According to recent research conducted at Columbia University, resection, intraperitoneal, chemotherapy, and whole abdominal radiation therapy are effective to treat malignant peritoneal mesothelioma when they are combined.
Hopeful Findings
Reports show that peritoneal mesothelioma is less common that pleural mesothelioma, making up only 20 percent of all cases. However, this is still great news for researchers, patients and families of patients suffering from this potentially fatal illness.
Looking for Effective Treatments
The latency period for abdominal mesothelioma is reportedly 20 to 30 years. Since this type of cancer is so rare, controlled trails of involving different treatments are not readily available. Though, the most common treatment for peritoneal mesothelioma is surgery, followed by systematic and/or intraperitoneal chemotherapy.
Study Conducted
A study was recently conducted which analyzed 27 patients with malignant peritoneal mesothelioma.
The regime given to the patients involved surgical debulking, four intraperitoneal courses of cisplatin combined with four intraperitoneal courses of doxorubicin, four doses of intraperitoneal gamma interferon, and a whole abdominal radiation therapy. Researchers found that there was a median survival rate of 70 months among the patients in addition to a three year survival rate in 67 percent of the patients.
