Radiation therapy, also known as radiotherapy, involves the use of high-energy rays to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors. The radiation used can be high-energy x-rays, neutrons, photons, cobalt or other radiation sources. This treatment is especially used to treat mesothelioma patients whose general health is too poor to undergo surgery. Or, it may be given after surgery, to try to prevent the cancer coming back. To slow the cancer down and keep it under control, radiotherapy can be given combined with chemotherapy.
procedure
The actual treatment takes only a few minutes. The radiographer positions the patient on the couch. The patient is left alone during the treatment, but the radiographer can hear the patient. Patient has to lie very still for a few minutes while being treated. Radiotherapy does not hurt and the patient is not able to feel it.
While having radiotherapy, radiographer or a physiotherapist may ask the patient to do particular exercises. This is to help prevent stiffness and aching in the chest and shoulder, which some people develop after treatment is over.
Radiotherapy does not make the patient radioactive. It is perfectly safe to be with other people, including children, throughout the course.
There are no randomized clinical trials available to prove the efficiency of radiation therapy in malignant mesothelioma and the role of radiation therapy in the curative treatment of the disease remains unclear. However several studies have suggested beneficial effect with use of radiation therapy in malignant mesothelioma. Radiotherapy has been found effective at controlling pain and fluid collection in the lungs or abdomen.
2.Surgery
Surgery may be diagnostic, palliative, or potentially curative. The types of surgery most commonly used in the treatment of mesothelioma are:
A pleurectomy/decortication is the removal of the pleura (lining of the lung) without resecting the underlying lung. Instead of resection, the tumor is stripped from the lung, diaphragm, and vessels. In cases of peritoneal mesothelioma, cytoreductive surgery, also called debulking, is used. The surgeon carefully looks for any sign of cancer in the abdominal cavity, and then removes as much of the tumor as possible. This makes it more likely that chemotherapy and/or radiation can kill remaining cells.
An extrapleural pneumonectomy is a more radical procedure involving the removal of the lung, the lining of the lung (pleura), the pericardium surrounding the heart, and part of the of the diaphragm.
Surgery is looked at as a first line option for eligible mesothelioma patients. Evaluation for these surgeries should be made with input from a physician experienced in these surgical techniques.
3.Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is literally "chemical therapy" - chemicals are injected into the body with the hope of destroying the cancer cells. Anticancer, or chemotherapy drugs, work to prevent cancer cells from multiplying.
Most mesothelioma patients undergo some type of chemotherapy. Several types of chemicals are used, either alone or in combination. Drugs used to treat mesothelioma are given by injection into a vein or muscle (some are administered by pill) and thus go through the entire body. In some cases, specialists can administer the chemotherapy directly into the pleural or peritoneal cavity. By administering chemotherapy directly to the affected area, they hope to target the mesothelioma tumor more effectively. Targeted therapy is a sophisticated twist on chemotherapy that many scientists are pursuing
Although the most obvious use of chemotherapy is to control the cancer by stopping its spread or slowing its growth, other uses include:
-Neoadjuvant chemotherapy for mesothelioma - to shrink tumors prior to other treatments, such as surgery.
-Adjuvant chemotherapy for mesothelioma - to destroy microscopic disease which may remain after surgery.
-Palliative chemotherapy - to relieve symptoms, such as pain.
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