mesothelioma treatments

While there is currently no cure available for malignant mesothelioma, there are treatments available. The types of treatments may include:

Surgery:

A common treatment of malignant mesothelioma. The doctor may remove part of the lining of the chest or abdomen and some of the tissue around it. Sometimes part of the diaphragm, the muscle below the lungs that helps with breathing, is also removed. Depending on how far the cancer has spread, a lung also may be removed. This operation is called pneumonectomy.

Radiation therapy:

Using high-energy x-rays to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors. Radiation may come from a machine outside the body (external radiation therapy) or from putting materials that produce radiation (radioisotopes) through thin plastic tubes in the area where the cancer cells are found (internal radiation therapy).

Chemotherapy:

Using drugs to kill cancer cells. Chemotherapy may be taken by pill, or it may be put into the body by a needle in the vein or muscle. Chemotherapy is called a systemic treatment because the drug enters the bloodstream, travels through the body, and can kill cancer cells throughout the body. In mesothelioma, chemotherapy may be put directly into the chest (intrapleural chemotherapy).

Intraoperative photodynamic therapy:

A new type of treatment that uses special drugs and light to kill cancer cells during surgery. A drug that makes cancer cells more sensitive to light is injected into a vein several days before surgery. During surgery to remove as much of the cancer as possible, a special light is used to shine on the pleura. This treatment is being studied for early stages of mesothelioma in the chest.

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The Stages of Mesothelioma Treatment

How mesothelioma is treated depends on where the cancer is, how far it has spread, and the patient's age and general health. Some typical treatments are as follows:

Localized Malignant Mesothelioma (Stage I)

If the cancer is only in one place in the chest or abdomen, treatment will probably be surgery to remove part of the pleura and some of the tissue around it.

If the cancer is found in a larger part of the pleura, treatment may entail one of the following:

• Surgery to remove the pleura and the tissue near it to relieve symptoms, with or without radiation therapy after surgery.
• Surgery to remove sections of the pleura, the lung, part of the diaphragm, and part of the lining around the heart.
• External beam radiation therapy to relieve symptoms.
• A clinical trial of surgery followed by chemotherapy given inside the chest.
• A clinical trial of surgery, radiation therapy, and/or chemotherapy.

Advanced Malignant Mesothelioma (Stages II, III, and IV)

For advanced malignant mesothelioma, treatment may be one of the following:

• Draining of fluid in the chest or abdomen (thoracentesis or paracentesis) to reduce discomfort. Drugs also may be put into the chest or abdomen to prevent further collection of fluid.
• Surgery to relieve symptoms.
• Radiation therapy to relieve symptoms.
• Chemotherapy.
• A clinical trial of surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy.
• Chemotherapy given in the chest or abdomen.

Recurrent Malignant Mesothelioma

Treatment depends on many factors, including where the cancer came back and what treatment the patient received before. Clinical trials are testing new treatments.

mesothelioma attorney

Mesothelioma and Asbestosis Attorney and Lawyer Assistance

Attorney and Lawyer assistance is crucial for receiving just compensation. An asbestos settlement lawyer maryland or other qualified attorney could increase your settlement by ten times or more. The below gives a primer on mesothelioma and asbestosis to allow you to more accurately interview your Parkersburg mesothelioma lawyer or attorney or any other qualified asbestos settlement attorney.

Working with asbestos is the major risk factor for mesothelioma. A history of asbestos exposure at work is reported in about 70 percent to 80 percent of all cases. Asbestos has been widely used in many industrial products, including cement, brake linings, roof shingles, flooring products, textiles, and insulation. In addition to mesothelioma, exposure to asbestos increases the risk of lung cancer and asbestosis, a non-cancerous, chronic lung malady.

Smoking does not appear to increase the risk of mesothelioma. However, the combination of smoking and asbestos exposure significantly increases the risk of developing cancer of the air passageways in the lung.

OSHA has set the acceptable levels of asbestos exposure in the workplace. People who work with asbestos wear personal protective equipment to lower their risk of exposure. To reduce the chance of exposing family members to asbestos fibers, asbestos workers are usually required to shower and change their clothing before leaving the workplace. To find out if your workplace is complying with regulations, your best source would be a lawyer for mesothelioma in Houston or any asbestos law firm Texas.

Shortness of breath and pain in the chest due to an accumulation of fluid in the pleura are often symptoms of pleural mesothelioma. These symptoms may not appear until 30 to 50 years after exposure to asbestos. It is important to see a doctor about any of these symptoms. Only a doctor can make a diagnosis.

Diagnosing mesothelioma is often difficult, because the symptoms are similar to those of a number of other conditions. It begins with a review of the patient’s medical history, including any history of asbestos exposure. A complete physical examination may be performed, including x-rays, a CT or CAT scan, or an MRI. A biopsy is needed to confirm a diagnosis of mesothelioma.

If the diagnosis is mesothelioma, the stage, or extent, of the disease needs to be determined by the doctor. Staging involves more tests in a careful attempt to find out whether the cancer has spread and, if so, to which parts of the body. This helps the doctor and victim plan treatment.

Standard treatment options include:
-Surgery to remove part of the lining of the chest or abdomen and some of the tissue around it.
-Radiation therapy using high-energy rays to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors.
-Chemotherapy using of anticancer drugs to kill cancer cells throughout the body. Most drugs used to treat mesothelioma are given by injection into a vein. Pemetrexed resulted in tumors that shrank in 41 percent of patients when used in combination with a more commonly used chemotherapy agent called cisplatin. Only 17 percent of patients receiving cisplatin alone experienced tumor shrinkage. Additionally, those on the pemetrexed combination lived nearly three months longer than those on cisplatin alone.

Sometimes, these treatments are combined. Adding chemotherapy to other treatments being giving to patients with mesothelioma, a lung cancer usually linked to asbestos exposure, does not appear to improve either survival or quality of life.

One bright side is that the asbestos exposure control plan has drastically reduced incidence of asbestosis and mesothelioma over the years.

Another bright light is that of attorney assistance. Do not hesitate to call an attorney immediately if you are diagnosed with asbestosis or mesothelioma. The preponderance of expertise is in metropolitan areas. Here is a list of most frequently searched terms to show that:
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mesothelioma litigation

Battalions of asbestos attorneys, paralegals, investigators, doctors, academics, claims managers, claims adjusters and the like count on asbestos litigation for all or a substantial portion of their income. The way in which the litigation has unfolded in the past couple of decades has created certain distortions in the way the “system”, if it can be called that, works. These distortions do not, generally, play out in favor of mesothelioma victims, who are the most severely injured of those unfortunate enough to have been exposed to asbestos. Remember, those individuals who have uncontested diagnoses of mesothelioma have highly meritorious cases: in addition to the severity of the disease process, the fact is that the only known cause of the disease is asbestos exposure (smoking, for example, has nothing whatsoever to do with it) and the level of exposure required is quite low, especially comparison to the level of exposure required for a disease like asbestosis.

In the vast majority of the early, pioneering cases in the asbestos litigation, however, the plaintiffs were claiming non-malignant diseases (as is the case today). The two categories were scarring of the internal tissue of the lung (asbestosis) and scarring of the lining of the chest cavity (pleural scarring, also referred to as pleural thickening, pleural plaques or pleural encasement, depending on the manifestation of the scarring). The plaintiffs in these early cases were asbestos insulation workers (also commonly called “pipecoverers” or “insulators”) who worked at construction sites such as power stations, chemical plants and refineries, and workers who performed the same sorts of tasks in shipyards (commonly called “laggers”). It soon developed that steam fitters and other trades also had very high rates of disease, and those unions were accordingly screened as well, resulting in further influxes of claims into various state and federal court systems throughout the country. This brings us up As the litigation has progressed through the 1980s and into the 1990s, the trend of what are called “mass settlements” has emerged. This is only logical, as claims that are grouped by the thousand have to be handled en masse — there is no other way. This type of settlement comes into being when an attorney or law firm representing a large number of asbestos plaintiffs reaches at least a tacit agreement with an asbestos company on what certain types of cases are worth, and what that company’s share of that payment should be. A system falls into place where, for each claimant, the attorney submits medical records and evidence of exposure to that company’s product, and the company evaluates this submission and writes a check, generally based on the type and severity of the disease the plaintiff has. This is generally done on a “matrix,” where, for example, the company will pay x dollars for a mesothelioma, y dollars for a lung cancer, z dollars for asbestosis, and so forth. These types of settlements started to take place relatively early in the litigation with boiler manufacturers and gasket/packing manufacturers whose share of the total liability in many cases was considered (not always correctly) to be much lower than that of the thermal insulation manufacturers.to the early 1980s.

Chemotherapy & mesothelioma

Chemotherapy is the use of drugs for treating cancer. The drugs can be swallowed in pill form or they can be injected by a needle into a vein or muscle. Chemotherapy is systemic therapy. This means that the drug enters the bloodstream and circulates throughout the body (through the whole system) to reach and destroy the cancer cells.

In treating mesothelioma, these drugs may also be given intrapleurally (directly into the chest cavity), or intraperitoneally (into the abdominal cavity). Depending on the type and stage of mesothelioma, chemotherapy may be given as the primary (main) treatment or as an adjuvant (addition) to surgery.

Several anticancer drugs have been used to treat mesothelioma. The drug most effective when given alone is doxorubicin (Adriamycin). Other drugs that may be given alone include cisplatin and methotrexate. These anticancer drugs are often given in combination to try to increase their effectiveness. Combinations of drugs used in the treatment of mesothelioma include methotrexate and vincristine; cisplatin and alimta, vinblastine and mitomycin; cisplatin and doxorubicin; and doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide (or ifosfamide) and cisplatin. Other drugs such as paclitaxel and irinotecan are currently being studied to determine their effectiveness in treating mesothelioma.

Chemotherapy drugs kill cancer cells but also damage some normal cells. Therefore, careful attention must be given to avoiding or minimizing side effects, which depend on the specific drugs, the amount taken, and the length of treatment. Temporary side effects might include nausea and vomiting, loss of appetite, loss of hair, and mouth sores. Because chemotherapy can damage the blood-producing cells of the bone marrow, patients may have low blood cell counts. This can result in an increased risk of infection (due to a shortage of white blood cells), bleeding or bruising after minor cuts or injuries (due to a shortage of blood platelets), and fatigue or shortness of breath (due to low red blood cell counts).

Most side effects disappear once treatment is stopped. There are remedies for many of the temporary side effects of chemotherapy. For example, antiemetic drugs can be given to prevent or reduce nausea and vomiting. If you experience any side effects, be sure to talk with your doctor.

Malignant pleural mesothelioma in pregnancy

A 37-year-old pregnant woman presented at 18 weeks' gestation with unrelenting chest and shoulder pain, massive pleural effusion, and a large thoracic mass. Biopsy revealed an undifferentiated sarcomatous pleural mesothelioma. malignant mesothelioma is a rare thoracic malignancy, which has not been described in pregnancy and appears to be minimally affected by the pregnant state.

PMID: 11243299 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
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