Treatment Options For Mesothelioma Patients

This page is dedicated to obtainable treatment options for patients diagnosed with mesothelioma. Patients of mesothelioma are often overwhelmed with information immediately following a diagnosis. For many patients, we are unable to research the obtainable mesothelioma treatments prior to speaking with an oncologist. Our feeling is that knowledge is power. For patients wanting to empower themselves, plz read below.

Over the past several months and years, several new therapies and treatment options have become obtainable to patients diagnosed with mesothelioma.

Your doctor will be in the best position to select whether you or the one you love is a nice candidate for any of these procedures. We have provided a brief list and synopsis of these procedures so that the mesothelioma patient can familiarize themselves with them and be in a position to make the best informed decision on your cancer treatment.

The treatment options include Alimta,Cisplatin, immunotherapy, gene therapy, photodynamic therapy and other multimodality therapies. Whether these treatment options will be obtainable to a mesothelioma patient will be contingent on several factors including the age of the patient, the staging of the cancer and the overall health of the mesothelioma victim.

ALIMTA
CISPLATIN
Cisplatin is a form of chemotherapy used to treat mesothelioma. it is in a class of drugs that are designed to slow or cease the growth of cancer cells and is passed in to the body intravenously. Because Cisplatin affects lovely cells as well as cancer cells, patients taking Cisplatin may experience side effects. As with any medication, patients are clever to document any potential side effects to a doctor immediately.

A mesothelioma patient should request information on Alimta. Alimta is a comparatively new type of cancer treatment being developed by Eli Lilly. historicallyin the past, a mesothelioma patient had to meet strict criteria in order to qualify to participate in the clinical trials of this treatment. However, the lovely news for patients & their families is that this procedure has recently been approved by the FDA & is the first treatment proven to significantly increase the length of survival in patients while simultaneously assuaging significant signs associated with this sickness.

Cisplatin is often used in combination with Alimta. Patients taking Cisplatin in combination with Alimta have longer average life expectancies than patients taking Cisplatin by itself. Cisplatin must only be administered by a certified healthcare professional or caregiver. Alimta (pemetrexed) in combination with Cisplatin (Platinol®) was recently approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of inoperable malignant mesothelioma.

Your treating physician will let you know in case you are a candidate for this type of chemotherapy system.

GENE THERAPY
The study surrounding this type of therapy has showed tremendous ends in animals, but the affects of the treatment in human trials have been much less successful. This type of Therapy is one that your doctor would need to look at closely in order to choose in case you or a loved one would be a viable candidate. sometimes this type of therapy is done in combination with other chemotherapy options. regrettably, the results have not been consistent.

IMMUNOTHERAPY
This type therapy requires the removal of a mesothelioma patient’s affected cells, activation of those cells & reintroduction in to the infected peritoneum. This procedure is often done together with other forms of chemotherapy. it is usually thought that a patient in the early stages of mesothelioma, would benefit the most from this procedure. In fact, initial studies have shown that in some cases the procedure has been successful in “shrinking” the mesothelioma tumor.

PHOTODYNAMIC THERAPY
This type of new therapy involves ingesting a drug that makes the cancerous cells sensitive to particular wave lengths of lights. This requires a surgical procedure, and to date, the procedure has not had any definitive results showing increased survival rates.