Mesetholioma ia one type of sevior cancer which is mainly
affecting the membrane of lungs and abdomen. Mesetholioma is a most serious disease related to asbestos.
Mesothelioma typically develops after exposure to asbestos
in the workplace – in industrial settings, shipyards, auto repair shops, old
houses, schools and public buildings. While it usually takes long-term exposure
to put someone at risk, short-term and one-time exposures are also known to
cause mesothelioma cancer.
Treatment :
More accurate diagnostic tools, better chemotherapy drug
combinations and improved surgical techniques all play a role in the progress
being made against this disease. There is no cure yet for mesothelioma, but
there are potentially curative treatment plans that may extend your life
expectancy and provide you a better quality of life.
In general, most stage I and some stage II and III pleural
mesotheliomas are potentially resectable, but there are exceptions. Whether a
tumor is resectable is also based on the subtype (most doctors don’t believe
that sarcomatoid tumors are helped by resection), where it is located, how far
it has grown into nearby tissues, and whether or not a person is healthy enough
to have surgery.
Different types of treatments are available for patients
with malignant mesothelioma. Some treatments are standard (the currently used
treatment), and some are being tested in clinical trials. A treatment clinical
trial is a research study meant to help improve current treatments or obtain
information on new treatments for patients with cancer. When clinical trials
show that a new treatment is better than the standard treatment, the new
treatment may become the standard treatment.
Shortness of breath and pain in the chest due to an
accumulation of fluid in the pleura are often symptoms of pleural mesothelioma.
Symptoms of peritoneal mesothelioma include weight loss and abdominal pain and
swelling due to a buildup of fluid in the abdomen. Other symptoms of peritoneal
mesothelioma may include bowel obstruction, blood clotting abnormalities,
anemia, and fever. If the cancer has spread beyond the mesothelium to other
parts of the body, symptoms of mesothelioma may include pain, trouble
swallowing, or swelling of the neck or face.
Surgery :
Surgical options are available for both curative and
pain-relief purposes. Recovery from surgery may provide discomfort, and
chemotherapy poses some side effects.
Chemotherapy :
Despite decades of clinical research, cytotoxic chemotherapy
remains one of the few therapeutic options that has been proven to improve
survival in patients with MPM in a randomised controlled trial . Readers will
be familiar with the pivotal Emphacis trial which demonstrated that the
combination of cisplatin and pemetrexed gave a three month survival benefit
over cisplatin alone, improving median survival from 9.3 to 12.1 months in patients with advanced disease .
Radio Therapy :
Radiation therapy is delivered to the site of mesothelioma
from a machine outside the body, a technique that is called external beam
radiation therapy (EBRT). Treatments are typically given daily over a 5-6 week
period and additional concentrated radiation treatment, called a boost, may be
given directly to a smaller area where the cancer was found.
Biological Therapy :
Biological therapies can be defined as targeted therapies
used to attack a particular protein, enzyme or other cellular component or an
approach using inhibitors , monoclonal antibodies or other substances. Also
included in this category is the use of analogues of natural substances like
vitamins.
Hyperthermic
Chemotherapy :
Hyperthermic chemoperfusion (chemotherapy) is a procedure in
which a warmed solution containing anticancer drugs is used to bathe, or is
passed through the blood vessels of, the tissue or organ containing the tumor. In
the case of tumors located in the intraperitoneal or intra-abdominal region,
the patient undergoes debulking surgery followed by heating the chemicals and
bathing the abdominal area directly.
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