The most common treatment options, as the page notes, are surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, and usually in that order, though this protocol depends on the doctor.
Offering clear explanations of decortication, or pleurectomy – two surgical options – the page goes on to describe and explain current best practices in chemotherapy, which focus on a dual regimen of Alimta (pemextred) and Platinol (cisplatin), though some doctors may choose other combinations of drugs, or skip chemotherapy altogether if the patient’s health warrants a less aggressive approach.
As the page notes, traditional radiation therapy is not very effective in treating pleural mesothelioma because mesothelial tumors tend to spread across a wide area. Using radiation to reduce such a tumor would result in damage to healthy lung tissue as well, so modern options focus on a modulated (diffuse) beam of radiation combined with surgical adjuncts like radical resection (of the diaphragm and its musculature) as well as extrapleural pneumonectomy, or removal of the lung.
Finally, the page discusses the fact that the prognosis for mesothelioma remains poor, even with new research and even newer treatments. Life spans are not improved by traditional chemotherapy, surgery or radiation, and only some cutting-edge treatments – chemoembolization, gene therapy and talc pleurodesis – offer future hope for mesothelioma victims.
In chemoembolization, chemotherapy agents (or cytotoxic drugs) are injected directly into the tumor. The procedure shows significant promise and ongoing clinical trials are taking place at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, Columbia University Medical Center, in New York, under the guidance of Dr. Robert Taub.
Gene therapy, which increasingly presents itself as a cure for many ailments once thought incurable, is being tested in animal trials as a cure for mesothelioma. The method involves delivering genetically modified, or enhanced, viruses to attack specific tumor cells without harming nearby tissue or making the animal ill, and has so far shown remarkable results that suggest it could be used to extend human lifetimes by a decade – compared to the current prognosis of a single year.
