In general, pleural mesothelioma patients have three options: surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Typically, patients will receive a combination of two or more of these types of treatment.
Understanding available treatment options is often very important to patients and their loved ones. We offer a complimentary informational packet detailing treatment options for pleural mesothelioma patients.
Early detection of pleural mesothelioma can improve a patient's mesothelioma prognosis considerably, and these patients have more extensive treatment options. If the disease is diagnosed early enough, surgery to remove localized tumors, followed by chemotherapy or radiation therapy to kill any remaining cancer cells can be an effective treatment. Curative surgery candidates must be in a good general state of health, and their cancer must not have spread beyond localized sections of the lungs.
When mesothelioma is diagnosed before the cancer has greatly progressed, a patient is typically in the first stages of mesothelioma. Doctors typically address the seriousness of cancer in terms of stages ranging from one to four, with the level of the cancer’s progression increasing with each stage. Patients diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma in stage one or two generally have greater treatment options and a better prognosis.
According to some current studies, approximately 10 percent of all pleural mesothelioma patients will survive for three to five years following diagnosis, and about 5 percent will survive five years or more.
Pleural mesothelioma patients who are not diagnosed early enough for curative treatment have fewer treatment options, mostly limited to palliative treatments, designed to relieve pain and discomfort to improve a patient's quality of life, rather than their prognosis. Palliative treatments include removal of built-up fluid from the pleural spaces, and surgical removal of tumors to relieve pressure on the lungs.
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