In spite of the rapid growth of technology and the bright discoveries of the medical fraternity, the treatment of mesothelioma has been far from successful. Conventional therapies have somewhat flopped, and patients survive twelve months, at an average, after being found out having the disease. The following are the options available for a person with mesothelioma:
One is surgery, either by itself, or in conjunction with pre-operative or post-operative therapies. However, this has only a 5-year survival rate of less than 10% of those affected by the disease.
The tumor is extremely resistant to chemotherapy and radiotherapy; yet these methods are sometimes deployed to alleviate symptoms caused by tumor metastases, like obstruction of a blood vessel.
Treatment methods that involve immunotherapy have brought about inconsistent results. For instance, ?intra-pleural immunization? of Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) to enhance the immune response was found to be of no advantage to the mesothelioma patient. However, those suffering from bladder cancer have benefited from this treatment. Patients undertaking this specific therapy felt major side effects, like fever and cachexia. Nevertheless, other methods using ?interferon alpha? have proven to be more effective, with a fifth of all tested mesothelioma patients experiencing more than half the reduction in tumor mass, with few side effects.
Then there is another procedure called ?heated intraoperative intraperitoneal chemotherapy?. It was discovered by a surgeon named Paul Sugarbaker, of the Washington Cancer Institute. In this method, the surgeon takes out as much of the tumor mass as possible. This is subsequently followed by using a chemotherapy agent (at about 40 to 48?C) in the abdomen. The agent (a fluid) is inserted for an hour to two hours before being drained. This method allows for the usage of high concentrations of specific drugs into the pelvic surfaces. It also facilitates greater penetration of the medicines into the cancer tissues. Also, heating adversely affects malignant cells more than normal cells.
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