Mesothelioma Questions

A cancer care team will recommend one or more treatment options for the patient to consider. Surgery for pleural mesothelioma may be done to relieve pain (palliative surgery) or it may be curative surgery which is offered if a patient is in good health and the tumor can be removed completely. A thoracentesis, where fluid in the chest is removed by placing a needle into the chest cavity, may be done to make a patient more comfortable. A procedure called pleurodesis in which talc or drugs that cause scarring may be injected into the cavity to prevent the fluid from returning to the chest cavity is also used. In peritoneal mesothelioma, a needle may be inserted into the abdomen to drain the fluid. Similarly, fluid may be drained from the pericardium by inserting a needle. Surgical treatment of peritoneal mesothelioma is done to help relieve symptoms or to remove the tumor from the wall of the abdomen and other digestive organs. Chemotherapy is another option for treating mesothelioma. Chemotherapy is the use of drugs for treating cancer. When treating mesothelioma, these drugs may be given intrapleurally (directly into the chest cavity), or intraperitoneally, (into the abdominal cavity). Chemotherapy may be given as the primary (main) treatment or as an adjuvant treatment (treatment given in addition to the primary treatment) to surgery. Chemotherapy for this disease is palliative and not curative. Radiation therapy is sometimes used as the main treatment of mesothelioma in some patients who are unable to undergo surgery.