Mesothelioma Treatment

Posts Tagged ‘surgery’

When the tissues around the cancer cells grow organs, this type of cancer is called mesothelioma. This particular type of cancer is one of the most difficult diseases to treat, however, there are many options you can consider depending on the stage of cancer so do the impossible, a little more possible. Through the advice of your physician, you are presented with several treatment options that can be tested in the repair of your medical situation. Knowing that each treatment and how it can affect is the first step in selecting a treatment that can provide the best possible results. These are some of the most likely options will be presented to you.

Surgery. The first option will probably be recommended to you by your doctor is surgery. This treatment involves the Court will open and eliminate all cancer cells are found. This can significantly lengthen her time, but probably the most risky option with which you can go. Remember that the surgery will take care of the tissues around their bodies there, the risk of damaging their vital organs will be quite high. However, surgery has been shown to provide some positive results. However, due to the risks involved, you can see the other options first before going with it.

Chemotherapy. This is a basic treatment for all cancers. Basically, the treatment will consist of a system capable of injecting-drug to fight cancer cells spread in tissues. Although this is probably about the most popular treatment, is considered one of the most uncomfortable. The treatment will be exposed to severe weakness and pain is accompanied by hair loss and nausea. In addition, can also weaken the immune system long term. However, it is known to provide positive results but also the percentages of these is in the desired direction is very thin at best.

Radiation therapy. Another option would be to expose your body to bursts of radiation, especially X-ray, with the aim of killing cancer cells dry. This treatment has its benefits in terms of actually stopping the cancer cells but the radiation that will be constantly exposed to can take a toll in other areas of your body too. Read the rest of this entry »

The purpose of surgery is to remove most visible portion of the tumor, possibly knowing that microscopic remnants remain. Because this remnant, surgery should be combined with other forms of treatment. Sometimes, when the tumor warrants, offered chemotherapy to shrink the tumor before surgery. After surgery, the patient usually start more chemotherapy or radiation therapy. This is called multimodal treatment based on surgery.

The doctor will determine if you are a candidate for surgery after a comprehensive evaluation, which take into account several factors, including your general health, your heart, if one lung is committed (or the tumor contained in the abdomen) and the other lung in good condition.

Several types of surgery for the treatment of mesothelioma, and both must be performed in specialized centers with experience:
Pleurectomy / decortication – This procedure is the least radical of the two, and involves removing the pleura (the lining of the lung cavity that contains it) and that surrounds the tumor and not allowing the lung to expand. Its objective is to recover the functionality of the lung, and reduce the amount of tumor significantly. Read the rest of this entry »

Any form of mesothelioma is very aggressive and often resistant to treatment. In addition, early diagnosis is so rare that the treatment of mesothelioma is usually not able to provide a complete cure.

However, with the development of new drugs and early detection techniques, the outlook is improving for patients with pleural mesothelioma, particularly because this is the most common form of mesothelioma is a much larger body of knowledge and research for the treatment patients. According to some ongoing studies, approximately 10 percent of all patients with pleural mesothelioma will survive three to five years after diagnosis, and about 5 percent will survive five years or more.

In general, patients with pleural mesothelioma has three options: surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Typically, patients receive a combination of two or more of these types of treatment.

Early detection of pleural mesothelioma patient’s prognosis improves considerably, and these patients have more extensive treatment options. If the disease is diagnosed with ample time, surgery to remove tumors located, followed by chemotherapy or radiation therapy to kill any remaining cancer cells may be a successful treatment. Curative surgery candidates must be in good health and that his cancer has not spread to other sections of the lungs.

Pleural mesothelioma patients who are not diagnosed early enough for curative treatment have fewer treatment options, and these are mostly limited to palliative care. These types of treatments are designed to relieve pain and discomfort and improve quality of life of the patient, instead of improving their prognosis. Palliative treatments include removal of the nuclei of pleural fluid spaces, and surgical removal of tumors to relieve pressure in the lungs.

Before considering any treatment for malignant mesothelioma, to assess your overall health. The tests are done to ensure that the cancer has not spread to distant sites and to assess how well your lungs and heart. Lung tests detect signs of lung injury by snuff or other diseases, including asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). These tests determine the level of risk they would do surgery, especially if it is necessary to remove a lung.

The surgery of malignant mesothelioma could aim to control long-term cancer (aggressive surgery) or relief of symptoms (palliative treatment).

* Aggressive surgery: a procedure called extrapleural pneumonectomy involves removal of the pleura, lung, diaphragm and pericardium. The goal of this surgery, very complicated and aggressive is to remove as much tumor as possible. Not all centers will perform this procedure because it is very complex and has a high risk of death within 30 days after surgery. This procedure is usually performed on younger patients with good general health with stage I disease Patients are evaluated carefully to determine their willingness to tolerate surgery.

* Palliative treatments: When malignant mesothelioma is advanced, one can resort to palliative treatment to relieve or control symptoms such as shortness of breath caused by fluid or tumor pressing on the lung or other organs. These treatments do not cure the disease, and are detailed below:

- You can use a treatment called thoracentesis to treat fluid accumulation (pleural fluid) in pleural mesothelioma. A needle is inserted into the chest to drain the fluid, relieving breathlessness and pain. Talc may be injected into the pleural space to try to stop the accumulation of fluid in that region. This treatment is called pleurodesis with talc powder. There are other similar treatments to relieve fluid buildup (ascites) in peritoneal mesothelioma (paracentesis).

- treatment called pleurectomy and decortication is the surgical removal of the pleura. This treatment may be performed to reduce pain caused by the tumor or to prevent fluid buildup. In case of peritoneal mesothelioma usually the goal of surgery is to relieve symptoms.

The pleura in a double layer covering the lung
The pleura is a membrane consisting of two thin sheets (visceral and parietal). They are the lungs and the inside of the chest cavity. In case of illness the space between the two pleural (pleural cavity) may fill with fluid, which causes breathing difficulties.

Asbestos case
It is assumed that about half of all malignant mesothelioma is caused by asbestos dust. Mesothelioma can develop decades after exposure to asbestos. If the asbestos dust may cause cancer should notify the appropriate accident insurance of the employer with whom the patient was exposed to dust, even if the patient is retired.

The lungs ‘walled’
The pleural mesothelioma is spread across the pleura and may invade nearby organs like the lungs or diaphragm. Arise breathing problems, coughing and chest pain. For the diagnosis is used in radiography, computed tomography or other methods of examination of the chest. It also collects fluid from the pleural cavity.

Surgery, radio and chemotherapy
The type of treatment depends on the spread of cancer. Typically, therapy is a combination of surgery, radio and chemotherapy. If pleural mesothelioma is diagnosed in a very advanced stage of recovery is not possible.

Pleural metastases
Much more frequent pleural mesothelioma are pleural metastasis, ie secondary tumors. Pleural metastases arise mostly from malignant tumors of lung, breast, stomach and esophagus.