes.
Pneumonectomy: The patients who are suffering from pleural mesothelioma in only one of the lungs are generally advised this type of surgery. In this type of surgery one of the lungs that is affected by the disease is surgically removed from the patient’s body. The patient must be healthy enough to prevent any kind of complications that might arise after the surgery. This kind of surgery is performed under anesthesia.
Thoracoscopy: This kind of surgery is generally performed for diagnostic purposes. In this surgery a long thin tube is inserted into the chest region of the patient after making an incision. Samples of mesothelial cells are collected to check for the presence of any cancerous tissues.
b) Radiation: Radiation is one method that is used quite often in conjunction with surgery to treat pleural mesothelioma. Sometimes it is used primarily to provide symptomatic relief to the patient. There are generally two kinds of radiation therapies which can be used depending upon the patient’s physical condition. The external beam radiation therapy is performed by targeting the cancerous cells in order to destroy them. The other kind of therapy that is relatively new is the brachytherapy. During brachytherapy strong concentrated doses of radioactive material are administered on the cancerous cells in order to destroy them and that too without damaging the neighbouring regions.
c) Chemotherapy: In the method of chemotherapy, medicines and drugs are administered intravenously into the affected region in order to destroy the cancerous cells. Drugs that are most commonl used are Cisplatin, and Almita. Although quite effective this therapy has several side effects. The reason for this being that sometimes the cells that are healthy also get destroyed. Although the older methods of chemotherapy are not effective in treating pleural mesothelioma, some of the newer methods are competitive.
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