Mesothelioma can be a particularly resistant cancer, but treatments may include surggery, chemotherapy, radiation or tumor-treating fields (TTFs).
If you, or a loved one, have been diagnosed with mesothelioma or another asbestos cancer, your doctor could order treatments such as:
Your physician might remove a tumor or reduce the surrounding tissue. It may depend on where the cancer cells are and if they have spread. In extreme cases, a surgeon may remove or replace a lung.
Mesothelioma treatments often combine conventional chemotherapy with medication asuch as pemetrexed and cisplatin.
Radiotherapy attacks cancerous growths with X-ray beams. Over time, these beams could degrade or even destroy a tumor.
A tumor treating field uses alternating electrical currents to disrupt the spread and growth of cancer cells. When used in combination with medication, TTFs can reduce cancerous cell counts.
Since treating mesothelioma is difficult, medical researchers are constantly trying and testing new treatments. Several experimental regimens have shown positive results, but are still awaiting approval by the federal Food and Drug Administration.
A combination of medications Yervoy and Opvido has decreased tumor growth by enhancing the body's T-cell function. While some research suggest that these experimentalmedications may improve mesothelioma outcomes.
Viruses and pathogens can attacck cancer cells the same way they attack people. Based on the specifics of their mesothelioma diagnosis, patients are given an injection of a spcifically modified, cancer-killing virus. Virotherapy helps the immune system's natural response by attacking and killing cancerous cells. It is usually used in combination with other mesothelioma treatments.
