Astounding Words

Oncologists and other cancer doctors determine what type of treatment to prescribe for every patient. There are numerous options. There are no one size fits all treatment course for malignant mesothelioma cancer sufferers. This is due to the cancers high mortality rate, rareness, low treatment success rate, and small number of studies to provide meaningful statistics.

Mesothelioma patients have historically had a bleak outlook, but doctors have recently made progress. Customary treatments for cancer are surgery (removing the tumor and the tissue that surrounds it), radiation (killing the cancerous cells with radiation), and chemotherapy (poisoning the cancerous cells.) All three methods have problems. Mesothelioma patients treated with traditional radiation therapy have not responded well to it. Researches, concerned about damage to healthy tissue, are looking for ways to aim radiation directly at tumors.

Surgery takes out the mesothelial cancerous tissue around the tumor. This surgery is extensive and it is not clear how much the patient benefits. Most chemotherapy medication that work on other cancers typically do not work on mesothelioma, and different mixtures of these drugs have not been successful. Like radiation, researchers are focusing their work on controlling the physical location of the treatment with an emphasis on the pleural cavity.

The high-mortality rate for mesothelioma patients means cutting-edge techniques for cancer are tried out. Such treatments include anti-angiogenesis drugs like thalidomide and biologic therapies agent interleukin 2. Pemetrexed (Alimta) is a new drug that has shown results in extending life.

Considered by oncologists is where the tumor is located, what stage the mesothelioma is in, and the age and health of the patient. Theres also photodynamic therapy and gene therapy ” two far-out new ways of attacking cancer. Patients afflicted with mesothelioma are benefitting in these clinical trials.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 4th, 2009 at 7:50 am and is filed under Health + More, Science Resources. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.