Though it is being reported that people with mesothelioma cancer have less than one year life span , there are some cases in which patients of this cancer exceeded the predicted survival date. With each story that comes to the surface, current mesothelioma patients are gaining more hope about their future.
To this date there are no definite cure for mesothelioma cancer, so what should mesothelioama cancer patients do?. The first step is to have immediate intensive treatment, mesothelioma patient generally undergo a series of treatment such as surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy to fight this cancer
a surgery can happen to a mesothelioma patient mostly because of palliative reasons such as to increase the life span of a mesothelioma patient because a curative surgery is not possible at the moment, why? because mesothelioma cancer often diagnosed at a latter stage rather than the early stage and thats what make this cancer dangerous.
The success rate of a chemotherapy is higher than a surgery in prolonging a mesothelioma victim. As scientist continue researching this method of treatment, a curative treatment using chemotherapy is not impossible. A chemotherapy treatment involves giving pill or injection to a patient. In this case (mesothelioma) doctors usually giving drug to the patient straight into the patient chest cavity or to the patient abdominal cavity. The drugs that generally used by doctors for mesothelioma victims are Cisplatin and Pemetrexed.
The side effects of using chemotherapy treatment usually are vomit and nausea, this happen because during chemotherapy some essential vitamins are lost.
Radiation therapy only used if the patient is too weak to take surgery or chemotherapy treatment, why? because using radiation have less side effects rather then using surgery or chemotherapy. There are two type of radiation therapy : Brachytherapy and external beam radiation.
- Brachytherapy : radiation therapy that use radioactive material directly to the patient abdomen or lung, rarely use for mesothelioma treatment.
- External beam radiation : the more preferred type of radiation therapy (palliative purposes)for mesothelioma patient. radioactive material is aimed from outside of body straight through infected areas of the internal organs.
To this date there are no definite cure for mesothelioma cancer, so what should mesothelioama cancer patients do?. The first step is to have immediate intensive treatment, mesothelioma patient generally undergo a series of treatment such as surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy to fight this cancer