Main Surgical Treatments For Mesothelioma
Depending upon the patients age, health and desires, and the cancer's stage, location, and extent/metastases, the following may be possible:
Pleural: When surgery is not considered curative, treating just the symptoms, palliative surgical intervention, is aimed mostly at pleural effusion. To reduce/remove the excessive fluid, one or more of the following may be utilized: chest Tubes, pleurodesis, or pleuroperitoneal shunt. Curative, more radical, approaches are pleurectomy or decortication to remove larger areas of the pleura or most/all of a tumor, and pneumonectomy to excise part or all of a lung. Extrapleural pneumonectomy is the most radical and also removes part of the chest wall, pericardium and diaphragm.
Peritoneal: Cytoreductive surgery for tumor-removal or peritonectomy to remove part of the peritoneum.
Pericardial: If diagnosed early and the tumor(s) is/are small, removal can be considered, but if in close proximity to the heart, it is high-risk.
