Peritoneal Mesothelioma Treatment Options to Consider

By Roger Parco

By the time it is diagnosed, it will have spread to other organs making it very deadly. However there are several methods of treatment that have been developed for Peritoneal Mesothelioma Treatment which helps to make the patients comfortable and also lengthen their lives.

The first commonly used method for Peritoneal Mesothelioma cancer treatment is through surgery. This involves removal cancer tumors and the surrounding infected tissues. This will help to eradicate the cancer, suppress its growth or just relieve the symptoms. Surgery is always done with combination of other treatment methods e.g. radiation and chemotherapy. It is however important to note that surgery comes with other related risks like death, infection to other organs among others. The success of surgery depends on several factors among them age of the patient, level of spread of the cancer among other factors.

Chemotherapy is another treatment option for periodontal mesothelioma. It involves use of different chemotherapy drugs which are administered either as pills or injections. Chemotherapy helps to stop the growth and spread of tumors and also to relieve cancer symptoms. Chemotherapy has several side effects for example nausea, vomiting, loss of weight and loss of hair. However these side effects clear very fast after finishing the medication.

Another method used to treat peritoneal mesothelioma is radiation. A beam of high energy for example X-ray is directed to the infected cells. The radiation kills cancerous cell or helps to suppress their growth and also reducing the symptoms of the cancer. Several factors are considered before choosing radiation as the treatment option for example organs close to the tumor may dictate whether to use radiation or not. Radiation is rarely used alone but rather it's used in combination with other treatment options e.g. chemotherapy and surgery. Radiation may cause the patient to feel nausea, diarrhea, vomiting and fatigue.

Another treatment option for peritoneal mesothelioma is paracentesis. This procedure is carried out to aid in reliving cancer symptoms and not for treatment or cure purposes. Thin needles are inserted into the tumors and they are used to suck cancer fluids. This helps to reduce pain for several days before other treatment methods can be carried out.

There is also another common option in modern times called immunotherapy treatment. This procedure is commonly used together with chemotherapy. It involves introducing new agents into the blood stream that helps to boost the immune system making it able to fight the growth and spread of cancer cancerous tumors. It has fewer side effects and therefore it's more desirable than the older option for example radiation that might hurt other organs.

The author has written many articles relating to peritoneal mesothelioma treatment and the effects on the body due to exposure to asbestos. It is very important that individuals understand different options available to them once they have been diagnosed with this horrible disease.

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What Are the Treatment Options ?

By David Ben Mat

Mesothelioma is a disease of the lungs caused by asbestos. Its symptoms are very grave and often makes patients very uncomfortable. It is very important and helpful to the patient to discover the disease on time otherwise the prognosis will be poor and the patient dies. For some reasons, women stand a better chance of surviving the disease than disease. This perhaps is due to some underling genetic factor. Over the years, scientists and researchers have come up with various methods of treating Mesothelioma. Of all the various methods the three most common treatment options include: the use of surgical intervention, the use of radiation techniques and chemotherapy intervention. The normal practise is to combine this treatment strategies so as to get good response. Let us now take an indept look at this modes of treatment one after the other.

Surgery in mesothelioma can be done by wide local excision or pleurodesis. wide local excision is a kind of procedure used to remove a small area of diseased tissue with some areas of normal, undiseased tissue. This type of surgery is normally performed on the breast and to skin lesions. Pleurodesis on the other hand, is a surgical procedure in which the pleural space is artificially obliterated. This is done to prevent the reoccurence of pnemothorax or pleural effusion caused by mesothelioma. Pleurodesis can also be done by the use of chemicals without surgical intervention. We now proceed to discuss chemotherapy as a treatment option in mesothelioma..

Chemotherapy is the simply the use of chemicals namely drugs to kill cancer cells. Drugs may be administered orally through other routes of administrtion such as directly into the spinal column. The drug of choice in treating mesothelioma is permetrexed( trade name: Alimta). It is administered in a 21 day cycle. Permetrexed is however not alone but combined with a platinum based compound called cisplatin for synergism. Patients on Alimta will be expected to also take folic acid and vitamin B12 to lower the side effects. Other chemodrugs include: vinorelbine, onconase, gemcitabine, e.t.c. Common side-effects of chemodrugs are: nausea and vomitting, constipation, fever, decreased white blood cell count which makes the patient prone to infections, and depression.

Radiation in mesothelioma may be internal or external. Internal radiation is also known as brachythereapy. Here, the internal radiation source is implanted within the patient. The external radiation involves an external beam radiation. Radiation is particularly useful against cancers that divide rapidly such as mesothelioma.

David is expert on mesothelioma For more visit this mesothelioma site.

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