Several new studies are confirming an existing sentiment in the mesothelioma research community. Many physicians have believed for some time that the most successful mesothelioma treatment regiments include several different forms of therapy.
Cancer treatments often include one or more of three different types of treatment: surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy. While the specifics of individual cases vary, generally, surgery is required to remove malignant tumors and tissues while radiation or chemotherapy are used to accomplish and maintain remission of the cancer. Treatment centers have often found that combinations of surgical, chemical and radiation therapy tend to produce the best results, and now, new studies are confirming those beliefs.
One such study was published in the European Journal of Surgical Oncology. The study analyzed the results of surgery performed in concert with chemotherapy in seventeen different patients suffering from peritoneal mesothelioma, that is, a form of the cancer found in the abdominal cavity rather than the lungs. The researcher’s findings confirmed a common sentiment in the mesothelioma treatment community, stating that “Cytoreductive surgery combined with intraperitoneal chemotherapy appears to be the optimal treatment for selected patients with peritoneal mesothelioma… …Increased familiarity with this condition’s presentation and natural history, and knowledge of available treatment options, will hopefully facilitate treatment of these patients.” In summary, the study concludes that surgery in combination with chemotherapy tend to show better results than any single form of treatment.
Another study recently completed in Victoria, Australia, introduced a new form of radiotherapy but still concluded that combination treatments yielded the most encouraging results. While the new radiotherapy treatment has shown great potential in treating various forms of mesothelioma, the CEO of the Cancer Council of Australia, Ian Olver, said in regards to the study, “I think it’s an important finding that radiation has a useful role along with other therapies, not so much on its own, so they’ve really found the niche for radiotherapy in this disease.”
As public recognition of mesothelioma and its diagnoses continue to rise, the understanding of its effective treatment is growing. The aforementioned advances in radiotherapy could potentially grant another few years of life to mesothelioma patients, and research in the field of newer, more effective treatments continues to grow.
