Most mesothelioma patients are over the age of sixty, many well into retirement. The unfortunate truth about mesothelioma is that it proves lethal within eighteen months after diagnosis; however there are new and more effective forms of treatment emerging all the time. If you are a mesothelioma patient or someone in your family is battling the disease there is still some possibility of improvement.
Surgery Depends on the Patient
There is a formal staging protocol for pleural mesothelioma, the most common form of the disease. When a disease is staged, certain criteria are applied to the specific case which results in a stage, or level of advancement, established for a particular patient. The stage assigned to the disease dictates how aggressive the treatment will be, and one of the important considerations in defining a stage for mesothelioma is the condition of the patient.
The most aggressive treatment of malignant mesothelioma is surgery: resection of the malignant tissue within the chest if it is pleural mesothelioma or the abdomen if it is peritoneal mesothelioma. In many cases surgery for pleural mesothelioma calls for the removal of a lung; that is major surgery for a patient of any age. The physician must decide if a patient will be able to withstand the physical demands of surgery and recovery in order to remove or "debulk" the cancer surgically.
At one time surgery was considered an alternative only for patients who had the good fortune of an early diagnosis and some chance of extended survival. In recent years however many oncologists have begun to see surgical intervention as a palliative treatment that can relieve some of the difficult symptoms of mesothelioma in its advanced stages. Drainage of pleural effusion in order to allow the lung to re-expand can be primary goals of this type of surgery along with general symptom control. Absence of weight loss in the patient was found to correlate with successful results.
Challenges for the Chemotherapy Patient
Every mesothelioma patient goes through chemotherapy, which can be adjuvant treatment following surgery or can be palliative treatment designed to slow the lethal course of the disease. Some surgical patients today are receiving intrapleural chemotherapy (for pleural mesothelioma) in which the medication is injected directly into the chest cavity. The same technique is used in the abdominal cavity for peritoneal mesothelioma. While this approach is meant to lessen the impact on healthy cells and thus reduce side effects; it can make for a rocky few days for a patient already weakened by surgery.
Chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatments generally go in six week cycles, then allowing some time off for the mesothelioma patient to heal from the side effects and gain strength. Targeted radiotherapy is now being employed to lessen the side effects of radiation as well.
Mesothelioma Patient Care
Families with a weakening mesothelioma patient in their midst have several options. If home care is an alternative it is certainly going to be the preference of the patient. As the disease advances however, many mesothelioma patient families seek outside assistance from a home health agency. This type of care has become commonplace in our aging society; it's an excellent option for a mesothelioma patient who is slowly developing increased needs for daily living assistance. When patient assistance requires professional care around the clock, it may be time to opt for a hospice placement.
Sources:
- How is Malignant Mesothelioma Staged? American Cancer Society, http://usiwebpool.cancer.org/docroot/CRI/content/CRI_2_4_3X_How_is_malignant_mesothelioma_staged_29.asp
- Palliative Surgical Debulking in Malignant Mesothelioma, European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery, Martin-Ucar et al, 2001, http://ejcts.ctsnetjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/20/6/1117
- Intrapleural Perfusion Hyperthermo-Chemotherapy for Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma, Annals of Cardiovascular & Thoracic Surgery, Matsuzaki et al, 2008, http://www.atcs.jp/pdf/2008_14_3/161.pdf
