Wednesday, December 23, 2009

How Effective Is Mesothelioma Treatment Presently

By Heidi Wingrain

Mesothelioma treatment is based on several factors, including the stage of infection, the area of infection, how much the contamination has spread, the nature of the affected cells and the age and overall health of the infected person. Infected persons are usually briefed about the success rates before embarking on any treatment process.

There are three traditional mesothelioma treatments which are popular. They are radiation, surgery and medication. High energy x-rays or some other energy rays are used in radiation to destroy the malevolent cancer cells. Attempts to remove the cancer cells altogether are done through surgery and powerful drugs are utilized in chemotherapy. According to the discretion of the doctors, a combination of two or three of these methods is also used.

Mostly medical tests like blood analysis are not suitable for ascertaining the form of cancer. Special procedures for diagnosis like video assisted thoracic surgery, thorascocopy, laproscopy and mediastinoscopy are made use of in identifying the disease. It is only after proper diagnosis that the actual mesothelioma treatment starts.

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.

Chemotherapy helps to cease the spread of cancer, to shrink tumors and get rid of the remnants of the disease after the surgery. Here chemicals are used to fight cancer and they prevent the cancerous cells from multiplying. Palliative chemotherapy is used where there are no hopes of survival. Radiotherapy makes use of penetrating beams of extreme energy or particle streams. Thus mesothelioma treatment is a many-sided tactic meant to lessen the anguish of the patients and eradicate the cancer.

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