By Devin Kyle
Mesothelioma is a debilitating condition and many people who are in the advanced stages may think that there isn’t much they can do about this form of cancer. Fortunately, there are some treatment options to lessen symptoms and in some instances cure their case of mesothelioma.
Surgery
When a doctor diagnoses someone with mesothelioma, and it’s at an early stage, it may be possible to remove it from the body. Often, it just isn’t possible to take out all the cancerous tissue. If this occurs, the surgery still stands a good chance of reducing the individual’s symptoms.
Some options for surgery include decreasing the fluid buildup with pleural mesothelioma, remove tissue around the patient’s lungs (pleurectomy), remove a lung and surrounding tissue, or removing peritoneal mesothelioma.
Chemotherapy
This uses chemicals in order to kill off cancerous cells. The individual may receive chemotherapy before their surgery so that the operation goes more smoothly or after surgery to decrease the chance that cancer will come back. Systemic chemotherapy moves throughout the patient’s body to slow the growth of or shrink mesothelioma that wasn’t removed during surgery. Chemotherapy drugs can be heated and placed into their abdominal cavity if they have a case of peritoneal mesothelioma.
Radiation
This therapy type sends high-energy beams from protons and x-rays to spots on the patient’s body. If the person can’t get surgery due to having advanced cancer this can reduce their symptoms. It also can be done after surgery to get rid of cancer cells left behind after surgery.
Immunotherapy
This works with a person’s immune system to fight off cancer. Their immune system may not attack cancer outright since the cells make proteins that bind the cells of the immune system. Immunotherapy makes it so that this doesn’t happen and is a good option if other treatments aren’t effective.
Targeted Therapy
This uses drugs that attack certain vulnerabilities in cancerous cells. While they aren’t typically a part of treating mesothelioma, a doctor may want to attempt it depending on what they see in the results of tumor DNA testing.
The process of learning you have mesothelioma, going to doctors, and beginning treatment is a stressful and difficult one. It’s in your best interest if you can show that you were exposed to asbestos in your workplace, in your home without being made aware, or elsewhere in the community. Then, you can determine if you’ll be able to seek compensation with the help of a mesothelioma lawyer such as those at Simmons Law Firm.
