Mesothelioma Treatment

Both traditional as well as new approaches came for treating mesothelioma. Some of them are listed below.

Surgery - This is a mesothelioma treatment used either to remove the tumor or to lighten pain and suffering. If the cancer hasn’t spread, surgery can be used to remove part of the lining of the chest or abdomen. The objective is to remove the cancer cells from the body by removing the tissues with large numbers of cancer cells. If the cancer has spread to several organs, it is impossible to remove all of the tissue infected with cancer.

Surgeries include:-

Pneumonectomy – It is a surgical term for removing lungs. It is widely used when the radical surgery doesn’t give much result. Removal of one lobe of the lung is known as lobectomy, and that of a segment of the lung is kown as segmentectomy.

Types of pneumonectomy :-

1. Simple Pneumonectomy.
2. Extrapleural Pneumonectomy.

Simple Pneumonectomy means just removing the affected lung and Extrapleural Pneumonectomy means removing the affected lung, part of the diaphragmand the pericardium.

Palliative care - This method is used for reducing the pain or restricting the growth of diseases without cure.
Thoracentesis - A procedure where a needle is inserted into the chest cavity either to obtain a diagnosis or to deplete the fluid to mitigate breathlessness and pain.

Pleurectomy/Decortication - The surgical removal of the pleura helps to reduce pain or prevent repetition of pleural effusion.

Chemotherapy - It uses chemical substances for treatment that destruct the malignant cells and tissues. This is widely used for the detection of cancer. These drugs can either be swallowed or injected. These drugs circulate in the bloodstream and are restricted the growth of cancerous cells. The drugs spreads over entire body and kills normal cells as well causing severe side effects.

Radiation - The use of high-level radiation to kill cancer cells in a restricted area. The radiation injures the cancer cells so they cannot divide or multiply further. The healthy cells are able to recover from this injury, but the damage to them is the cause for the side effects of radiation therapy.