Various factors like the level of infection, the area of infection, the extent of contamination, the condition of the affected cells, the patient's age, his overall health etc have to be considered for mesothelioma treatment. The patient should be made aware of his treatment process before it is started.
Three kinds of traditional mesothelioma treatment are in vogue, namely, surgery, medication and radiation. Surgery attempts to remove the cancer altogether while medication or chemotherapy fights the cancer through powerful drugs. Radiation is the process of destroying malignant cancer cells by use of high energy x-rays or other energy beams. In more serious cases, doctors try to contain the cancer by using a combination of two or three of these tactics.
Since clinical tests like blood analysis are not particularly successful in determining the type of cancer, diagnostic procedures like thorascocopy, video assisted thoracic surgery, mediastinoscopy and laproscopy are used to identify the malaise. The actual mesothelioma treatment starts after this.
For patients with comparatively mild infection, surgeries for removal of the cancer from its roots are resorted to. Palliative surgical procedures like chest tube drainage and pleurodesis, thoracoscopy and pleurodesis, pleuroperitoneal shunt and pleurectomy treats the symptoms of the disease rather than the cancer itself. Chest tube drainage and pleurodesis is the most common palliative treatment, which removes the pleural effusion from the affected areas.
In order to eradicate the disease completely strong treatment procedures are undertaken. Decortication is the procedure used to remove tumor from patients without removing the lung. This is done in stage 1 and stage 2 patients. Pneumonectomy is the procedure for removing the tumor, by extracting the lung. These two procedures are done in pleural mesothelioma cases, which account for more than three-fourths of total cases. Surgery will be conducted only after appropriate tests and analysis.
Chemicals are used in chemotherapy and it destroys cancerous cells from multiplying. It also assists in preventing the spread of infection, shrinking existing tumors and removing remnants of the disease once the surgery is done. Where there is no hope for a cure, palliative chemotherapy is resorted to. In radiotherapy, penetrating rays of energy or particle streams are employed. This is used along with surgical procedures. In a nut shell, mesothelioma treatment aims at removing the cancer and it is a comprehensive technique.
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