Mesothelioma Treatment Options

There is no cure for victims of malignant mesothelioma. But, if it is identified early, several treatments are available. The most common mesothelioma treatments are surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy.

Whether these and similar treatments are appropriate will depend upon the patient’s age and overall health and the stage of the disease. If a patient’s malignant mesothelioma is too advanced for therapy to be effective, then the appropriate step may be to work to relieve the cancer’s painful symptoms and make the patient more comfortable.

If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with an asbestos-related disease, contact the New York mesothelioma lawyers of Belluck & Fox, LLP, today. Our NY asbestos injury attorneys have investigated mesothelioma cases in every county in the state and have assisted mesothelioma sufferers all across the State of New York. Belluck & Fox provides personalized and professional legal representation and can advise you of the legal options available for you and your family.

For more information, call Belluck & Fox, LLP’s New York mesothelioma lawyers toll-free at 1-877-NYLAW09 (695-2909), or use our online contact form.

New York State communities we serve include Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo, Corning, Elmira, the Finger Lakes region, Jamestown, Long Island, Newburgh, New York, the North Country region, Oswego, Plattsburgh, Poughkeepsie, Rochester, Schenectady, Syracuse, Utica, Watertown and Westchester County.

Traditional Treatment Options

New Yorkers with mesothelioma can expect to be treated with any of the three traditional treatment options: surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy. Physicians often will use a combination of these techniques to maximize a patient’s chance of recovery. “Trimodal” therapy, in which all three are employed, is considered the most aggressive, and effective, approach.

Surgery

In New York, your doctor may counsel you about physically removing the cancer from your body. The specific type of surgery would depend on the type of malignant mesothelioma and where it is in your body. Mesothelioma tumors usually are large and difficult to completely remove.

Depending on the patient’s condition, any of a variety of procedures may be employed to surgically eliminate cancerous growth or other disease. These include:

Pleurectomy / Decortication, a procedure in which the membrane lining the lungs and chest cavity, the pleura, is surgically removed without removing the entire lung. This is the most common form of curative surgery and is most often performed on patients in the early stages of mesothelioma.
Debulking is surgery simply to remove as much cancerous tissue as possible. It’s understood that the surgeon will not be able to remove it all.
Extra-Pleural Pneuomonectomy (EPP) is removal of the pleura, diaphragm, pericardium, and the whole lung on the side of the chest with the tumor(s). This is radical therapy that most surgeons perform infrequently, if at all. EPP candidates are usually referred to specialists.

Surgery is considered “potentially curative” and is typically used in combination with other treatment options (known as “multi-modal therapy”), such as those below.

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy, the use of drugs to kill cancer cells, is often the primary treatment for mesothelioma, or it may be used as part of a multi-modal approach. Chemotherapy is a “systemic” treatment, meaning the drug is introduced into the patient’s bloodstream and travels throughout the body. Chemotherapy drugs may be administered in the form of a pill or as a liquid injected into the body through a needle.

Chemotherapy drugs kill cancer cells and prevent them from multiplying, thereby stopping the disease from spreading.

Chemotherapy is not a “curative” approach for treating mesothelioma. Instead, chemotherapy is meant to shrink existing tumors, usually prior to surgery (“neoadjuvant therapy”); control the spread of cancer cells; and eliminate residual cancer cells after surgery (“adjuvant therapy”).

Chemotherapy drugs may be injected directly into the chest or abdomen to target localized cancer cells harming healthy cells elsewhere. In a procedure called “heated intraoperative intraperitoneal chemotherapy,” for example, the chemotherapy drug is applied directly into the abdomen following surgery to remove as much of an abdominal tumor as possible. The drug and heat together are expected to aid infiltration of the drug into cancerous tissues, and the heat itself may also damage cancer cells.

To effectively treat mesothelioma, chemotherapy may involve multiple drugs. Depending on the drugs, the dosage and the length of treatment, the patient may experience side effects.

Historically, doxorubicin has been the drug most commonly used for chemotherapy. Newer drugs, such as carboplatin, cisplatin, cyclophosphamide, epirubicin, gemcitabine, ifosfamide, methotrexate, paclitaxel, and vinorelbine are often preferred now and are generally used in various combinations with each other.

Radiation

Radiation therapy uses high-energy X-rays to destroy cancerous cells and shrink tumors. The radiation may be administered via an X-ray machine (external radiation) or by placing radioactive materials directly in or around cancer cells through thin plastic tubes (internal or implant radiation).

Radiation for pleural mesothelioma tumors is likely to injure nearby organs, such as the lungs, heart, and liver. However, radiation can be very effective in relieving pain for some patients. The size of the tumor and its proximity to vital organs must be weighed when considering radiation treatment.

Palliative Therapies

Palliation treats symptoms of diseases like mesothelioma to provide relief from pain. These therapies do not address the underlying cause of patients’ suffering.

Chemical pleurodesis and chest tube drainage are employed to curb accumulation of fluid between the two layers covering the lung. The procedure irritates the tissue around the lungs and obliterates the space between the layers. As the pleural space closes, a tube drains the chest cavity.
Pleuroperitoneal shunting is an option for patients who have not responded to chemical pleurodesis, chemotherapy, or radiation. This therapy can prove effective for patients with a trapped lung or for whom other treatments have failed.

Non-Traditional Treatments

Photodynamic therapy kills cancer cells with light energy. Although photodynamic therapy is experimental for mesothelioma, it has shown promising results in patients with other cancers, and it may be effective when combined with surgery. Patients receive a photosensitizer drug, which makes cells sensitive to specific wavelengths of light, and which collects in cancerous cells but not in healthy cells. Once the cancer cells are sensitized, fiber optic cables are placed in the body (usually during open-chest surgery) so the appropriate frequency of light can be focused on the tumor. This causes the photosensitizer drug to produce a toxin that destroys the cancer cell.
Gene therapy targets tumors instead of destroying healthy cells, which is one of the problems of chemotherapy. Gene therapy attempts to alter the genetic defects in cancer cells that allow tumors to develop. A “suicide gene” inserted directly into the tumor makes its cells sensitive to a normally ineffective drug. When the drug is administered to the altered cancer cells, it destroys those cells but leaves healthy cells alone. Clinical trials are currently testing gene therapy in cancer patients.
Immunotherapy (or biological therapy) theoretically introduces biological response modifiers (BRMs) into the patient’s body so they will spur the body’s own immune system to fight cancer. While clinical studies show promise, this therapy can also cause harmful side effects.

Contact Our New York Mesothelioma Lawyers Today

If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with an asbestos-related disease, contact the New York mesothelioma lawyers of Belluck & Fox, LLP, today. Our NY asbestos injury attorneys have investigated mesothelioma cases in every county in the state and have assisted mesothelioma sufferers all across the State of New York, from Buffalo to Long Island. Belluck & Fox provides personalized and professional legal representation and can advise you of the legal options available for you and your family.

For more information, call Belluck & Fox, LLP’s New York mesothelioma lawyers toll-free at 1-877-NYLAW09 (695-2909), or use our online contact form.