Treatment of mesothelioma

The type of treatment available depends on your general health, your age, the type of mesothelioma, and the stage the mesothelioma has reached by the time it is diagnosed.

Until a few years ago, treatment of mesothelioma meant managing its symptoms. In some cases, this is still all that can be done.

Managing symptoms usually means removal of the fluid from the lung lining to relieve breathlessness. Fluid is drawn off through a drainage tube. It often comes back, and so the lining of the lung is sealed with talc. This is called pleurodesis. This can be done at the same time as an open biopsy or video assisted thoracoscopic biopsy, which may be necessary to diagnose mesothelioma. It can also be done through a tube inserted into the chest to drain fluid. This is often followed by radiotherapy to the site of the biopsy wound, to stop the tumour from seeding or spreading. After this, palliative care, which means medication and other measures to relieve symptoms such as pain, breathlessness and loss of appetite, can be offered.

Many doctors now believe that the survival and quality of life of mesothelioma patients may be improved by treating them with surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, or sometimes by a combination of these methods.

The best combination depends on the characteristics of the disease itself, the stage it has reached before it has been diagnosed, and the age and general health of the patient. Surgery is not appropriate in many cases.

If you see statistics about how long mesothelioma patients survive, they may not be directly relevant to you. The statistics are drawn from people who had different types of mesothelioma, who were diagnosed at different stages, and who had different treatments.

Click here for more detail on chemotherapy

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Click here for more detail on surgery

Click here for more detail on pain control

Click here for more detail on alternative therapies