Mesothelioma Treatments
Mesothelioma treatments vary depending on a number of factors. These include the type of mesothelioma you are diagnosed as having, how far the disease has progressed (see stages of mesothelioma), your general health and your own or your doctor's preferences.
Mesothelioma treatments include active symptom control, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and surgery. you may be offered any one of these treatments or a combination of them.
Radiotherapy and Chemotherapy can be used to treat mesothelioma symptoms and radiotherapy is usually used in a preventative manner to prevent the spread of mesothelioma into scars or biopsy sites. Often chemotherapy is the first choice of treatment as it can help to slow the growth of the tumour. Surgery is then sometimes used to remove the tumour and radiotherapy will then target any remaining malignant cells. Used together these three treatments can increase a sufferer's life expectancy to as much as five years.
In recent years there have been some new developments which are being researched in the hope that they will be more successful than current treatments. New treatments include the development of new chemotherapy agents, immunotherapy, gene therapy, photodynamic therapy (PDT) and intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT).
Treatment options are usually dependent on the stages of mesothelioma so your doctors will be looking at how far your cancer has progressed before choosing the best mesothelioma treatments for you.
