Hope for Mesothelioma Patients

Those suffering from the rare lung cancer known as mesothelioma have cause for hope. New treatments and medications are currently in development to better treat the disease and reverse its effects.

Malignant mesothelioma is different than other forms of lung cancer. While ordinary lung cancer consists of a malignancy in the lung tissues themselves, mesothelioma cancer begins in the soft, pliable tissue (the mesothelium) that surrounds the lungs and other organs. Exposure to asbestos particles in workplaces and homes is almost always the cause of this particular kind of malignancy.

After 1980, very few workplaces were filled with the carcinogen, but due to the long latency period of mesothelioma, people who worked in asbestos-rich environments as long as twenty-five or thirty years ago are now being diagnosed with the disease.

Until recently, patients diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma typically had between 4 and 18 months to live. With new and better treatments, the right doctors, and a positive attitude on the part of the patient, the survival rate is now somewhat longer. Some mesothelioma patients have been known to live 10 years or longer after their diagnosis.

Surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation are the typical approaches to dealing with mesothelioma cancer. Among the emerging and alternate treatment methods are gene therapy, photodynamic therapy, and immunotherapy. A mesothelioma cancer specialist may recommend a particular combination of treatments (Multimodal Therapy), depending on age, the stage of the malignant mesothelioma, and other factors unique to the patient. There are also new drugs currently at clinical trials to treat mesothelioma cancer.

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