Mesothelioma Treatment

Posts Tagged ‘treatment of mesothelioma’

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 »

Chemotherapy is the treatment of cancer using specific chemical agents or drugs that are only destroying malignant cells and tissues. Your doctor may recommend chemotherapy unique to a chemical agent or a combination thereof. The exclusive single chemotherapy agent, as its name implies uses only one. Combination chemotherapy using more than one. Although not a cure for mesothelioma, chemotherapy may help reduce and slow the progression of cancer.

Alimta (Pemetrexed)
The drug Alimta can be prescribed for the treatment of patients with mesothelioma. It indicates the use of Alimta with cisplatin (see below) for the treatment of patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma. Normally, Alimta is administered through an intravenous tube. (IV infusion)

Onconase (Ranpirnase)
A new drug called Onconase could help slow the spread of mesothelioma tumors.

Navelbine (Vinorelbine)
As Alimta, in combination with other chemicals in chemotherapy, Navelbine is used to treat mesothelioma tumors. Clinical trials are still underway and have already begun testing in some patients. Generally, Navelbine is administered intravenously.

Carboplatin (Paraplatin)
Carboplatin is a chemotherapy drug that interferes with the growth of cancer cells, slowing their spread in the body. Carboplatin may cause serious side effects. Generally, Carboplatin is administered intravenously.

Cisplatin (Platinol)
Cisplatin is a clear fluid, usually given in combination with other drugs to treat certain types of cancer, including mesothelioma. In the treatment of mesothelioma, cisplatin is administered in combination with Alimta. As is the case with many chemotherapies, there may be side effects. Generally, Cisplatin is administered intravenously.

General approach to the treatment of mesothelioma

The mesothelioma is an orphan disease, which means it is very rare. For years, only about 3,000 cases diagnosed in the United States. If you are diagnosed with any type of mesothelioma, it is important to find specialists who have the experience to deal with this unusual disease. The
major cancer hospitals are usually the best place to find doctors and other experts who could determine how long they have the disease (the stage ).
Then they use that information to get an idea of ??the options for treatment.

Care palliative or supportive

Some treatments for mesothelioma are intended to calm the pain and try to prolong the life of the patient with the hope that someday cure disease. Another of these treatments known as palliative, merely aim to ease symptoms, and not try to stop the cancer. The surgery , the radiotherapy and chemotherapy
can be used in both directions (as well as treatment and palliative care).

You can choose to support or palliative care if the disease is well advanced and his physical condition is too frail to withstand surgery or chemotherapy, or if you decide you do not want any aggressive treatment. Mesothelioma patients who choose this type of care, generally live between four and nine months after being diagnosed with the disease.

Sometimes, palliative care appear to be the only option, however, if you want to beat cancer and have been told that their choices are limited, it is important to seek a second opinion from another medical team experienced mesothelioma. Although this type of cancer is a rare disease, new treatments are being developed. Make sure you know all the options.

Traditional cancer treatments

The methods used to treat this disease, such as radiotherapy and chemotherapy, are known as modalities. Therapy that combines more than one form of treatment is called multimodality treatment. It is believed that multimodality treatment is the best chance is to prolong the life of the patient. At the same time, is the most aggressive and complex.

Already some time ago that traditional cancer treatment that combines surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, has more than doubled the survival rate of patients with mesothelioma at an average of 18 months. But let’s face 18 months of life, even with aggressive treatment, is a frightening figure.

Thanks to the great campaign of legislative persuasion by the mesothelioma lawyers and others who fight for the rights of mesothelioma victims in recent years, more money was allocated for research. New drugs for chemotherapy and other treatments are providing more hope to patients. Many patients with mesothelioma live today, for four or five years. It is expected that the horizon appear higher survival rates.

Mesothelioma cancer is a rare form of the disease in which cancer cells develop in the pleura, peritoneum, or pericardium – the lining of the chest, abdomen and the area around the heart. This form of cancer is almost always caused by previous exposure to asbestos.

Peritoneal mesothelioma

Cancer is one-fifth to one third of cases are diagnosed. The symptoms of this type of mesothelioma include weight loss, swelling and pain in the abdomen due to fluid accumulation. Victims of other types of mesothelioma can develop pain in the chest wall, the fluid around the lungs, anemia, shortness of breath, or symptoms of anemia, cough, or the tendency to wheeze and cough up blood. In severe cases, can form tumors in the lungs or abdominal cavity, causing the collapse of the lungs.

While only a short period of exposure to asbestos, as little as one or two months, is required for this type of cancer that occurs, you can take a long time before symptoms appear. People who were exposed in the decade of 1940 are only now being diagnosed as mesothelioma cancer has a long latency period. If you are diagnosed with mesothelioma, the prognosis may vary according to how early it was detected. Research in alternative medicine and conventional therapies for the treatment of this disease continues. Conventional drugs used to fight cancer mesothelioma include Alimta and other chemotherapy drugs, surgery to remove tumors, and radiotherapy.

In addition to these treatments, a series of alternative medicine therapies may be able to reduce the symptoms of mesothelioma. Is called complementary and alternative medicine, or CAM, this group of doctors and health care options and practices are not considered part of general medical practice. However, that does not mean they are ineffective. Some health professionals practice both CAM and conventional medicine, and combine the two with good results. This is known as integrative medicine.

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.