Mesothelioma Treatments
Advances in the Mesothelioma Treatments offer hope for anyone affected by this rare cancer.
Today, some survivors live five to 10 years or more after receiving a mesothelioma diagnosis -- a life expectancy that once was measured by months. Learn about your body and this disease, and take control of your mesothelioma treatments.
Today, some survivors live five to 10 years or more after receiving a mesothelioma diagnosis -- a life expectancy that once was measured by months. Learn about your body and this disease, and take control of your mesothelioma treatments.
Find a Treatment center in Your Area
Finding the right specialist -- one with experience in treating your exact form of this rare cancer -- is critical in your treatment strategy. Find a specialist now
Types of Mesothelioma Treatments
The types of mesothelioma treatments you can receive depend on your diagnosis. Mesothelioma treatments are typically broken down into two categories: curative and palliative. Curative treatments like surgery aim to get cancer out of your body. If your tumors do not metastasize, you should have surgical options. In addition, different chemotherapy regimens and diverse radiation treatments can help. Palliative treatments aim to make you more comfortable as you live with cancer. Doctors will address your symptoms with the goal of improving the quality of your life.
In both cases, mesothelioma patients should ask about options other than the standards of surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Experimental mesothelioma treatments do exist, mostly through clinical trials. They include rapidly developing gene therapy and immunotherapy, along with photodynamic therapies, all of which can be discussed with an experienced specialist.
Mesothelioma Surgery
Cutting out tumors, along with chemotherapy, is considered the most effective way to eliminate cancer from your body. This is particularly true with pleural mesothelioma and peritoneal mesothelioma. An increasing number of surgeons are performing surgery to remove cancer from the lining of the lungs or from the lining of the abdominal cavity.Surgeries can have different objectives, depending upon the stage of the cancer and your overall health. Some can be highly invasive and lengthy, but potentially curative and life changing. Others can be less traumatic and more palliative in nature. Surgery often is accompanied by some type of chemotherapy and radiation therapy, with the goal of killing any cancer cells that might have been left behind.
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is inevitably associated with the treatment of any cancer, including mesothelioma. The most common - and most successful - chemotherapy regimen for someone with mesothelioma is a combination of the drugs cisplatin and pemetrexed. A milder chemotherapy cocktail that uses pemetrexed with carboplatin often achieves the same results but with fewer side effects.Chemotherapy drugs, delivered by intravenous drip, are among the least invasive forms of treatment. They are designed to kill cancer cells, and a combination of agents has proven especially effective. Although they target cancer cells, healthy cells also can be affected adversely, leading to a host of side effects that can make the patient feel worse after treatment than before it. This explains why some patients opt against chemotherapy. A good specialist can advise you on the options.The common chemotherapy drugs that your oncologist may discuss with you are: cisplatin, carboplatin, Alimta (pemetrexed), gemcitabine, Navelbine, Onconase.
Radiation Therapy
Radiation therapy is typically paired with other treatment options to help shrink tumors. It doesn't deliver the strong side effects that chemotherapy does, and it often helps reduce the physical pain of mesothelioma cancer. It is also used to manage a tumor's growth among people living with mesothelioma.However, radiation can be toxic to various organs, and damages DNA while killing cancer cells, so it is used sparingly and only with certain types of mesothelioma. Radiation also can be used in a palliative situation where surgery is no longer an option.
Multimodal Therapy
While each cancer treatment option has benefits by itself, cancer specialists opt for a more effective multimodal approach - a mix of surgery, chemotherapy and/or radiation. This strategy involves specialists in each field putting together a plan that is right for you.Some cancer patients who tried this multi-faceted approach were able to put mesothelioma on the shelf and go back to an active lifestyle. The key is involving specialists in each of the fields working together.
Emerging and Experimental Mesothelioma Treatments
Because of the low rate of successful treatments today, the future of mesothelioma treatments almost certainly involves therapies still in development. Do not be afraid to bring this up for discussion with your specialists. The potential of immunotherapy, gene therapy and photodynamic therapy is enormous, and research on these new treatments is considered cutting edge.
Immunotherapy
This involves manipulating your own immune system to help fight off the cancer growth. This is a specific treatment that involves your own cells being altered in the laboratory and returned to your body to fight the cancer without the use of toxic drugs.
Gene Therapy
This involves repairing the defective genes by injecting the patient with a modified virus to do the work. Regardless of the location of the cancer, gene therapy can introduce genetic material that targets the cancer cells.
Photodynamic Therapy
This uses light energy to kill the mesothelioma cells. A drug makes the cancer cells sensitive to a particular light wavelength, and then the tumor cells are exposed to the light through a laser. It is an outpatient procedure with few harmful side effects.
Clinical Trials
Anyone with a rare cancer like mesothelioma should know to explore clinical trials as a treatment option. While there are never any guarantees, this is where future successful mesothelioma treatments will be developed. If you decide that participating in a clinical trial is the way to go, your participation at the very least will help shape advances for future patients. If you're lucky, you might find something that really works for your situation.
Clinical trials are being conducted now that will advance both gene therapy and immunotherapy, along with new chemotherapy drugs and other experimental treatment options. These are options that haven't been approved yet by the FDA, but that doesn't mean they don't work.
Fast Fact: Surgical mortality has drastically improved in recent years. For example, in a 1984 study on the efficacy of pleurectomy/decortication surgeries, a mortality rate of 11 percent was reported. Today's mortality rate for pleurectomy/decortication is 4 percent, with a median survival time of nine to 19 months.
Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) options are considered unconventional and are often dismissed by medical professionals. But they can be used alongside more traditional approaches to cancer treatment. Alternative mesothelioma treatments don't always treat the disease itself but concentrate on the patient mentally, emotionally and physically.
Things like massage, acupuncture, yoga, naturopathy and aromatherapy all are considered complementary therapy that can be used to relieve the pain from mesothelioma or reduce stress that comes from traditional mesothelioma treatments. Meditation also helps some patients. More and more patients are also pushing for access to medical marijuana, which is helps control cancer pain.
The Cost of Mesothelioma Treatments
Health care costs involving mesothelioma treatments can be prohibitive without medical insurance or other financial help. There are options available, though, through the U.S Department of Veterans Affairs, other governmental programs or through clinical trials.
Patients and their families must factor the expense of care into their treatment plans. Costs of these mesothelioma treatments often do not cover palliative care options or medical equipment. Mesothelioma treatments often preclude you from working, which could cut significantly into the ability to pay for care.
There can be travel costs, too, in finding the right specialist, or enrolling in the clinical trial that might fit you. Some facilities offer travel grants that include temporary housing while undergoing treatment.
If you can afford the expense of travel, it is worth finding specialized care. If you can't afford it, ask for assistance. Some of the top mesothelioma treatments centers have resources to help with expenses. Others are willing to work with your local oncologist in formulating a treatment strategy that best fits your needs.
Doctors and Treatment Facilities
If you have mesothelioma and live near a cancer center that specializes in treating the disease, consider yourself fortunate. This will make your medical care easier for you.
Mesothelioma is not something to be treated at your local hospital. There are an estimated 3,000 cases annually diagnosed in America, and most doctors around the country never treat it - or even see it.
A number of mesothelioma treatments facilities are clustered in the Northeast, near New York, Boston and Philadelphia. Other top centers reside in higher U.S. population areas: Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Seattle and Tampa.
The same is true for the best mesothelioma doctors. The top specialists work at recognized mesothelioma centers. Some of the best known mesothelioma specialists, like David Sugarbaker, M.D., at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital, trained young surgeons who have moved on to other cities and treatment centers. Younger surgeons like Jacques Fontaine, M.D., at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa or Alexander Farivar, M.D., at the Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, took Sugarbaker's expertise to others around the country.
History of Mesothelioma Treatments
Although asbestos has been used for thousands of years, the first documented case of an asbestos-related disease didn't come until 1899. The disease was not given the name mesothelioma until 1931, and since then treatment of it has improved slowly but steadily.
For decades, doctors struggled to understand mesothelioma and how it progressed. It wasn't until the 1960s that the disease was found to originate in the mesothelial cells surrounding the lungs. It is this complexity of the disease, combined with its rarity and its aggressive nature, that complicates the quest to find a cure.
Recent Mesothelioma Treatments News
Researchers are excited about the study of a cancer stem-cell inhibitor called defactinib (VS-6063), which is designed to stop a particular protein within mesothelioma cells. Although stem cells are only a small percentage of cells within a tumor, they are considered the driver of tumor growth. It’s the stem cells that are resistant to chemotherapy and cause the cancer recurrence.
There is an ongoing, international study of defactinib involving almost 400 mesothelioma patients that is showing considerable promise.
“It could become the next drug to be used,” said James Stevenson, M.D., Cleveland Clinic investigator and renowned oncologist. “The potential is there. If this trial turns out positive, it would be a big step forward for mesothelioma patients."
Doctors are hoping that defactinib could become an effective maintenance therapy that will follow traditional chemotherapy. Defactinib could be used for extended periods because it is considerably less toxic than Alimta (Pemetrexed), still the only FDA-approved drug for the mesothelioma treatments. Previous research has shown that while standard chemotherapy can shrink the size of tumors, it actually helps the stem cells grow, which leads to metastasis.
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