There are various different types of treatment available for patients suffering with mesothelioma, a few of these treatments are more recommended then others.
The most commonly used treatments are surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy. There are also a few treatments that are being experimented with including photodynamic therapy, gene therapy, and immunotherapy. Although a cure for mesothelioma has not been discovered, many people who are suffering from mesothelioma undergo different types of treatments to combat with this type of cancer. Some patients even agree to participate in clinical trials, which help to further doctors knowledge of mesothelioma and what form of treatment, and what medications are the best to be recommended.
Surgery
For those who are diagnosed early with mesothelioma, there is an option of getting surgery. There are three types of surgery for mesothelioma, diagnostic surgery, curative surgery, and palliative surgery. This procedure is usually the diagnostic surgery used to determine if you have mesothelioma. Pallative surgery is only used to provide relief from the symptoms of mesothelioma. Curative Surgery is the only one of these three types of surgery that can potentially remove all of the mesothelioma cancer that a person has.
Usually surgery is only an option if you are in mesothelioma stages I or II. Unfortunately most people are diagnosed with mesothelioma too late for surgery to be an option, in stages III or IV. For these people, researching into other treatment options is advised.
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is one option for a person when surgery is not an option. Majority of the different forms of chemotherapy involve administering drugs such as Alimta and Cisplatin intravenously. Although chemotherapy is affective in preventing cells from rapidly dividing, it comes with some unpleasant side effects. While cancer cells do rapidly divide, some of your healthy cells do too, which means that the drugs that are used in chemotherapy can stop healthy cells from dividing too which causes some of the side effects such as feeling extremely tired, nausea, vomiting, and hair loss.
Radiation Therapy
Radiation therapy is also a treatment option for those suffering from mesothelioma. Usually radiation therapy is usually used after surgery, and it kills cancer cells and prevents mesothelioma cancer from spreading. There are cases of radiation therapy being used as a treatment for those in which surgery is not an option. Radiation therapy can help relieve the symptoms of mesothelioma, but it is only a temporary relief.
There are two different types of radiation therapy, external beam radiation therapy, and photodynamic radiation therapy.
External Beam Therapy, and Photodynamic radiation therapy
External beam radiation therapy is the type that has been traditionally used. It is where the cancer tumors are barraged with beams of radiation to kill the cancer cells. Although this is the traditional type of radiation therapy for mesothelioma, a newer type of radiation therapy has been discovered called Brachytherapy, where the doctors insert tiny rods that provide a concentrated dose of radiation into the cancer tumors, this method has been proven to not cause any damage to the healthy tissues that surround the tumor.
Photodynamic radiation therapy is a specific form of treatment which is only suitable for those who have localized mesothelioma. Photodynamic radiation therapy uses the energy of light to kill cancer cells. While undergoing this treatment a patient is injected with a solution of medications that makes cancer cells very sensitive to a certain kind of light. Three days after the patient is injected with the solution, they are exposed to that certain kind of light and it kills the mesothelioma cancer cells.
Gene Therapy
Some mesothelioma patients are deciding to go the route of Gene Therapy. Gene therapy is usually where a person is given a non-infectious virus which tricks cancer cells into killing themselves by forcing the cancer cells to produce a material that causes the death of the cell. This form of gene therapy is often known as "Suicide Gene Therapy". After the patient has gone through this type of therapy, they are given a chemotherapeutic medication which is composed to be toxic to only cancer cells. Although this form of treatment seems effective, it is still only available to those willing to go through clinical trials.
Immunotherapy
People suffering from mesothelioma also have the option of immunotherapy. Immunotherapy is where the person's immune system is conned into killing the mesothelioma cancer cells. A normal healthy immune system will not kill the cancer cells on its own, because it is unable to determine a cancerous cell from a cell that is healthy and not harmful.
The two types of immunotherapy are active immunotherapy and passive immunotherapy. Active immunotherapy is where some of the cancer cells are removed from a mesothelioma patient and taken to a lab to be altered into a vaccine. If this process is done successfully, when the vaccine is admitted to the patient the immune system can then recognize the cancer cells for what they really are, harmful.
Passive immunotherapy does not try to activate the patients immune system to kill the cancer cells, instead doctors use substances called cytokines, among other substances, to help improve a persons immune system's reaction to the cancer cells.
Although some people who suffer from mesothelioma may feel discouraged because the lack of a cure, they should always keep in mind that there are various types of treatment for this type of cancer, some more effective than others. Please remember I am not a doctor, and the best advice of what type of treatment to get is what your doctor informs you is right for your specific type of mesothelioma.