Treatment of mesothelioma is divided into two categories: palliative care and curative treatments:

Palliative care:

is the term used to describe treatments that relieve symptoms of mesothelioma but are not usually considered successful in getting rid of or curing the disease. These can include:

• Draining the excess fluid from the chest or abdomen. A catheter, or tube, can also be inserted to drain the fluid from the pleural space into the peritoneum, or abdominal cavity. This catheter is called a Pleuroperitoneal Shunt.

• To prevent the fluid, which is usually uncomfortable and can interfere with proper organ function, from coming back, the space where it fills up can be closed. In the space near the lungs, this procedure is called Pleurodonesis.

• Sometimes physicians recommend surgically removing the tumor to make you more comfortable. Or, if the tumor involves much of the lung, removing the lung. When this is done as a palliative treatment, it is meant to make the patient more comfortable because the lung is already too restricted to breathe well; but it won’t remove the cancer from the body completely.

Curative treatments:

Are procedures and treatments that have the potential to cure the disease. However, because mesothelioma is so difficult to completely cure, curative treatments are usually more effective in slowing down or stopping the spread of the disease than getting rid of it altogether. Curative treatments can include:

• Surgery to remove the tumor, or, if the tumor is in the lung, removal of the lung.

Once the bulk of the tumor is removed, then physicians usually recommend one or both of the following options:

• Radiation Therapy, or Radiotherapy, which uses highly targeted streams of electronic particles, or radiation, to kill the cancerous cells that may be left after surgery because they are microscopic, or too small to see.
• Radiation can also be used to help the spread of mesothelioma from one area of the body to another.
  Chemotherapy uses specific chemicals that keep mesothelioma cancer cells from multiplying. It can be used to shrink tumors, slow or stop the growth of tumors, and/or remove microscopic cancer cells left after surgery.

Other Treatments

Researchers and physicians are working hard to find more effective treatments for mesothelioma. Your doctor might recommend that you participate in the study of a new treatment. You might also become aware of other alternative treatments that some people believe in but that have not been scientifically shown to be of benefit in fighting mesothelioma. Make certain that you and/or the loved one assisting you thoroughly understands the risks and benefits before you begin any treatment, and if you are in doubt about something a physician recommends, be sure to seek a second opinion without delay.