Treatments For Pleural Mesothelioma

Multimodal Therapy

Multimodal therapy refers to using several treatments instead of just one. Most doctors will recommend some form of multimodal approach to treatment, as combining treatments have shown to offer great increases in life expectancy.

A doctor may prescribe a chemo treatment as the first course of action regarding tumors. However, after the chemo shrinks the tumors, they may recommend the patient have the tumors surgically excised. Similarly, a doctor may recommend surgical procedures first, with follow-up chemotherapy to destroy any cancer cells left behind.

When surgical procedures were used alone, their average length of survival was twenty-two months. However, when chemo treatment and surgical procedures were combined, that number lengthened to thirty-five months.

Another study shows combining radiation techniques, chemotherapy, and surgical procedures can cause a patient to survive for an average of thirty-three months. This is more than three times the original life expectancy given to many pleural mesothelioma patients.

Continue to take a look into emerging treatments for this condition now.